Mexican archæology

by Thomas Athol Joyce

Fig. 12.—Detail from the historical portion of the Telleriano-Remensis MS.

To the left, the date 7. tochtli, accompanied by glyphs expressing the death of Tizoc and the accession of Auitzotl. To the right, the date 8. acatl, with glyphs showing the dedication of the great temple to Uitzilopochtli, and the sacrifice of 20,000 prisoners.

To express numbers, as far as the calendar was concerned, since no figure higher than 13 occurred ordinarily, a dot was put for each unit. There was also a special period-sign meaning a year (Fig. [86, l]; p. 356, usually combined with the day-sign from which that particular year took its name), and another for the period of 52 years, called xiuhmolpilli, or “sheaf of years.” As, however, there was no subsidiary sign by which one xiuhmolpilli could be differentiated from another, the reader is obliged to infer from the context the cycle to which a particular year belongs. In the numeration of objects, as in the tribute-lists, higher numbers are expressed by special symbols. The Mexican numeral system was vigesimal, and hence the first special sign was that for 20, a religious banner. 20 × 20, or 400, was expressed by a tree; and 20 × 400 by an incense-pouch (see Fig. [12]). In certain portions of some manuscripts we find the lower numbers simplified by the employment of a bar to mean five. These MSS. present other features which are not typically Aztec in character, and it may at once be said that the use of the bar to express five was universal in the Maya countries, and extended in pre-Aztec times right up through the Zapotec country (e.g. Monte Alban) and Cuernavaca (Xochicalco) to the Mexican Valley (Island of Xico).

In the historical MSS. we have the year-signs in order accompanied by certain figures symbolical of important events. A temple in flames with a place-name attached signifies the conquest of a town; the sign olin, an earthquake; a smoking star, a comet; and so forth. In Fig. [12] appears a small portion of the manuscript known as Telleriano-Remensis; two year-dates are shown, of which the first, 7. tochtli, is accompanied by two figures, a mummy-pack with the name of Tizoc, and a seated man with the name of Auitzotl. This signifies the death of the king Tizoc, and the enthronement of his successor. Accompanying the next year-date, 8. acatl, is a picture of the great temple to Uitzilopochtli, beneath which is a smoking fire-stick, and the name-sign of Tenochtitlan. The group signifies the dedication of the great temple at Mexico, since new fire was always made at the opening of a newly-constructed building. At the side are two figures clad in the livery of prisoners destined to the gladiatorial stone, each with his name; these represent two important prisoners sacrificed on that occasion, and below them is a number, reading 20,000, the number of the victims sacrificed during the inaugural ceremonies.

The nature of the calendrical manuscripts has been explained in chapter III, and it will therefore not be necessary to say more about them, except that most, if not all, of the surviving examples seem not to be pure Aztec work. Some are rather in Zapotec style, while others may have been produced at Teotitlan or Tehuacan on the Mixtec border, where the priests were especially skilled in calendrical lore; of others again the place of origin may be Chiapas. Of great interest are the tribute-lists, of which the best, known as Codex Mendoza, gives the imperial revenue in the time of Montecuzoma, together with a list of the tributary towns; the glyphs, in Fig. [18], p. 118, are taken from this manuscript. Again, the ownership of land was carefully noted on maps, territory belonging to the king, the nobles, and the calpulli (or clans) being marked in different colours; and plans of towns are also found, that shown in Fig. [13] in all probability representing the palace at Tezcoco. Similar documents were prepared for legal procedure, and at the landing of the Spaniards manuscripts were taken to Montecuzoma on which were carefully noted the portraits of the leaders, together with pictures of ships, horses, dogs and cannon.

Fig. 13.—Plan of the palace at Tezcoco.

(Humboldt MSS., Berlin)

Maps and manuscripts were painted on fine cloth made of aloe- or palm-fibre, paper made from the aloe, or dressed skins, the two former being coated with a kind of size. The colours were applied with a brush, which was moistened with the lips of the artist, and the designs were invariably outlined in black. A considerable variety of colours was employed, red from cochineal or log-wood; two yellows, vegetable and mineral; blue from certain flowers; white from chalk, and black from the soot of the ocotl palm. The mixing of colours was understood, and brilliant greens, purples and browns are found.

It will be readily understood that the service of so many gods and so formidable a list of religious festivals required the services of a large body of carefully trained priests. The office of priest was one which had undergone considerable evolution in Mexico, at least as far as the immigrant tribes were concerned. At first the priest was also the temporal leader; his principal duty was the care of the image of the tribal god, which he carried during the wanderings of the tribe; and since it was the god who directed those wanderings, and the priest was the sole interpreter of his wishes, it came about that the priest was also the director of the tribal policy. But once the tribe became settled, there was a tendency for the priest to become less and less a man of action, and to concentrate his energies on the elaboration of ritual and the study of astronomy. At the same time there was no sharp division between the temporal and religious authority; the king exercised many priestly functions, and the priesthood possessed enormous influence in national affairs. Priests even engaged in war, and there was a special series of insignia worn in fight by those who had distinguished themselves in battle by the capture of one or more prisoners. In Mexico itself at the head of the hierarchy were two chief priests, each of whom bore the title of Quetzalcoatl (since the god of that name was regarded as the prototype of all religious orders), and who were distinguished by the names of Totec Tlamacazqui and Tlaloc Tlamacazqui. The first was the priest of Uitzilopochtli, the second of Tlaloc; they were equal in status, and both were selected from the upper grade of religious officers in virtue of their wisdom, piety and general good character, irrespective of their birth. Subordinate to them was a minister called Mexicatl Teohuatzin, whom Sahagun terms a “patriarch,” and who acted as general overseer of ritual and of the priestly college called Calmecac. He was assisted by two other functionaries, the Uitznauac Teohuatzin and the Tepan Teohuatzin, the latter of whom shared his responsibilities as an educational officer. Beneath these dignitaries were ranked an upper grade of priests, called Tlanamacac, and a lower grade, Tlamacazqui; and finally the novices, Tlamacazton. The priests of the upper grade included a number of functionaries with special titles, who were devoted to the services of particular deities, or to the discharge of definite functions, as was the Ome Tochtzin, or overseer of the religious singers, who provided the latter with wine according to the following peculiar practice. After the singing, the Ome Tochtzin produced 303 canes, one only of which was bored throughout its length; the singers drew one each, and he who was lucky enough to hit upon the pierced cane had the sole privilege of drinking octli on that day. It is impossible to enter into details as regards these priests with special functions, and the interested reader may be referred to the work of Sahagun. The Mexican priesthood exercised very little control over the religious life of the subject cities beyond exacting the tribute necessary for the maintenance of the temples and sacrifices, and insisting on expiatory sacrifices in cases of breach of discipline (as in the case of the Totonac of Cempoala for having received the Spaniards). Subject to this very loose supervision, each city was permitted to exercise its own particular form of worship, and, as has been shown, the Aztec were always ready to adopt the worship of the gods of their neighbours. The ceremonial garb of priests in general consisted of black body-paint, sometimes with designs in ochre, and a black mantle; their hair was never cut, and the lobes of their ears were invariably torn in shreds owing to constant practice of the penitential rite of blood-letting. The black-robed priests with their long locks matted with blood and their torn ears made a great impression upon Bernal Diaz when he first met them in Cempoala. The sacrificial priest constituted an exception in so far as his garment was red, but his five assistants, the Chalmeca, wore black, and were distinguished by a headband ornamented with paper discs.