tataca (FCbk11f215v)

tataca (FCbk11f215v)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring the verb to excavate (tataca), 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 Nahua man excavating a cave to extract lead (temetztli) ore. A simplex hieroglyph in the cave, showing a moon (metztli), stands for temetztli, its near homophone and associated with the color and/or shine of lead. The moon consists of the face of a man in profile, looking toward the right. The cave (oztotl) is drawn here more like a landscape sketch than a hieroglyph, and the surrounding hill or mountain (tepetl) is not drawn much like a hieroglyph, either.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The contextualizing image shows another glyph for temetztli in the lower left of the scene about excavating and working minerals. The one in the lower left is a more complete, three-element compound hieroglyph than the one in the cave. See below for examples of hieroglyphic caves and mountains.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

tataca

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

phonetic dimensions

Syntax:

verb

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Metals, Minerals, Mining

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

Keywords:

excavación, mineral, minerales, cerros, montañas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tataca, to dig in the earth, excavate, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tataca

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

escavar plomo

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 11: Earthly Things", fol. 215v, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/215v/images/0 Accessed 16 November 2025.

Image Source, Rights:

Images of the digitized Florentine Codex are made available under the following Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International). For print-publication quality photos, please contact the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana ([email protected]). The Library of Congress has also published this manuscript, using the images of the World Digital Library copy. “The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: