tenexcalli (MH487v)
This black-line drawing shows a simplex glyph for the building (tenexcalli) associated with the occupation involving the making of lime (tenextli) for construction. The building (in a frontal view) has something of a pyramid shape with a triangular arch and horizontal rows of cut stones. Flames and smoke emerge from the top of the building, as fire was used to burn limestone or chalk in the process of making lime.
Stephanie Wood
As the contextualizing image shows, this was the occupation of a man named Francisco Caltimal. As Mexico City was rebuilt and expand, and as Nahua pueblos all over central Mexico were seeing the construction of churches in the place of autonomous-era temples, the demand for lime was considerable. But lime was used prior to colonization, too. As can be seen in other glyphs, below, fire was also used in steam baths and for making salt, among other purposes.
Stephanie Wood
tenestlaticā
tenextlatica
Stephanie Wood
1560
Xitlali Torres and Stephanie Wood
construction, construcción, fuego, fire, piedras, stone bricks
tenexcal(li), the lime kiln, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tenexcalli.
El Horno de Cal
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 487v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=54&st=image.
This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).
