oztotl (Mdz10v)

The curly designs located approximately where the animal would have ears and chin borrow from the symbol for tetl (rock, stone), suggesting that the cave is located in a rocky outcropping, helping us distinguish this sign from just an animal head. The nose, eyes, and corners of the mouth also possibly convey something of the curliness of the tetl) and tepetl) sign. Also, note the quadripartite (or quincunx) shape of the head, which seems to connect it to the four directions on earth and possibly the axis that goes from the celestial realm to the underworld, with the opening to the cave providing access to the underworld. Openings to caves also had associations with the human mouths and the vagina and the uterus of a woman in some Aztec symbolism (see, for example, the quote from Book 6 of the Florentine Codex and the quote from the Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, referring to Chicomoztoc, in our online Nahuatl Dictionary, under the word oztotl). But, here, the animal-like head is nevertheless very clear, perhaps linking caverns to animals. Andrea J. Stone also mentions the "personification" of caves and the fact that the term oztotl is an animate noun in Nahuatl (see Images from the Underworld, 2010, 21).