The piece consists of a map that illustrates the distribution of certain plots of land in a space delineated by three natural elements: two mountains and a stream of water. It has glyphic pictographic elements and glosses in Nahuatl and Spanish. Both the front and back of the document contain glosses, but the pictograph is only present on the recto.
Considering its formal characteristics, the map is drawn up on a sheet of European paper in which, at first glance, there is no watermark or possible contemporary amendments to its execution. The approximate measurements[TC1] of the 16th century paper folio are 41.5 x 31 cm. By the marks of folds that cross the document in the form of a cross and by the deterioration of the paper in these areas - with loss of small fragments and with darkening perhaps by abrasion - the document can be said to have been stored folded. The annotation in the Nahuatl language that we find on the back, placed face down in the lower left quadrant, indicates that the document was folded and stored in this way just after its creation. In fact, it is very likely that this gloss was written once the document was folded to allow its content to be known without having to unfold it.
This procedure is common in other pictographic documents for legal purposes that accompany records drawn up by the colonial istration and which give an of the process that the painting illustrates and to which it bears witness. For this reason, the size of the document does not exceed that of the folio, the same holder that would for the process. In this case, it is a map drawn up to accompany the request for protection of certain plots of land filed by Don Leonardo Xicohtencatl on his behalf and on behalf of other pipiltin (nobles) to the mayor Alonso de Nava in the year 1580. It bears form and content similarities with maps and plans attached to the applications for land grants in the second half of the 16th century, while the scale of the territory represented is large, that is, it supposes a considerable approach to a particular space; in this case, where a group of Tlaxcala nobles owned patrimonial lands.
We found three different inks in the document, but the comparison of the calligraphies of the glosses indicates that it was probably four hands - or five, taking into the annotation on the back - those involved in its preparation. Most of the pictographic elements were drawn in black ink and in a predominantly [TC2] indigenous style.
The stream of water that runs from the upper right to the lower left of the scene dynamically frames the composition and delineates all the plots represented as quadrangles in both vertical and horizontal arrangements. It would undoubtedly be a question of well-irrigated land and, therefore, fertile. This land arrangement is presented in a similar way in some of the earliest codices in Central Mexico, such as the Vergara Codex and in the land maps inserted in the Cozcatzin Codex. The river reaches the upper edge of the paper, which prevents us from knowing if there was a river confluence beyond it or if both arms represented are part of the same stream. The watercourse was painted with the Pre-Columbian convention of combining thick and thin lines and, every so often, swirls which alternate between circles and squares here. The beginning and the end of the river have different forms: at the foot of the hill it is represented as sprouting water, in the form of a spring, while the other end acquires the form of contained water, trapped between stone blocks probably arranged in a hydraulic engineering work. The other pictographic elements of an indigenous nature consist of figures contained in each of the plots. Two stand out in the composition: a woman and a man in profile, seated on a small stool - as befits the ruler of the Republic of Indians - with a fan in her right hand, cactles on their feet and blankets knotted over their shoulders. The man wears a nose ring, a labret and a feathered headdress and the woman the traditional hairstyle described by Fray Bernardino de Sahagun: "... they wear their hair twisted with a dark cotton thread, and they adorned themselves on the head, and that's how they're worn to this day, making them like horns on the forehead." The rest of the indigenous pictographic elements are all anthroponymic glyphs except one, which seems to be a toponymic glyph –Ueuecalco–. The glosses written in black ink –but not the same as that used in the pictographs– refer to the glyphs drawn in each of the plots. For example, accompanying several arrows, tlacochtli, we read the anthroponym Tlacochtemoc; Xiuhtecatzin is represented by the leaves of a plant in allusion to xihuitl, grass; and above the figure of the lord named Xicotencatl, "Dweller by the jicotera or honeycomb", we find a jicote (wasp).
On the right-hand side of the painting, elements with a sense of landscape and reference were drawn in a European style: two mountains covered with what appears to be grass, one of them with its summit painted in dark green, and trees at their feet and on the upper right bank of the river. Between the two hills a cleft opens, which perhaps can be conceived as a or perhaps ravine. As we observe in other maps of the time, the arrangement of the hills serves to frame the entire composition and "enclose" the landscape on itself, limiting the space for the viewer.
