pipiltin (CST38)
This painting of the simplex glyph for the term pipiltin (the plural of pilli, nobleman) shows just one man in a profile view, facing toward the viewer’s left. He is wearing something around his neck that hangs down his side or perhaps his chest. It may be a curved piece of wood (the curve being behind his neck) with two parallel vertical sticks. Connecting the vertical sticks are four horizontal bars. These are close together, not separated like a ladder. The whole device is painted a dark green. This device seems to be worn only by nobles, and it may have an association with travel to Mexico City, for this man was traveling there with another pilli (not shown).
Stephanie Wood
For more on the Codex Sierra, see Kevin Terraciano’s study (2021).
Stephanie Wood
1550–1564
Jeff Haskett-Wood
jerarquía, nobles, devisas, viajes, viajar, Ciudad de México
pil(li), a nobleman, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pilli
nobles
Stephanie Wood
Códice Sierra-Texupan, plate 38, 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.
