Chicomoztoc (Mxnus29)
The simplex place name for Chicomoztoc, "At the Seven Caves," shows a half circle with seven (chicome) embedded caves (oztotl). They are surrounded by what may be turquoise blue/greenish water (atl), all of it kept within the half circle. The caves are all open inside the circle, and they are divided by curling rocky separators that are this same turquoise blue/green. The ground inside the cave area is a coffee color. This region is cut through with thin red lines well separated one from the next. A plant with lots of greenish/turquoise blue leaves stands up tall in the middle of the half-circle. A white horizontal scroll/volute runs perpendicular to the vertical plant.
Stephanie Wood
The legendary seven caves were like a larger underground cavern (like a womb) with seven chambers. These spaces are believed to have housed various ethnic groups who were the ancestors of the Nahuas. They emerged at some point and migrated to found the capital. Perhaps the best known painting of Chicomoztoc is in the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca. See the Vistas gallery for the image and a brief explanation of what is shown there. Beyond what is said there, notice the red and yellow textured lining of the womb, reminiscent of the lining of the mouth of the earth monster in other caves (below) and the colors surrounding the umbilical glyph (also below).
Stephanie Wood
De este lugar
nombrado Chico
moztoc, o siete
cuebas salieron
....
De este lugar nombrado Chicomoztoc, o Siete Cuevas, salieron....
Stephanie Wood
ca. 1590
Jeff Haskett-Wood
caves, cuevas, orígenes
Chicomoztoc, a place name; a legendary place in the migration from Aztlan, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chicomoztoc
chicome, seven, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chicome
oztoc, cave, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/oztoc
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15284/?sp=29&st=image. This image is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library, but the manuscript is part of the holdings of Bibliothèque nationale de France and the original source is gallica.bnf.fr/BNF.
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.”
