PXL_20250413_161450557

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 07:49:22 +0100

The Bat God and the God Xipe Tótec

Ceramic sculptures recovered in 1990, thanks to an archaeological rescue operation carried out by staff of the Templo Mayor Museum in San Mateo Tezoquipan, Municipality of Chalco. They were clearly associated, and their style allows them to be dated to around 700 CE and linked to the Zapotec tradition of Oaxaca. This connection is explained by the intense trade relations that existed between that region and the Valley of Mexico, at least since the Classic period (200-800 CE).

In Mesoamerican religion, bats were associated with the underworld. They were also linked to sacrifice by heart extraction and decapitation, as demonstrated by the bat god in the Fejérváry-Mayer Codex, a pre-Hispanic document. Both heart extraction and decapitation were present in the festival dedicated by the Mexica to the god Xipe Totec, which involved the sacrifice of enemy captives captured in battle.

However, the most characteristic rite of this festival was the flaying of the victims' bodies, which is why the god was invariably depicted wearing a human skin. This action was perhaps symbolically related to the stripping of the husks from mature corn before planting and to the sprouting of new leaves on the developing ears of corn.