tealtiani (FCbk10f42r)

This iconographic example, featuring a bather of enslaved people (tealtiani), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text on the page before the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows two men, both in a ¾ view. The man on the left is possibly wearing a loincloth (maxtlatl) and clearly wears a cloak (tilmatli), which suggests some status. The fabric of the cloak has shading, which gives it a three-dimensionality, revealing European artistic influences. The man on the left is pouring water on the head of a nude man sitting on a small seat or a rock on the viewer’s right. The water (atl) has lines of current and droplets at the tips of the streams, very reminiscent of hieroglyphs for water. While semantic, the water (atl) also explains the “-al-” in the middle of the term tealtiani, “one who bathes enslaved people.” The text comments further that this is a wealthy merchant who owns many enslaved people and is a “slave dealer” (tecoani).