Chicomacatl (MH522r)

The -com- (from the ceramic pot, comitl) is a phonetic indicator for the "co" or "com" part of the number, chicome (seven), which has been contracted with acatl (reed), dropping the -e-. This is a calendrical name from the 260-day divinatory calendar, the tonalpohualli. Chicomacatl is compounded from Chicome Acatl (7-Acatl, or 7-Reed), typically referring to a birth date. Perhaps the number has been disguised visually, to make it less obvious that the tonalpohualli calendar is still in use? Serious events in 1539 may have made Nahua tlacuilos more cautious when writing and painting about aspects of their faith. See Patricia Lopes Don for information about the Inquisition case against don Carlos Ometochtli, a Chichimecatecuhtli (or Chichimecateuctli) executed in late 1539, in Bonfires of Culture, 2010. Bradley Benton (The Lords of Tetzcoco, 2017, 46) also writes that the case “demonstrates that blatant disregard for Christianity had serious consequences.” The tonalpohualli, being used for "prognostication and divination, had no parallel and contravened Christian dogma so its use was disavowed and prohibited." [See Rubén G. Mendoza, Ritual Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica (2024), 439.] Nevertheless, calendrics were an important part of Nahuas' religious views of the cosmos, and this practice survived a long time under colonialism, even if in modified form.

If not specifically referring to the calendar, the name can also refer to a medicinal herb called chicomacatl.