centecpantli (Osu12v)

This simplex glyph and notation for a group of twenty (centecpantli) comes from the Codex Osuna, folio 12 verso (or Image 27). The number is indicated by a white flag flying toward the viewer’s left. The flag may be paper or perhaps cloth, and it is on a vertical post, probably wooden. The word flag contains “pan,” which provides the phonetic indicator that this is some number of twenties (-pantli). Here, the flag represents twenty Nahua workers from Iztacalco, who were carrying adobe (xamitl) bricks for use in constructing a house, involving the verb, quicaltia (he makes a building or a house). The Nahua man who is carrying the adobes is shown in profile facing the viewer’s right. A tumpline goes over his forehead. It must attach to the petlatl (or petate, woven mat, in Spanish), with its characteristic herringbone weave, which cradles the adobe. What we might call a tlamama (in Nahuatl) or a tameme (in Spanish, meaning a carrier, wears what appears to be a white, belted, cotton tunic.