atlan miquiliztli (TR42r)

atlan miquiliztli (TR42r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This multicolored example of iconography show roughly seventeen men in profile, facing toward the viewer's right. Their eyes are closed, an indication that they are deceased. In front of some of their faces are six white circles, each one with a smaller concentric circle inside, also white. These may be war shields, judging from some comparative examples (below). Below their heads are seven stones with their usual oval shape, curling ends, and diagonal stripes of alternating colors (gray and brown). On the left-most stone, a bird is perched in a profile view, looking to the right, with feathers of red and dark yellow, a white eye, and a white hooked beak. Below the stones is a horizontal flow of water with the diagnostic droplets and turbinate shells splashing off the water from underneath, plus five large turbinate shells on the right, on the leading edge of the water. The water also contains three horizontal dark yellow feathers.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

We are naming this incident in Nahuatl as a "drowning," drawing from the Nahuatl translation for the Spanish-language term, "el ahogamiento," given that the gloss states that these people drowned ("se ahogaron").

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

se ahogaron

Date of Manuscript: 

ca. 1550–1563

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Keywords: 

ahogamientos, drownings, Oaxaca, Mixteca, warriors, guerreros, rodelas, shields, plumas, feathers, piedras

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

atlan miquiliztli, death by drowning in water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atlan-miquiliztli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el ahogamiento

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Telleriano-Remensis Codex, folio 42 recto, MS Mexicain 385, Gallica digital collection, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8458267s/f109.item.zoom

Image Source, Rights: 

The non-commercial reuse of images from the Bibliothèque nationale de France is free as long as the user is in compliance with the legislation in force and provides the citation: “Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France” or “Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: