mamalhuaztli (FCbkbk7f19v)

This iconographic example features a human sacrifice (tlamictiliztli) that took place during the calendrical event that was a “fire drilling’ ceremony (mamalhuaztli) involving the “binding of the years” every fifty-two years (xiuhmolpilli). This scene is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The terms selected for this example come from the keywords chosen by the team behind the Digital Florentine Codex. This example shows a nude man lying on his back on a dirt mound that is about waist high. Six other men and boys surround him. Some are putting wood on his chest that will be lit on fire as part of the “fire drilling” (mamalhuaztli) that would take place at this time of the calendar. Others (seemingly boys) hold the sacrificial victim’s arms and legs. In the larger group, all are wearing long hair, white cloaks, and they have a black paint that covers not only their faces but their entire bodies. They are likely teopixque or tlamacazque (teopixqueh or tlamacazqueh with the glottal stops). To have this face paint involves the verb, ixtlilmaca. On all of the practitioners, the cloaks (tilmatli) are tied at the shoulder, but on some people the garments are also wrapped around their lower abdomens. The fabric has folds and shading that makes it three-dimensional, a result of European artistic influence.