Tecali

The stone tecali was widely used in pre-conquest Mexico. There is no Olmec use, but the Maya, Aztecs, Zapotecs and others favored it for masks and other artifacts. Alfredo Caso (1938:37-8) in a popular book listed a tecali vase, perhaps made to hold sacrificial blood, as one of thirteen "masterpieces" in the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. The Spanish also liked the stone. Many old churches in Mexico City and Puebla are decorated with it, carved into statues and pulpits. They also installed thin sheets as windowpanes before they began a glass industry in Puebla in 1542. More recently, it has been widely employed for internal decorations and the dome atop the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City, completed in 1934. I was able to buy quite a few marble and onyx products to take home.