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‘Codex Corner’: curlicues and their symbolism

A common element in the Central Mexican writing system was the use of ‘curlicues’ or squiggly symbols that varied in meaning according to context - and colour. Shown here (right) is the name glyph for one of the lords of Tlatelolco, Cuauhtlatoa (‘He Speaks Like an Eagle’): as Gordon Whittaker explains ‘The eloquence of the eagle, a bird that symbolises nobility and prowess in war, is indicated iconically by the varicoloured speech scrolls’. And that’s just for starters... (Compiled by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

Pic 1: An Aztec musician sings in Nahuatl, Codex Mendoza fol. 63r (detail) (Click on image to enlarge)

Whittaker, in his pioneering book Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, spells out the Codex Curlicue Colour Code:-
’As a general rule, if they are grey... they symbolise smoke [see pic 3]; if yellow, excrement [pic 3]. Normally they occur in clusters of three [pic 1], but this can vary. If they are tilted to point sideways, they are known as speech scrolls, and are usually white, but can be blue (for turquoise, a precious stone) [pic 1], or even blue and red [pic 2], if a highborn person has a say in the event depicted...’
Picture 1 shows a Mexica man playing a teponaztli drum; at the same time the turquoise speech scrolls coming from his mouth clearly indicate that he is also singing - and singing in Nahuatl, the lingua franca of the Aztec Empire, regarded by Nahuas as their uniquely ‘precious’ language.

PI 2: Red curlicues: Florentine Codex Book 9 (top) and Codex Selden/Añute (bottom) (Click on image to enlarge)

Picture 2 gives two examples of the use of red colour - either within the curlicue itself or as an ‘add-on’ modifier to emphasise the specific meaning. The first comes from the Florentine Codex and is captioned ‘Listening to the admonitions of the elders’ and the second, from the Codex Selden or Añute depicts two Mixtec rulers issuing threats (to unwanted visitors), clearly indicated by the red/white flints on the ends of their speech scrolls.

Pic 3: Toponym for Cuitlahuac, Codex Mendoza fol. 2r (detail) (Click on image to enlarge)

Picture 3 shows two other curlicue contexts: early on in the Codex Mendoza the conquests of individual rulers are depicted, ‘defeat’ being shown iconographically by a toppled temple on fire, with the place name attached by a short cord. In this case, the first king of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Acamapichtli, succeeded in conquering four key towns listed in the Codex - Quauhnahuac (Cuernavaca), Mizquic, Xochimilco and (shown here) Cuitlahuac. Although a literal reading of Cuitlahuac gives ‘Where There is Excrement in the Water’, the Nahuatl word cuitlatl could also mean algae, and the saline part of Lake Texcoco was famous for growing an edible blue-green algae that we know today as the ‘superfood’ Spirulina. So a superior reading of the name gives something like ‘Where There is Algae in the Water’.

Sources:-
• Whittaker, Gordon (2021) Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs - A Guide to Nahuatl Writing, University of California Press
• Hill Boone, Elizabeth (2000) Stories in Red and Black - Pictorial Histories of the Aztecs and Mixtecs, University of Texas Press.
• Picture notes:-
• Images from the Florentine Codex scanned from our own copy of the Club Internacional del Libro 3-volume facsimile edition, Madrid, 1994
• Images from the Codex Mendoza (original in the Bodleian Library, Oxford) scanned from our own copy of the James Cooper Clark 1938 facsimile edition, London
• Image from the Codex Selden/Añute (original in the Bodleian Library, Oxford), scanned from our Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología 1964 facsimile edition
• Animation by Mexicolore based on an illustration produced for Mexicolore by Daniel Parada.

This article was uploaded to the Mexicolore website on Aug 28th 2022