totoltecciztli (LTlaxUT1b)

totoltecciztli (LTlaxUT1b)
Simplex Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex Nahuatl hieroglyph shows a container full of what appear to be turkey eggs (totoltecciztli) that were provided in tribute by the Tlaxcalteca to their Spanish allies on the march toward Tenochtitlan. If they were eggs, they were surely for eating. If they were shells, the purpose would require further research. The same term (totoltecciztli) can refer either to eggs or their shells.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Cottie Arthur Burland shares how Aztecs filled turkey eggshells with [maize?] flour and threw them at each other during a festival dedicated to Chicomecoatl. [See: The Bases of Religion in Aztec Mexico, 1964, 30.] David DeWitt, in his book Precious Cargo: How Foods from the Americas Changed the World (2014), explains that the Aztecs saved turkey eggshells and spread them on the roads. This was an offering to divine forces in thanks for having turkeys to eat. There were probably various uses of these shells. But if they were giving them to Spaniards, at this point in the colonization process, it was likely for food. While these are the first turkey eggs to enter this database, below are some other eggs, such as generic birds’ eggs, turtle eggs, and fly larvae.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

totoltecciztli

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Tlaxcala, Lienzo de, UT (LTlaxUT)

Date of Manuscript:

1540s

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Tlaxcala and other parts of early Mexico

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Food, Eating, Cooking

Tributes, Taxation, Service

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Shapes and Perspectives:

bird's eye view

Keywords:

huevo, pavo, guajolote, cáscara, cáscaras, tributo, tributos, aliados, españoles

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

totol(in), domestic wild turkeys, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/totolin
tecciz(tli), shell, egg, eggshell, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecciztli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

huevo de pavo, o las cáscaras de huevo de pavo

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Benson Latin American Collection, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, The University of Texas at Austin https://collections.lib.utexas.edu/catalog/utblac:3c754fd0-b27f-4af7-9cf...

Image Source, Rights:

The Benson Library has kindly provided the digital images and permission to put them into our Mapas Project in 2015. Use and reproduction from this project: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/, but please also cite the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood, (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities Projects, ©2020-present). Version 1.0.

Historical Contextualizing Image: