xicalli (Mdz29r)

The xicalli was a vessel, cup, or bowl, probably usually made of gourd material, given what we know today of the jícara. The interior is painted turquoise blue, which intentionally underlines the "xi" phonetic value in xicalli, recalling the xi- or xiuh- stem for turquoise. Its walls slope outward, something like the apantli and the caxitl), with its outward sloping walls, but the caxitl) may have been carved from stone, given its contemporary association with the molcajete. We have removed the two vertical lines in the middle of the xicalli that appear in the compound glyph for the place name Xicalhuacan, as they may not be relevant to the xicalli (unless they are meant to reinforce the fact that a container possesses something). The xicalli that is part of the compound Xicaltepec does have these vertical lines, perhaps for that reason. But the xicalli included in this database as an example of iconography does not have the vertical lines, so they may not be an inherent element in xicalli.