The Tecali Glyph in the Codex Nuttall

This Mixtec glyph from the Codex Nuttall (Nuttall-Zouche) shows a place. The place is designated as a mountain, the overall form. This is not necessarily a mountain per se (just as Arab geographers called individual places islands), but is more often a town or a village. This place was conquered by (or made peace with) Eight-Deer Tiger Claw, the great Mixtec hero. The arrow entering the mountain at upper right indicates this conquest. This glyph is one of many in a group in the codex representing several years of Eight-Deer Tiger Claw's enlargement of his realm. The event happened in the year 5-reed or A.D. 1043, according to the preceding "AO" glyph. The little glyph with wings and trailing dots above the mountain means the event happened on day 7-movement, the 137^th day of the 260-day calendar.

The plaid design and the little curlicues on the border stand for "stone." The small object in the left center of the mountain is a house. In Nahaul, the language of the Aztecs, these elements could be combined into tecalletepec or "Stone House Mountain." The "mountain" element need not be used. The result would be tecalle formed from te-, a shortened form of tetl, stone, and calle or house. In time this came to be Tecali (the village) and tecali (the stone), both literally "Stone House."

However, the Codex Nuttall is a Mixtec, not an Aztec, manuscript. In Mixtec the glyph would read huahi yaa (huahiyaa), that is, "House of Stone." Thus, both Mixtec and Nahaul had the same name for this place. It is actually most unusual for both these languages to name a place in the same way. It suggests to me that the place was substantial and important. Its importance was and is due to the stone. The stone was named for the village.

Tecali is a pretty village and the people are friendly. I spent a pleasant afternoon with Ernesto Leonor Jimenez as he showed me how he took the raw stone (in the foreground) and reduced it to shiny beads. His craftsmanship is first rate and his workshop is immaculate, despite dealing with such a dusty substance.

I took the Tecali glyph from the Dover edition of the Codex Nuttall. [Nuttall, Zelia, ed. (1975) The Codex Nuttall: A Picture Manuscript from Ancient Mexico, Dover: New York]. I hope they do not mind. I also want to thank them for all the wonderful books they reprint, including the Codex Nuttall and the more recent Codex Borgia [Díaz, Gusele and Alan Rodgers (1993) The Codex Borgia: A Full-Color Restoration of the Ancient Mexican Manuscript Dover: New York]. If Dover or anyone else does mind me using such material, please let me know.