micqui (Mdz52r)
This element for a deceased person (micqui) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Miquetlan. This is a corpse is an upright seated position, with the knees under the chin, a posture typical of a male. It is in profile view and faces to the viewer's right. The cloth shroud also resembles a cloak, such as men wore. It is a white cloth, and it is bound with both horizontal and crossing white ties. Black lines give the ties a twisting, rope-like appearance.
Stephanie Wood
The shroud has a clearly visible cloak's edge, fairly widely hemmed--running vertically in the middle of the body--which may suggest a deceased noble or ruler. The ties around the cloth-covered deceased person can also be just horizontal or just crossed, as we see in other examples below, right.
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest
Xitlali Torres
muertos, muerte, death, cadáver, cadaveres
mic(qui), deceased person, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/micqui
un muerto
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 52 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 114 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).
