cuexyo (Mdz20v)
This example of iconography from the Codex Mendoza shows a feathered war shield {chimalli) in a design that Berdan and Anawalt (1992, vol. 1, Appendix G) call the "cuexyo variant 2." The predominant color is red with black and white accents. A fringe of long feathers hangs down from the round part of the shield.
Stephanie Wood
The main cuexyo shield in Berdan and Anawalt is discussed in some detail in an article in Arqueología Mexicana. em>Cuexyo with the absolutive (cuexyotl) would be a noun, but here it seems to be modifying the noun for shield (chimalli), so it serves as an adjective. See also our dictionary entry for cuextecatl, which refers to a feather suit worn by a dancer.
Guy Stresser-Péan (1995, 55) says that this design represents a Huastec shield. (See his book on the Xicotepec codex in our Bibliography.)
Stephanie Wood
xx. Rrodelas di plumas.
xx rodelas de plumas
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest
Xitlali Torres
shields, escudos, rodelas, feathers, plumas
This row of shields—a detail copied from the Lienzo de Tlaxcala—includes two shields that compare to this glyph. The detail comes from a work of art by Mariana Castillo Deball and Eduardo Abaroa that was part of the exhibition in the Museo National de Antropología called “Imaginar el Fin de los Tiempos.” Comment and photo by Stephanie Wood, Mexico City, 17 Feb. 2024.
cuexyo, a feathered shield design, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuexyo
cuexteca(tl), a feathered suit for a dancer, or the person who wears this suit, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuextecatl
Codex Mendoza, folio 20 verso, https://codicemendoza.inah.gob.mx/inicio.php?lang=english.
The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).
