"Shell is a cultural marker that can have one or more functions within a society and is found in different archaeological contexts in Mesoamerica and Arid America. In addition, it is mentioned in written sources during the 16th and 17th centuries and appears in painted walls, codices, and ceramic vessels. In central Mexico, shell objects frequently appear as part of the dresses of numerous gods of the Mexica pantheon. The study of such objects in pictographs widens our knowledge of the Mexica, and particularly of Mexico religion. The author has chosen codices from the Basin of Mexico, painted before, during and shortly after the conquest, to analyze the shell objects that are part of the gods' attires. Graphic representations are studied in the context that they appear and are first identified from the point of view of biology, and then are analyzed and classified with an anthropological approach in order to produce a typology of the shells depicted."--