teponaztli (FCbk8f19v)

This iconographic example, featuring a horizontal slit drum (teponaztli) is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making potential comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the keywords chosen by the team behind the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss. This example shows a man holding the drum while standing, singing, and possibly dancing. The context suggests that this drummer is accompanying a man who is juggling a log, which could have had religious significance or might have been a secular ceremony. His mouth is open and his teeth are visible. He wears a quetzal feather headdress held on with a blue headband. He wears a cape tied over his right shoulder. It has horizontal stripes of white, light green, orange, and red. He also wears a turquoise-blue loincloth with an intricate pattern and a thin, perhaps string as a necklace. At the lower tips, the loincloth is yellow. He has rings around his ankles that are red, blue, and yellow. His head is in profile, but his stance, with feet separate, is a ¾ view. The dark brown wooden drum has slits in the top. The man holds it with his left hand and hits it with a drumstick in his right hand. The tip of the drumstick that engages with the drum is covered in something, probably rubber.