tezcatl (Mdz12r)
This element for a mirror (tezcatl) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Atezcahuacan. This mirror, typically made of polished obsidian or shiny mica, is a black circle with a red ring around it.
Stephanie Wood
See Ian Mursell's article in Mexicolore on "smoking mirrors" for information about the use of mirrors in Mesoamerica from pre-Classic times forward, their use in divination, and their association with divine forces.
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
mirrors, espejos
tezca(tl), mirror, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tezcatl
mirror
Codex Mendoza, folio 12 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 34 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).