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Xiuhuitzolli (royal diadem)

15th Aug 2021

Moctezuma wears his distinctive turquoise royal diadem, Codex Mendoza fol. 16 (detail)

It’s been called ‘the symbol of Aztec royal authority par excellence, but it certainly did not originate with the Aztecs and was not limited to Aztec rulers... The adornment is an ancient symbol of rulership dating as far back as Teotihuacan...’ (Patrick Hajovsky). We investigate this iconic Mexica artefact: what does it mean, who could wear it, and what was it made of...? (Written by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

Its name in Nahuatl is xiuhuitzolli. The word is a combination of xiuh, which has multiple meanings (turquoise, grass, comet, year...) and huitzolli, meaning ‘something pointed’ (Hajovsky). More specifically, Justyna Olko (2005: 113) attests that huitzolli relates to huitztli meaning thorn, as in the cactus/agave spines used for self-sacrifice. This is confirmed by Siméon (1991), who - in his authoritative Nahuatl dictionary, originally compiled in 1895 - lists uitzo as an adjective for ‘thorny’.
Whilst the Nahuatl phrase ‘pointed turquoise thing’ doesn’t exactly sound regal, there is no doubt that it was a powerful visual symbol of Mexica nobility and power, epitomised by its adoption by the emperor Moctezuma II and instantly recognisable as the main element in his name glyph (see main picture, above, from the Codex Mendoza). His name glyph also contains a (much smaller) nose plug and ear plug: all three ornaments represent ancient Mesoamerican symbols with broad associations, and even in Aztec times could be taken as a general emblem of royal office. The turquoise diadem itself ‘keys into the idea of nobility in the Valley of Mexico and more directly to the Toltec identity shared among them’ (Hajovsky 2015: 52), an ancestry much prized by the Aztecs. Whilst it was used by the rulers of Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco and Tetzcoco and other provinces in the Triple Alliance Empire, it was never adopted by the enemy lords of Tlaxcala (Olivier & López Luján 2009: 85).

The xiuhuitzolli was also borne as a symbol by several Central Mexican deities, including the fire god Xiuhtecuhtli (pic 2), Tonacatecuhtli, Mictlantecuhtli, Tonatiuh and Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli (note that four of these include the word tecuhtli in their name). In her study of Aztec deities, Molly Bassett cites the eminent Mesoamerican scholar Karl Taube who ‘builds a convincing argument that Xiuhtecuhtli, the fire god who dwelt in the innermost enclosure of the earth, burned brightly as the turquoise that ornamented the ceremonial wares of Aztec tlahtoque (rulers): Xiuhtecuhtli “was explicitly evoked during Aztec rites of imperial coronation. However, in accession ceremonies, it was not only the god but the turquoise that he embodied in particular ornaments, such as the xiuhuitzolli crown and yacaxihuitl nosepiece”, both of which the Aztecs adapted from Toltec devices’ (Bassett 2015: 104).
Some scholars have long argued that ‘the symbolic meaning of xiuhuitzolli links it with the Aztec cult of fire’ (Olko 2005: 128): rulers were associated with the fire god complex, and it is widely suggested that ‘the shape of xiuhuitzolli was actually derived from the fire serpent head’ (ibid), the xiuhcóatl - visible in picture 2, being brandished by Xiuhtecuhtli as a sceptre.

In Nahua histories, the xiuhuitzolli grew steadily in importance: whilst the first three tlahtoanis - Acampachtli, Huitzilhuitl and Chimalpopoca - wear a feather headdress more evocative of the Chichimeca past, from the fourth ruler Itzcóatl (pic 3) onwards each tlahtoani in turn wears a xiuhuitzolli. Not that it was exclusively worn by the emperor: in Tenochtitlan it was also worn by lords, senior military leaders and by warriors who had died in battle (Olivier & López Luján 2009: 85). In her extensive survey of relevant manuscript imagery, Olko (2005) found roughly two thirds of the nearly 800 examples she found were of rulers, followed by individuals exercising power delegated to them, including judges.
Throughout the post-invasion Codex Mendoza the turquoise diadem is found ‘as an ideograph for tecuhtli (noble)’ (Berdan & Anawalt 1992: 187). What’s more, it can also be found in place name glyphs, where an object and/or its attributes are taken to represent an entire community. A good example is that of Tecmilco (‘In the Sown Fields of the Lord’) - a compound of tecuhtli (noble) and milli (cultivated land) (pic 4).

The fact that the xiuhuitzolli was made of turquoise and generally reserved for rulers, whilst other high-ranking nobles wore ‘gold versions of the same form’ (Hajovsky 2015: 106) shows that the use of these two precious elements overlapped to some degree, in a complementary relationship. Gold was associated more with the sun god Tonatiuh, while turquoise was more the domain of Xiuhtecuhtli: both were patron gods of indigenous rulers (Solís Olguin 2009: 70). Interestingly, Spanish chroniclers sometimes ‘mixed and matched’ the two materials: Fray Diego Durán wrote of Moctezuma I being crowned with a ‘golden diadem’, yet the image depicting the coronation shows a turquoise one (Hajovsky 2015: 20). This may have been deliberate: Hajovsky suggests that in some cases gold probably referred to turquoise, with Durán and other chroniclers ‘seeking an analog that would be understood by Spanish audiences’ (ibid, 54).

