tzoncalli (TK221v)

This painted example of iconography features a multicolored headdress that we are labeling a tzoncalli, based on the Spanish-language gloss, “los penachos.”) This tzoncalli has a nopalli cactus as its featured motif. The cactus has six segments (pencas, in Spanish) and five flowering fruits (nochtli, in Nahuatl, and tunas, in Spanish). This plant has pink roots that are visible at its base, and these roots grow around the row of five gold discs outlined in red just above some varicolored horizontal stripes that continue farther below, getting narrower as they go. What appears to be a red leather strip hangs down below the horizontal stripes. Finally, the upper part of the tzoncalli is a green oval with more than a dozen small gold discs around it.