alien face illustration

Without doubt, my favourites pieces in the British Museum. There's something eternal haunting about these Mixtec-Aztec masks that sends shivers down my spine and yet intrigues and fascinates. This The skull of the Smoking Mirror This mosaic is believed to represent the god Tezcatlipoca, or "Smoking Mirror," one of four powerful creator deities, who were amongst the most important gods in the Mexica* pantheon. Tezcatlipoca is often depicted with obsidian mirrors at the head and is conventionally cast as an adversary to Quetzalcoatl. The name "Smoking Mirror" derives from the Nahuatl (Mexica) word tezapoctli, meaning "shining smoke" and representations of Tezcatlipoca are typically characterised by distinctive black stripes on the face and a smoking mirror generally displayed in his headdress, at his temple or in place of a torn-off foot.