The name Teocuauhxicalli is composed of: Teotl, god; cuauhili, eagle, and xicalli, hemispherical vase formed from the half of a gourd. It may be translated by, “The vase of god and the eagles,” or, rather, “The sacred drinking cup of the eagles.”
“The Mexican monarch Axayacatl, jealous of his predecessor Motecuhzoma I, took down the Teocuauhxicalli which was in the upper part of the Great Temple of Mexico, and replaced it by another, sculptured by his order;” so says the eminent Mexican archæologist and historian, Don Manuel Orozco y Berra, in his excellent work, Historia Antigua y de la Conquesta de Mexico (t. III, p. 348). This monument was also dedicated to the god of war, Huitzilopochtli.
According to Duran and Tezozomoc, those stones on which gods were represented were designated by the name Teocuauhxicalli; i. e., divine cuauhxicalli. They belonged to the class of painted stones, for they were covered with several colors.
Orozco y Berra adds the following: “It is evident that the figures sculptured and painted do not represent armed warriors preparing for combat. On the contrary, we see that they represent gods. Among them is found Huitzilopochtli (god of war) with his arms and attributes, having before him another deity or high priest who holds in his hands the emblems of the holocaust.
“The figures of the upper part are not fighting and could not have known how to fight, if we judge by their positions; the chest is turned back, the face raised toward the sky, in which appears an object which resembles the astronomical sign cipactli.
“Everywhere on the surface of this stone are noticed symbols, birds, quadrupeds, fantastic reptiles, signs of the sun, days, months, and a quantity of objects whose character is imitated in manuscripts and rituals. There can be no doubt that we are in the presence of a monument devoted to the gods and bearing legends relative to their worship. M. the minister of Fomento, D. Vicente Rivera Palacio, in 1877 made several attempts at excavation in the Plaza Mayor of Mexico, to recover this important monument, but all search remained unfruitful.”
This stone is supposed to be buried beneath the Place d’Armes at Mexico.
Mexican petroglyphs are also discussed and figured by Chavero (a).
It would seem from these and other descriptions of and allusions to petroglyphs in Mexico, that at the time of the Spanish conquest they were extant in large numbers, though now seldom found. Perhaps the Spaniards destroyed them in the same spirit which led them to burn up many of the Mexican pictographs on paper and other substances.