yahualli (Mdz36r)

yahualli (Mdz36r)
Iconography

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This example of iconography shows the base that helped a round-bottomed jug or pot stand upright. The name for it, yahualli, is the same word for "something round." Here the base is white, but some were woven from a material that is similar to the tompiatl (tompiate, in Mexican Spanish) of the modern day, such as a stiff palm frond, which is a yellow color. The jug, in this case, has a woven net around it and is terracotta in color.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

See additional circles and rounded things below, right.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Containers, Dishes, Eating Utensils
Pottery, Earthenware
Technology (all types), plus Tools
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
orange/terracotta
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle, circular or rounded
Keywords: 

tecnología, la base para sostener una olla, cosas redondas, círculos, circles, rounded things, cantaros

Museum/Rare Book/Realia Comparisons: 
Museum/Rare Book/Realia Notes: 

Note how this gourd bowl with a round bottom sits on a woven reed (carrizo, in Spanish) ring. The tradition lives on in modern times. The rings are sold, for example, still today in the Benito Juárez market in Oaxaca city. Photo by Stephanie Wood, 24 January 2026.

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

yahual(li), something round or a base for a jug or pot, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yahualli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

assentadero de olla

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Alonso de Molina

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 36 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 82 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)

See Also: 

yahualli (Mdz22r)

yahualli (Mdz21v)

yahualli (Mdz27r)

teponaztli (Azca29)

huehuetzotzonqui (FCbk4f19v)

cuicani (FCbk1p47)

yahualli (FCbk9f29r)