The outer body of the two-headed snake is covered in a mosaic of turquoise, accented by red spiny oyster.

Turquoise stones were broken in small, flat tesserae and adhered to the wooden body with pine resin.

[5] Some of the turquoise was imported to Mesoamerica from approximately 1,600 km to the northwest, from the Four Corners Region of Oasisamerica where the Ancestral Pueblo people mined the stone.

[6] The adhesive used to attach the Spondylus princeps[3] shell has been colored with red iron oxide (hematite) to complete the design.

Cortés arrived on the coast of what is now Mexico in 1519, and after battles he entered the capital on November 8, 1519 and was met with respect, if not favour, by the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II (Montezuma).

Some sources report that Moctezuma thought that Cortés was the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl and treated him accordingly.

[1] The Cortés antiquities arrived in Europe in the 1520s and caused great interest; however, it is said that other turquoise mosaics ended their days in jewellers' shops in Florence where they were dismantled to make more contemporary objects.

Neil Macgregor credits Henry Christy with gathering similar artifacts into the British Museum.

[11] This sculpture featured in A History of the World in 100 Objects, a series of radio programs that started in 2010 as a collaboration between the BBC and the British Museum.