vara (CST40)
his painting of the simplex glyph for the term vara (a loanword from Spanish that entered Nahuatl, a measurement that was about a yard) shows a frontal or bird’s eye view of a roll of pink fabric that is partially unrolled. This is said to be a Castillian woolen cloth (ichtilmatli, perhaps intending ichcatilmatli, a word that also appears in this collection, taken from CST35) used for bedding/mattresses (colchones, a Spanish loanword). In this case, the fabric roll measured 40 varas (which is written on the glyph in alphabetic writing), and this material was needed by the hospital (written as “espital”).
Stephanie Wood
This was a time when an epidemic (cocoliztli would be the term in Nahuatl, although it does not appear with this reference) was raging locally, one of many that were introduced inadvertently by the colonizing Spaniards who carried germs for which the Indigenous people had no immunities. For more on the Codex Sierra, see Kevin Terraciano’s study (2021), especially pp. 125 and 158 (for the transcription and translation of the relevant text). Indigenous measurements of various kinds appear in this collection. See, for example, the matl (a measurement from hand to hand, sometimes as much as six feet), which was used more for measuring land parcels. The tlalcuauh (literally, land stick or rod) was also used in some cases for measuring parcels.
Stephanie Wood
1550–1564
Jeff Haskett-Wood
varas, medidas, telas, colchones, hospitales, cobijas, lecho, epidemias, cocoliztli
vara
Stephanie Wood
Códice Sierra-Texupan, plate 40, page dated 1561. Origin: Santa Catalina Texupan, Mixteca Alta, State of Oaxaca. Kevin Terraciano has published an outstanding study of this manuscript (Codex Sierra, 2021), and in his book he refers to alphabetic and “pictorial” writing, not hieroglyphic writing. We are still counting some of the imagery from this source as hieroglyphic writing, but we are also including examples of “iconography” where the images verge on European style illustrations or scenes showing activities. We have this iconography category so that such images can be fruitfully compared with hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphic writing was evolving as a result of the influence of European illustrations, and even alphabetic writing impacted it.
https://bidilaf.buap.mx/objeto.xql?id=48281&busqueda=Texupan&action=search
The Biblioteca Digital Lafragua of the Biblioteca Histórica José María Lafragua in Puebla, Mexico, publishes this Códice Sierra-Texupan, 1550–1564 (62pp., 30.7 x 21.8 cm.), referring to it as being in the “Public Domain.” This image is published here under a Creative Commons license, asking that you cite the Biblioteca Digital Lafragua and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.