Picture 3 clearly shows the tesserae of turquoise mosaic in Itzcóatl’s diadem. The pieces had to be stuck onto a backing surface of some kind. Whilst some experts suggest it was a sheet of gold (Solís Olguin 2009: 70; Olivier & López Luján 2009: 80), Hajovsky writes (2015: 49) that ‘turquoise ornaments worn on the body were probably made with a wood or leather backing, and the turquoise tesserae were applied with pine resin.’ This is supported by evidence from the sophisticated analysis of the exceptional turquoise mosaic Mexican objects in the British Museum (McEwan et al 2006: 40). We should note too the presence of the headband or tlalpiloni, tied to the back of the diadem. In manuscripts the headband is shown in red, though this is unproven from sculptural renditions (eg pic 1) as the colours have sadly all been lost.

As a footnote, some scholars have commented on the presence of a xiuhuitzolli in the Aztec Sunstone, though opinions differ as to its meaning. Most recently David Stuart has suggested that it is the royal diadem of Motecuhzuma Xocoyotzin, and gives a strong pointer to the disputed central face of the Sunstone being the famed Mexica emperor. Following the ideas of the great German Mesoamericanist scholar Eduard Seler, writing over a century ago, others claim that it is a symbol of the eastern/male direction and of the spirits of dead warriors - see, for example Graulich (1992: 260). The ‘traditional’ view is that the central face is of either the sun god Tonatiuh or the earth goddess Tlaltecuhtli, and that the diadem glyph, along with the other three strategically placed elements above and below the great central Olin (movement) sign relate to aspects of the four previous world eras or Suns. Intriguing...!

Sources:-
• Bassett, Molly H. (2015) The Fate of Earthly Things - Aztec Gods and God-bodies, University of Texas Press
• Berdan, Frances F. & Anawalt, Patricia Rieff (1992) The Codex Mendoza vol. II (Description, Bibliography, Index), and vol. I (Interpretation), University of California Press, Oxford
• Graulich, Michel (1992) ‘The Stone of the Sun’, pp. 258-262 in Villela, Christian D. & Miller, Mary (2010) The Aztec Calendar Stone, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles
• Hajovsky, Patrick Thomas (2015) On the Lips of Others: Moteuczoma’s Fame in Aztec Monuments and Rituals, University of Texas Press
• McEwan, Colin, Middleton, Andrew, Cartwright, Caroline & Stacey, Rebecca (2006) Turquoise Mosaics from Mexico, British Museum Press
• Olivier, Guilhem & López Luján, Leonardo (2009) ‘Images of Moctezuma and his symbols of power’, pp. 92-123 in McEwan, Colin & López Luján, Leonardo (Eds.) Moctezuma Aztec Ruler, British Museum Press
• Olko, Justyna (2005) Turquoise Diadems and Staffs of Office, Polish Society for Latin American Studies, Warsaw
• Seler, Eduard (1888, 1899, 1901, 1915) ‘Collected Works in Mesoamerican Linguistics and Archaeology, pp. 104-117 in Villela, Christian D. & Miller, Mary (2010) The Aztec Calendar Stone, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles
• Siméon, Rémi (1991) Diccionario de la lengua nahuatl o mexicana, Siglo Veintiuno, Mexico City
• Solís Olguín, Felipe (2009) ‘Funeral casket’, catalogue entry no. 15, p. 70 in McEwan, Colin & López Luján, Leonardo (Eds.) Moctezuma Aztec Ruler, British Museum Press
• Stuart, David (2016) ‘The Face of the Calendar Stone: A New Interpretation’, mayadecipherment.com.

Picture sources:-
• Main & pix 4 & 7: images from the Codex Mendoza scanned from our own copy of the James Cooper Clark facsimile edition, London, Waterlow & Sons, 1938
• Pic 1: photo by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore
• Pic 2: image from the Codex Vaticanus 3738 scanned from our own copy of the ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1979
• Pic 3: Image scanned from our own copy of Primeros Memoriales by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Facsimile Edition, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1993
• Pic 5: images scanned from our own copy of Turquois Mosaic Art in Ancient Mexico by Marshall H. Saville, Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation, New York, 1922
• Pic 6: Sunstone illustration courtesy of Tomás J. Filsinger; diadem drawing by Eduard Seler, scanned from The Aztec Calendar Stone (see above).

Aztec limerick no. 28: Ode to turquoise -
The stunning Mexica royal diadem,
A design masterpiece and attire gem;
Gold with turquoise mosaic
- I know it’s prosaic,
But you simply can’t help but admire them.

Comments (1)

Aiven

15th Aug 2021

Highly informative article on a beautiful item. I was always under the impression that Mexica nobles only wore headdresses like Moctezuma’s famous example in Vienna. But even on the 100 Peso bill the emperor depicted is wearing a diadem instead and my curiosity increased from there. This article helped clear up my confusions and I hope someday a researcher somewhere will discover a genuine example of one!

Aztecs

Maya

Xiuhuitzolli (royal diadem)

Comments (1)

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