tlamamalli (FCbk11f197r)

tlamamalli (FCbk11f197r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This iconographic example, featuring a black-line drawing of a burden or backpack (tlamamalli) with a load of cargo, is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from another, similar record in this digital collection. There is no gloss, per se, and no naming of the object in the text. This example shows a pack that is attached to a carrying frame (likely called a cacaxtli), supported by a tumpline (likely called a mecapalli) that is attached to the frame. This tumpline goes around the carrier’s forehead and helps support the weight of the tlamamalli. The frame also has a stick or leg attached to it that allows the frame to stand on its own.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Besides cacaxtli, mamalhuaztli is another name for a carrying frame onto which a load could be attached and carried by a human carrier (a person who came to be called a tameme in Spanish, from the Nahuatl verb, tlamama (to carry something). This tlamamalli has some shading that gives it a three-dimensionality, showing European artistic influence.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gender (male)

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Transportation, Travel, Roads

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Shapes and Perspectives:

shading and parallel line hatching

three-dimensionality

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

cargas, bulto, bultos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tlamamal(li), a burden, a load on a frame that goes on the carrier’s back, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlamamalli
cacax(tli), a carrying frame fitted to the back for carrying a burden or load, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cacaxtli
mamalhuaz(tli), a carrying frame, among other definitions, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mamalhuaztli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la carga

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 11: Earthly Things", fol. 197r, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/197r/images/0 Accessed 16 November 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: