Macuilli Acatl (Mdz2r)
This simplex glyph for the solar year (xihuitl) date, Five Reed (Macuilli Acatl), combines with the notation for five, expressed in five small circles running from the upper right corner down the right side, and the glyph for reed (acatl). Here, the ones have dots in the middle, which is not true of all ones as expressed in dates in the Codex Mendoza (see some variations below). The acatl is expressed here as an upright cane standing in a small, symbolic body of water (apantli), and the cane is decorated with feathers, reminiscent of the arrow or dart. The entire date is enclosed in a black-line box (not visible in this image), and its contents are painted over with turquoise blue.
Stephanie Wood
See the water container below. If the acatl is not sitting in an apantli, perhaps the symbol below the cane is a yacametztli (nose ornament), which also appears below.
Calendrics were an important element in the Nahuas' religious views of the cosmos.
c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest
dates, fechas, calendars, calendarios, números, cañas, carrizos, flechas, plantas, plumas, canales, xiuhpohualli, año, turquesa, xihuitl
macuilli, five, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/macuilli
acatl, reed, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acatl
Codex Mendoza, folio 02 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 14 of 188.
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).