teocalli (Mdz5v)
This element for teocalli (temple) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Teocalhueiacan. The teocalli consists of a two-part stepped building, what some might call a pyramid, with a building on top that is typically called a calli. We see the calli in profile view. Unlike many calli in this collection, it has a thatched roof. The building is white with orange beams, and the thatched roof consists of alternating horizontal rows of yellow and orange.
Stephanie Wood
The word teocalli is a compound word that combines teo- (the root for teotl, divinity) with calli (house, building). The thatch does differentiate this calli from more standard examples of calli found here. Notice how this teocalli compares with the one that is part of Teocaltzinco, which has a very different roof. Compare, too, how this teocalli compares with the teopan, another word for temple, such as we have in this collection (below, right). The principal visual difference between the teocalli and the teopan, here, is the presence of the calli on top of the stepped structure.
The museum comparison has yet another roof decoration/facade. But the steps and the articulation where the angle of the steps shifts on the way up are echoed in this model from the National Museum of Anthropology.
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
temples, stepped pyramids, religious structures, religious buildings, architecture, thatch, edificios, arquitectura
teocalli. Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Salón Mexica. Photograph by Stephanie Wood, 14 February 2023.
teocal(li), temple, religious house, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teocalli
teopan, temple, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teopan
temple
el templo, la pirámide
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 5 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 21 of 188.
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).
