temalacatl (FCbk9f7r)

temalacatl (FCbk9f7r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a sacrificial stone (temalacatl) is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from a detailed description in Book 2, folio 117 recto, in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a large, probably heavy, round stone with a hole in the middle and a trough that runs from that hole to the edge of the stone. Some shading at the top of the hole gives it a three-dimensionality, showing European artistic influences. A captive would be sacrificed over the stone’s hole to capture the blood and the heart. In the contextualizing image a warrior stands on the stone, facing off against some other warriors dressed in animal skins.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Blood sacrifices, performed on oneself, is a more common theme in this digital collection (as of August 2025) than sacrifices made of others. The use of spines or thorns to draw blood from oneself (such as from an ear or the tongue) enters into various glyphs. There are also symbolically bloody flint knives.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

temalacatl

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Death, decay, decomposition

Gifts, Offerings, Sacrifice

Religion (Indigenous)

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

brown

orange/terracotta

tan

Shapes and Perspectives:

frontal view

shading and parallel line hatching

three-dimensionality

Keywords:

sacrificio, human sacrifice, huentli, offerings

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

temalaca(tl), a circular, flat, sacrificial stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/temalacatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la piedra de sacrificios

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 9: The Merchants", fol. 7r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/9/folio/7r/images/0 Accessed 27 August 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: