In the Mexican Tehuacan, a temple dedicated to the god Shipa Totek was first discovered. In honor of this deity, the victims were skinned, put on their skin, and then burned.
Archaeologists have discovered in Mexico the first temple of the pre-Hispanic deity Shipa-Totek, the god of fertility and war, who was worshiped by skinning captives and sacrificing them.
According to a statement from the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico, the evidence indicates that priests performed ritual sacrifices on one of the two circular altars in the temple, skinned them on the other, and then donned their skin.
Historians have long known that Shipa Toteku ("skinned god") was worshiped by many peoples from the lands known today as central and western Mexico and the Gulf Coast. However, only now scientists were able to discover a temple dedicated to this god.
Among the artifacts found at the site of the excavation in the city of Tehuacan, there are three stone sculptures of Sipe-Totec: two skinned heads and a torso, on the back of which are engraved sacrificial skins worn by the deity.
“Speaking in the language of sculpture, this is a wonderful example. The statue is about 80 centimeters high and has a hole in the belly where, according to historical sources, a green stone was inserted to “spice up” the ceremonies,”explains lead archaeologist Noemi Castillo Tejero.
The skulls are about 70 centimeters high and weigh 200 kilograms.
The temple has been in use since roughly between 1000 and 1260 AD. The Spanish conquest of Mexico began in 1519 with the arrival of the conquistador Fernando Cortez.
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The institute stated that Shipé Totec was one of the most important gods in pre-Hispanic Mexico, worshiped in the Tlacachipeualistli ceremony, which in the local Nahuatl language means “to wear skin of the skinned”.
Ritual victims were killed either in the course of gladiatorial duels, or with arrows, and then skinned for the glory of Shipe-Totek. Then their skins were burned at the foot of the altars. According to the institute, two holes filled with earth were found in front of the altars in Tehuacan.
Ruslan Zorab