What catches our attention at first when we see this object is the playful and affectionate expression of a dog nibbling the ear of another, which appears to be happy. In Mesoamerican art such expressive qualities are not common, except for the ones created by the people of the shaft tombs settled in the western region. From a current cultural perspective, a wide variety of gestures, postures and attitudes can be interpreted in this sense, embodied in numerous images of humans and animals that interact with one another.
When following the visual lines of the sculpture, it is interesting to note that the two dog heads share the same body, in more specific they are Siamese twin dogs or a standing bicephalous dog of which the tail is a tubular spout cut diagonally; since the piece is hollow, it has the properties of a recipient.
As far as I can tell, among the representations of animal figures in this art, pairs of dogs have a certain recurrence, unlike what occurs with other animals. I think that this particular iconography is not accidental, that they are not simple representations of biological anomalies, but rather fantastic images in which the concept of duality is intrinsic. In the Mesoamerican worldview this idea is linked to the dog.
In addition to other sculptures of Siamese twin dogs and couples or pairs of attached dogs (each with the whole body) that refer to twins or siblings, there are less obvious expressions of duality. Precisely the same collection of the Amparo Museum possesses a very interesting example: it is a dog with attributes of the two varieties of the Xoloitzcuintle breed, one is hairless and has missing teeth and the other, on the other hand, has hair and a full set of teeth. The artistic synthesis shows a dog without hair, bony and wrinkled skin, with the muzzle open that allows us to see an ostentatious denture with great canines.
The duality expressed in the representations of the dogs expresses, in my opinion, the symbolic values of a Mesoamerican deity represented as a dog or with the head of one: Xolotl. The word is Nahuatl; among the meanings of xolo or xolotl are found monstrous, in the sense of abnormal; servant, to sit squatted, to fold and to wrinkle. Among the Mexica Xolotl is the identical or fraternal twin god of Quetzalcoatl, therefore he serves as his complement and symbolizes the planet Venus in its aspect of the evening star (Quetzalcoatl is the morning star). As a star of the sunset, Xolotl accompanies or leads the Sun in its nocturnal journey through the world of the dead, located in the lower stratum of the cosmos. Such qualities and functions are the same as those attributed to dogs as faithful companions, protectors and guides of the deceased in their stay or travel through the underworld. This makes it possible to understand that among the burial practices of Mesoamerica, the internment of dogs next to humans or the deposit of dog representations as burial offerings is common.
Xolotl is also the god of the plants and animals that grow in pairs and in general of twins. As for the concept, Mexica mythology tells us that for the creation and initiation of the sun's orbit which occurred in Teotihuacan, Xolotl refused to sacrifice himself, fled and with the intention of avoiding death he became a mexolotl or double maguey and a milacaxolotl or stalk with a double corn cob.
In my opinion, in the image of the playful Siamese twin dogs, as well as in other similar ones of the same sculptural collection created by the shaft tombs culture, they show the duality and the symbolism in this sense that the complex Mesoamerican religious tradition associated with the dog. In the art of this culture, I find an antecedent of the myths that are best known with respect to the late Post-Classic and the sixteenth century.
