huictli (MH552r)

huictli (MH552r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the element representing a (huictli) shows a frontal view of an agricultural tool for digging. It is vertical and resembles a shovel (perhaps showing some European influence over the autonomous-era digging stick), as it seems to have a wider blade than usual. This tool has been carved from the compound hieroglyph for the personal name Tetl Ihuic.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This may be what is called a "bladed coa" in a study of Xochimilco from 1966, although it is said to be "triangular." [See: Robert Cooper West and ‎John P. Augelli, Middle America; Its Lands and Peoples (1966, 243).] An iron bladed digging stick had the name tepozhuictli. [See: James Lockhart, The Nahuas, 1922, 531.] This represents clear colonial change.

Evidence that the huictli came to be called a coa in Mexican Spanish comes from the Spanish-language text in the Florentine Codex.
Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 11: Earthly Things", fol. 113v, Sahagún, Bernardino de. Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain. Transcribed and translated with notes by Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble. 2nd rev. ed. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research / University of Utah Press, 1950–82. Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/113v Accessed 11 November 2025.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Agriculture, Gardens, Stock Raising
Technology (all types), plus Tools
Wood, wooden things
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
pointed (see also spiky)
vertical, upright
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

tools, herramientas, agricultura

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

This digging stick (huictli) has a notable blade, whereas many just start wide at one end and taper all the way to the other end. Photograph by Stephanie Wood, Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico City, 15 February 2023.

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

huic(tli), a digging stick with a flat blade, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huictli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

una herramienta agrícola

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 552r, World Digital Library. https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=183&st=image

Image Source, Rights: 

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).

See Also: 

Tetl Ihuic (MH552r)

huictli (Mdz64r)

Tehuic (MH563r)

huictli (Azca26)

huictli (Verg10v)

huictli (MH642v)

huictli (FCbk10f28v)