xiquipilli (TK211r)

This painted simplex Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the number 8,000 (xiquipilli). The companion text does not provide the Nahuatl term, but it makes it clear that this is the numeric value. This sack is one of ten sacks, as seen in the contextualizing image. The text explains that the total number of “cargas” of corn is 80,000, which would mean each sack is worth 8,000 (xiquipilli) loads. An employee of Hernando Cortés was demanding these 80K loads. This xiquipilli is a white cotton sack with a red tie at the top, perhaps made of cloth or leather. The red tie has white highlights. The bag has a sophisticated three-dimensionality that features many folds and suggests that it is full of something. From the text, we know that this sack contains maize, possibly in kernel form. This manuscript was produced as part of the community’s resistance to the unreasonable taxation being demanded vis-a-vis the size of the community, especially as the population was declining as a result of diseases inadvertently brought over from Europe.