2-737-175 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Pair of Ear Ornaments, 150-200. Near Teotihuacán's largest palace is a small temple gorgeously ornamented with green-feathered serpents, symbols of the earth's fertility. Beneath the temple lie at least 120 human sacrifices, most men, many warriors, and some wearing greenstone ornaments like these, perhaps a set. The sacrifices, apparently laid out to mark the cardinal directions, may have consecrated the temple or a ruler's tomb, or both.