matlatl (Mdz10v)
This element for a net (matlatl) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Tolocan. The net has an oval frame attached to it, and a stick or handle, also connected to the frame. The assumption of wood comes from the terracotta color, often given to wooden things.
Stephanie Wood
The net appears to be one for catching fish in a river, lagoon, or lake. This net is found in glyphs referring to Tolocan (modern Toluca), because the valley there had a large lagoon that used to be fished. The indigenous people there were also known as the Matlatzinca. For another image of a net, this one on a longer pole, see the Florentine Codex, Book I, folio 39 recto.
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
nets, fishing
matla(tl), net, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/matlatl
net
la red
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 10 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 31 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).