calmilli (T1735:2:108)

calmilli (T1735:2:108)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This painting is an iconographic example for the noun, calmilli (land associated with a house), a label derived from the fact that this appears to be a bird's eye view of a piece of land, presumably agricultural (so, perhaps a milli or tlalli), with a cluster of four small buildings (one labeled a calli) in one corner. The perspective of the buildings is not Euroopean. It is as though the buildings have been flattened, showing the facades that are entrances.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The rectangular shape and the beam-framed doorways still resemble the design of a calli. However, these a couple of buildings here show a little more space around the entrances. The house lot was also called xolal in Nahuatl, a Nahuatlization of the Spanish term solar. Many testaments from Nahua communities make it clear that the solar not only held the house but was usually farmed.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

AGN Tierras 1735, exp. 2, f. 109

Date of Manuscript:

1566

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Coyoacan

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Agriculture, Gardens, Stock Raising

Architecture, Construction, Buildings

Land Parcels, Use, Issues

Landscape Features

Shapes and Perspectives:

bird's eye view

Keywords:

tierras, milpas, casas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

calmil(li), land associated with a house, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/calmilli
cal(li), house or building, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/calli
mil(li), a small agricultural field, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/milli

Image Source:

Single-page codex, Archivo General de la Nación, México, Ramo de Tierras, vol. 1735, exp. 2, fol. 108

Image Source, Rights:

The Archivo General de la Nación (AGN), México, holds the original manuscript. This image is published here under a Creative Commons license, asking that you cite the AGN and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.