mazatl (Mdz13v)
This element for deer (mazatl) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Mazatlan. It is just the head of a deer, looking to our left. The deer is brown and its coat is textured. The underside of the head and chin have a lighter, white coloring. The deer's antlers are painted turquoise.
Stephanie Wood
The turquoise-colored antlers are owing to the fact that the deer is metaphorically called "acaxoch," or reed flower, according to Gordon Whittaker (Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 96). Deer heads and deer antlers were made into headdresses and worn by dancers, something still found in some Native communities today across Mexico and into what is now the United States. The Yaqui people are especially well known for their deer dance.
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
deer, antlers, blue color, turquoise color
deer
el venado
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 13 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 37 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).
