tepoztli (Mdz24v)
This element has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Tepoztlan. The color of the handle suggests wood, and the color of the blade suggests copper. Around the handle is tied a decoration, something like a bow, with horizontal lines of decoration.
Stephanie Wood
The decoration (bow?) on the ax suggests a possible ritual use. Whether it is paper or wood is unclear. Further investigation is required. Notice the tepoztli from folio 8 recto of the Codex Mendoza, which also has something of a bow tied to the ax handle. That one has a different design, with vertical red and black hash marks. The eagle's claw design on a war shield also has a number of what appear to be bows (see below, right).
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
axes, hatchets, hachas, metal, copper, tools
tepoz(tli), copper or metal, and by extension a metal tool, such as this copper ax, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepoztli
metal axe
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 24 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 59 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).
