serpent labret with articulated tongue

The serpent labret with articulated tongue is a gold-alloy body ornament from the Aztec culture of the mid-second millennium AD. Designed to be inserted into a piercing below the lower lip, it depicts a fanged serpent poised to strike, with a bifurcated tongue hanging from its mouth. The tongue, which is moveable and retractable, would have swung from side to side with its wearer's movements. Art historians have described it as an ingenious example of Aztec metalworking, and among the finest Aztec gold objects known to survive.

Labrets, or lip plugs, were associated with the nobility in Aztec culture, worn by rulers and meted out as honours; even then, gold labrets probably remained the province of the elite. Worn prominently on the face, the labret probably symbolised the wearer's status and eloquence, and possibly divine right to rule. Gold was a hallmark of divinity—Tōnatiuh icuitl, tr…

摘自英文维基百科「Serpent labret with articulated tongue」（CC BY-SA 4.0），暂时没有中文条目。