Xiuhtli (MH634v)
This black-line drawing of a group of five rectangular turquoise pieces (xihuitl) is a phonetic indicator for the name Xiuhtli ("Comet"), a near homophone. As a personal name, Xiuhtli can also be given to babies born at the end of a 52-year cycle. When it relates to the ending of a 52-year cycle, the name Xiuhtli could contain the Xiuh- that is the stem for xihuitl (year). Turquoise (xihuitl, barely distinguishable from the word for year) is also a near homophone for comet (xiuhtli), which makes this a phonogram. Apparently, the turquoise mosaic pieces, the artist/writer hoped, would bring to mind the name Xiuhtli. There are other names in this collection that similarly use the turquoise pieces, such as Xiuhnel, the name of the morning star and a cloud serpent in the Nahua religion.
Stephanie Wood
This popular name, Xiuhtli, is linked to the religious calendar of years, because it was a name given to boys born during the time of the binding ceremony at the end of every fifty-two year cycle.
See the name Xiuhnel, below, for another example of xihuitl drawn as turquoise tesserae (mosaic pieces). See also the year (xihuitl) sign drawn as a turquoise mosaic in the date, cempohualli xihuitl (Mxnus19) (also shown below).
Stephanie Wood
xiuhtli
Xiuhtli
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
turquesa, mosáicos, piezas, tesserae, cometas, comets, xiuhpohualli, año, turquesa, xihuitl, nombres de hombres
xiuh(tli), comet and a name for a boy born at the end of a 52-year cycle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xiuhtli
xihui(tl), turquoise pieces, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xihuitl-0
Cometa
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 634v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=351st=image.
This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).
