quecholli (Mdz42r)

quecholli (Mdz42r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Cuauhquecholan. It shows a cluster of wing and down feathers, probably from the quecholli bird, whose feathers were important in rituals associated with the 20-day month (veintena in Spanish) of the same name.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The divine force or deity called Chantico includes a quecholli (warrior's feather ornament) in her headdress. (See below.) As Eloise Quiñones Keber {Codex Telleriano-Remensis, 1995, 186) notes, this female figure wears both a skirt and a loincloth, the latter being a "martial attribute" that complicates the gendering of her representation.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Feathers
Religion (Indigenous)
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Colors: 
brown
gray
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

oseate swan

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 42 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 94 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).