Bones of the Ancestors- Aztec ArtifactArtifact

The Journey to Mictlan

After the fourth sun ended, there were no humans to inhabit the fifth world. Quetzalcoatl descended to Mictlan, the underworld, to retrieve the bones of previous humanities from Mictlantecuhtli, lord of the dead. The journey passed through nine levels of darkness where the souls of the dead wandered. When Quetzalcoatl arrived, the death god agreed to surrender the bones, but only if the Feathered Serpent could circle the underworld four times while blowing a conch shell trumpet. The shell had no holes. Quetzalcoatl summoned worms to bore through it and bees to make it resonate, and completed the impossible task.

The Fall and Breaking

As Quetzalcoatl fled with the precious bones, Mictlantecuhtli regretted his bargain and sent quail to startle him. The god stumbled and fell into a pit, and the bones scattered across the underworld floor. The quail pecked and gnawed at the fragments before Quetzalcoatl could gather them again. He collected what remained, but they were broken into different sizes and mixed together. That is why humans vary in height, and why men and women exist: their bones were intermingled in the fall.

Bone Meal and Blood

Quetzalcoatl brought the broken bones to Tamoanchan, the paradise where the gods dwelt. There the goddess Cihuacoatl ground them into a fine powder on a jade grinding stone. Quetzalcoatl pierced his own flesh and let blood drip upon the bone meal. The mixture stirred and came alive, and from it emerged the first humans of the Fifth Sun: the macehualli, "the deserved ones," so named because they were earned through divine sacrifice. The gods had bled to make them. The debt would be repaid on every temple altar for as long as the Fifth Sun endured.