Matlactli Omome Miquiztli (FCbk4f7r)

Matlactli Omome Miquiztli (FCbk4f7r)
Simplex Glyph
Notation

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This colorful painting of a simplex glyph-plus-notation has as its focus the date Matlactli Omome Miquiztli ("Twelve Death," or 12-Death), in the religious divinatory calendar called the tonalpohualli. The glyph is a frontal view of a skull, white with some gray shading (showing European stylistic influences). To the right of the skull the notation shows twelve (matlactli omome) small circles connected by lines. These circles (two rows of five and a row of two, as though counted on fingers) are painted green.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Florentine/Florentinus, Codex (FC)

Date of Manuscript:

1577

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

calendrics

day name

numbers

Syntax:

line connecting elements

noun(s)

visual plural (multiples of objects)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Death, decay, decomposition

Numbers, Math

Time, Calendar, Frequency

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

gray

green (light)

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

frontal view

shading and parallel line hatching

Keywords:

tonalpohualli, fechas, calendarios, días, muerte, calavera, calaveras, numbers, números, mahtlactli, nombres de días

Museum & Rare Book Comparisons:

Museum/Rare Book Notes:

This example of a carved stone hieroglyph representing the date Matlactli Omei Miquiztli (Thirteen Death, or 13-Death) is one number off from the example of the hieroglyph from the Florentine Codex above, but it provides an interesting comparison. One difference is that the skull in the manuscript appears in a frontal view, whereas the carving (older) appears in a profile view. Nevertheless, the museum at Tlatelolco has a display of skulls that seem to have come from a skull rack, and the patterns of the large holes on the sides of the crania suggest that they were displayed in a frontal view, whereby the post when horizontally through the skulls and they were facing forward. This stone carving is located on the Templo Calendárico at the Tlatelolco archaeological site. Photo by R. Haskett, 2 May 2025.

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

matlactli omei, thirteen, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/matlactli-omei
miquiz(tli), death, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/miquiztli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Trece Muerte, o 13-Muerte

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_10615/?sp=15&st=image

Image Source, Rights:

The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse. Researchers are encouraged to review the source information attached to each item. If you do publish anything from this database, please cite the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.

Historical Contextualizing Image: