fanega (TK210v)

This painted simplex Nahuatl hieroglyph represents a measure (fanega, a loanword from Spanish taken into Nahuatl) of corn seed. There is no Nahuatl language gloss on this image, but there is a Spanish-language explanation of the painting made by a Nahua, who would have understood the term very well. The companion text in Spanish also explains that this measure of maize kernels was paid to Hernando Cortés as tribute (in this case, a taxation in kind). The contextualizing image includes the notation of one tzontli sign for 400 and 15 ones, which would have been multiplied for the sum of 6,000 fanegas owed to Cortés by the altepetl of Tepetlaoztoc in each of at least three years. Incidentally, the text says 3,000, which must be an error. The fanega container is wooden with visible joints and a trapezoid shape, pointing toward the viewer’s left. Along the top edge, nine white corn kernels appear in a row, an indicator of the contents inside that are not otherwise visible. This manuscript was produced as part of the community’s resistance through the court system to the unreasonable taxation being demanded vis-a-vis the size of the community, especially as the population was declining as a result of diseases inadvertently brought over from Europe.