petlatl (CST36)
This painting of the simplex glyph for the term petlatl (woven mat) shows a frontal or bird’s eye view of a rectangular red mat. It has a herringbone weave. The companion text explains that mats were purchased for the church, and that very day was a feast day.
Stephanie Wood
Red is an unusual color for a petlatl, which is usually shown as yellow or gold in color, if any color is added to the glyph at all. Perhaps this color was relevant for the special religious holiday. For more on the Codex Sierra, see Kevin Terraciano’s study (2021).
Stephanie Wood
1550–1564
Jeff Haskett-Wood
estera, petate
petla(tl), woven mat, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/petlatl
petate
Stephanie Wood
Códice Sierra-Texupan, plate 36, page dated 1561. Origin: Santa Catalina Texupan, Mixteca Alta, State of Oaxaca. Kevin Terraciano has published an outstanding study of this manuscript (Codex Sierra, 2021), and in his book he refers to alphabetic and “pictorial” writing, not hieroglyphic writing. We are still counting some of the imagery from this source as hieroglyphic writing, but we are also including examples of “iconography” where the images verge on European style illustrations or scenes showing activities. We have this iconography category so that such images can be fruitfully compared with hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphic writing was evolving as a result of the influence of European illustrations, and even alphabetic writing impacted it.
https://bidilaf.buap.mx/objeto.xql?id=48281&busqueda=Texupan&action=search
The Biblioteca Digital Lafragua of the Biblioteca Histórica José María Lafragua in Puebla, Mexico, publishes this Códice Sierra-Texupan, 1550–1564 (62pp., 30.7 x 21.8 cm.), referring to it as being in the “Public Domain.” This image is published here under a Creative Commons license, asking that you cite the Biblioteca Digital Lafragua and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.
