Mixtec lintel with rain gods and their possible ritual officials

This scene possibly marks a rite asking for rain carried out on the 5th Earthquake day (Qh Qhi) of the 9th Rabbit year (Que Sayu) whose position in the Christian calendar is uncertain, although it must have been a year of great drought; hence the necessity of the rite. Four priests make offerings of children to the god of rain Dzahui, who appears floating on top of the scene, carrying pots that are pouring water, but split in its four com point manifestations.

Each of the four children offered carry the calendar name of the day on which they were born. Two are named 13th Serpent (Si Yucoco) and they have snake heads, while the other two are named 10th Jaguar (Xi Uidzo) and have feline faces. This suggests that, among the ancient Mixtec, victims of certain sacrifices were chosen by the gods according to their birth dates, but it also shows that residing in the head of each person was the heat force or destiny indicated by the day of their birth.

Although, from the stylistically and calligraphic view, this stone lintel is contributed to the Mixtec cultural tradition, the bar and dot numerals suggest that it belongs to a time or place where the arithmetic notation system of the ancients ñuiñés still persisted, the oldest low Mixteca culture, whose peak took place in the so-called late Urban stage (500-800 A.D.). In contrast to the above, the Mixtec that we know through the codices and other documents (1200-1600 A.D.) did not used bars, but only numerals in the form of points. Two different systems of graphic communication coexist in the scene, although complementary: hieroglyphic writing (specialized in writing dates and names in some form of ancient Mixtec language) and iconography or narrative pictograph (conceptual elements lacking any relationship with verbal language).