tecpantli (HJ276:79:6r)

This iconographic figure appears on a pictorial manuscript submitted by indigenous petitioners on or around October 5, 1549, as evidence during a land dispute between the Cuernavacan community of Olac and the Marquesado del Valle. One of the pictorials found in the so-called Códice del Marquesado del Valle, it pictures a total of three outlined properties, the others planted sugar cane or mulberry trees, each of which were related to enterprises being developed by the Marqués at the time. The plot of land in question here is said to have belonged to don Hernando, undoubtedly Cuernavaca’s powerful tlatoani at the time. As well as featuring the pantli images, glyph for Olac, the artist rendered the place glyph for Olac, twelve xihuitl glyphs that in an accompanying Spanish text referring to the pictorial are said to stand for length of time that the plot had been under the control of the Marqués, and four fig trees [higueras/hicoxcuahuitl (see Historical Context Image). For more information, consult Códices indígenas de algunos pueblos del Marquesado, 1933 and 1883, “Códice núm. 1; and Santiago Sánchez, Códices del Marquesado del Valle, 2003, 86-90.