quechcotona (Azca31)
We are labeling this unglossed iconographic example of the verb to decapitate as “quechcotona,” which was a term used in Nahuatl manuscripts, especially by Chimalpahin writing in the second decade of the seventeenth century. Perhaps he was referring to the scene captured in this example. If so, the person who was decapitated was a Spaniard plotting a rebellion. The man in question wears a Spanish-style hat, a dark-gray bolero with two feathers coming out of the back–one red feather and one tan. He has dark curly hair. His eyes are closed, which was the tlacuilo’s way of saying he is dead. A saw appears at his neck, and uncountable drops of blood spew out of his neck. The rest of his body is at rest, lying on top of a large, plain box. His arms are down, and there may be a chain that prevented him from raising his arms. He wears a long white tunic that comes in at the waist, and he wears dark pink or red stockings from his knees to his ankles. His shoes are dark gray.
Stephanie Wood
Este ejemplo iconográfico sin glosa del verbo para “decapitar” lo etiquetamos como quechcotona, el término que se utilizaba en los textos nahuas, en especial los de Chimalpahin de la segunda década del siglo XVIII. Si se refería a la escena mostrada en el presente ejemplo, la víctima decapitada fue un español que planeaba una rebelión, a quien vemos vestido con un sombrero a la española de ala ancha, de color gris oscuro y con dos plumas en la parte posterior, una de ellas de color rojo y la otra color canela. Sus cabellos de color oscuro están rizados y sus ojos están cerrados, que es la manera con la que los tlacuilos expresaban la muerte de una persona. Se aprecia una sierra en su cuello y un sinnúmero de gotas de sangre brotan lateralmente. El resto de su cuerpo está en descanso y yace sobre una gran caja sin adornos. Sus brazos están extendidos hacia sus pies y parecen estar sujetos con una cadena que le impediría levantarlos. Está vestido con una túnica larga de color blanco que se ciñe a la cintura, con calzas de color rojo o rosa oscuro de las rodillas a los tobillos y con zapatos de color gris oscuro.
See our Online Nahuatl Dictionary under the word quechcotona for the quotes from Chimalpahin about some beheadings in the early seventeenth century. At least 29 people were decapitated, and their heads were displayed on the gallows at that time. He provides at least two names. This iconographic scene here does not look quite like a gallows, given that a saw was used for the execution. Note another execution of a Nahua woman at the hands of a Nahua man, below. The blood splatter makes a similar pattern.
Stephanie Wood
Véase la entrada quechcotona en nuestro Online Nahuatl Dictionary para consultar las citas de Chimalpahin sobre algunas decapitaciones a principios del siglo XVII: no menos de 29 personas, de las cuales el cronista proporciona al menos dos nombres, fueron ajusticiadas y sus cabezas quedaron expuestas en el cadalso. La imagen iconográfica en este ejemplo no tiene la apariencia de un patíbulo, dado que se utilizó una sierra para la ejecución. Véase el ejemplo más abajo del ajusticiamiento de una mujer nahua a manos de un hombre también nahua: la sangre brota y se derrama de manera similar.
post-1550, possibly from the early seventeenth century.
Jeff Haskett-Wood
decapitaciones, matar, ejecutar, castigar, sangre, eztli, muerte
quechcotona, to decapitate someone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quechcotona
quech(tli), the neck, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quechtli
decapitar a alguien
Stephanie Wood
The Codex Azcatitlan is also known as the Histoire mexicaine, [Manuscrit] Mexicain 59–64. It is housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and hosted on line by the World Digital Library and the Library of Congress, which is “unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection.”
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15280/?sp=31&st=image
The Library of Congress is “unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection.” But please cite Bibliothèque Nationale de France and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.
