oztotl tepetl (FCbk11f245r)

This iconographic example, featuring a black and white sketch of a mountain cavern (oztotl tepetl), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a mountain (tepetl) with a peak and, in the foreground, an entrance to a dark, natural cave or cavern (oztotl). Inside the cave, a person has fallen, head down. The person is probably a Nahua man. He is wearing a belted tunic, a colonial type of clothing. The landscape has shading for three-dimensionality (European artistic influence). The companion text explains how this cavern is long, deep, rough, and both wide and narrow. It is a “dangerous” place, a place of death.