There is no gloss that helps us precisely locate the geographic space represented, but the main character of the land relationship and the annotations that accompany the pictograph allow us to understand the context and offer a possible location. As we have just mentioned, the glosses written in black ink refer to the Nahuatl names of the Lord Xicotencatl and nine other nobles, in whose name he requested the protection. The reverential particle -tzin present in some of them reveals their dignity. A second hand made annotations in brown ink on each plot, providing the Spanish names and, in some cases, the number of fathoms in length that they claimed to have in possession. It is probable that this scribner was a Nahua from the lord's circle, since he was allowed to complete some details in two of the glyphs and to make some additional annotation in the same ink. At the bottom, the royal clerk Toribio de Mediavilla noted the reason for the document's elaboration and set his signature together with that of the mayor, Alonso de Nava. And finally, on the reverse, another Nahua contributed, alluding to the city of Tlaxcala. The glosses in their ensemble indicate to us that the document was subjected to the procedure known as authentication, through which the authorities verified the correspondence of what was represented on the map and allowed the annotation of some other relevant data for the process.
Don Leonardo Xicotencatl was the lord of the altepetl of Tizatlan, one of the four manors that made up the republic of Tlaxcala. According to the chronicler Diego Muñoz Camargo, he inherited the dominion by transversal, not direct, route, although he was a descendant of Axayacatzin Xicotencatl, who allied himself with Cortes in the taking of Tenochtitlan. He was the grandson of Itzehecatzin Xicotencatl, who died in combat near present-day Culiacan (Sinaloa), as a member of the Nuño de Guzman armies in the conquest of Nuevo Galicia. Their objective with this request for protection was to consolidate their rights and those of the rest of the Pillali of Tizatlan over the lands that they considered patrimonial.
It is probable, then, that the plots were located at the foot of the mountain range that frames the town of San Esteban Tizatlan to the north. The geographical report sent by Mayor Alonso de Nava to King Felipe II, precisely on the same dates, highlights that Tizatlan included an elevated area and a small valley with meadows on the banks of the Zahuapan River If this is true, the upper part of the map would face west. Another interpretation, motivated by the green color that illuminates one of the mountains, leads us to look towards the slopes of the La Malinche volcano, located about 17 km southeast of Tizatlan. The Nahuatl name by which this mountain is known is Matlalcueye, "Owner of the Green Skirt", Tlaxcala goddess of living water. It was believed that the waters of the rivers arose from her skirt, and this is also observed in the image. So the top of the map would indicate the north-northeast.
Two other elements of the cultural landscape stand out. The only glossed place name, Ueuecalco (Huehuecalco), means "In the place of the old or ancient house," and its glyph represents a construction made of ashlars, with sloping walls and an architrave ceiling. It may refer to a relevant place already abandoned, but a landmark still recognized and perhaps honored in 16th century Tizatlan. The rattlesnake-shaped glyph is accompanied by the Coatepantli gloss, "Close to snakes". This term alludes to the ornamental architectural motif with representations of snakes that surrounded sacred buildings, but in Tlaxcala it also referred to the limits of the altepetl and was the name given to a small hill. Perhaps the plot of the Xiutecatzin pilli was located in the city limits or at the foot of said hill.
We do not know if Don Leonardo Xicotencatl was granted protection in 1580, but we do know that a decade later he led a strong opposition, due to the great loss of tributaries that it would entail, to the sending of 400 families to populate the north after the pacification of the Chichimecas. This refusal earned him exile from the city of Tlaxcala and for ten leagues around, which did not prevent him from occupying the post of Indian governor in Tlacopan (Tacuba) the following year.
Transcription
From left to right and from top to bottom: Uyaquentzi - Francisco Teutlegua / Hecatl - Sebastian de la Cruz. Çe Hecatl / Quahtliztactzin - Benito Yastle / Çouateotzin - Juan Martín and his wife eighty fathoms / Tlacochtemoc - Juan Martín and his wife María eighty fathoms / Xicotencatl - Don Leonardo Xicotencatl eighty fathoms. Cohatepantli / Tepalcatl - Izabel Xaxaltoma / Ueuecalco / Somaltzintli / Tlimalcuahtzin / Xiuhtecatzin - Alonso (?) Xiutecatzin. Coatepantli
Below: On October twenty-first of the year one thousand and five hundred and eighty years, for this document, Don Leonardo Xicotencatl made a report to Don Alonso de Nava, Mayor of the lands above contained and [broken] order of protection for himself and for others and was give them in due form. [Two signatures] Alonso de Nava; Toribio de Mediavilla, clerk of his Majesty.
Reverse: In the City of Tlaxcala matlactli omome month of October one thousand five hundred eighty yxpan mag. si. don Mateo de Bario y nican city and province of Tlaxcala by his Majesty yua nixpan Diego de Soto governor of Tlaxcala nezquimiya man çonatzitli ytoca [ilegible].
