Article suitable for older students

7th London Nahuatl Study Day

18th Mar 2024

7th London Nahuatl Study Day brochure

Two of the Mexicolore teaching team were delighted to attend the 7th London Nahuatl Study Day and Workshop, expertly organised once again by Dr. Elizabeth Baquedano, Honorary Associate Professor, Institute of Archaeology, University College London, on March 15-16 2024 at the Institute. The keynote lecture was given by Dr. Patrick Johansson, Institute of Historical Research, UNAM, Mexico. Both academics are distinguished members of our Panel of Experts. (Compiled by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

The keynote lecture title was ‘The Foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan - History and Myth’. Dr. Johansson took us through the established narrative of the founding of Tenochtitlan, which tells that ‘a foundational year was fixed: 1-tecpatl, “1-Flint”, 1324, according to most of the sources, seven hundred years ago. The destiny of the Mexica would be atl tlachinolli “water and fire”, that is to say “war”’. Yet his analysis reveals the existence of TWO key different foundational dates, the second being 1364 - the year in which the Templo Mayor was first built by the Aztecs. New layers were subsequently constructed, each representing a place in the migration journey. These included Tzompantitlan, Coaxalpan, Apetlac, Tlatlacapan and Tlacazouhcan. The Templo Mayor, in this context, represented an ‘architecture of words’ rising up from the earth.

A fascinating segment of the foundation story revolves around the importance of the mexco or ‘eye of water’ (shown at the foot of the image in picture 2). This feature of the landscape, a waterhole inhabited by axolotls, represents in Nahua mythology the eye of the Mexica earth goddess Tlaltecuhtli, just as the trees, plants and flowers represent her hair, the rivers and caves her mouth, the valleys and mountains her nose. The moon, metztli, is reflected in her eyes (ixtli). Crucially, Dr. Johansson suggests that the word mexco corresponds to the probable pronunciation of ‘Mexico’ in pre-invasion times - indeed the name of the country is pronounced ‘mexco’ in many Indigenous communities today. This is an alternative interpretation of the original meaning of ‘Mexico’, often taken to be the ‘navel of the moon’. Moon, yes, navel - probably not...

Indeed, the moon plays a key cosmological role in the migration of the Mexica from Aztlan, according to Dr. Johansson: its importance is symbolised by the number cipher seven, which features several times in the journey from Aztlan, as depicted in two Mexican codices, the Boturini and the Aubin (both early colonial). Huitzilopochtli’s people experience what he terms a ‘religious change’ from a previous ‘selenic nomad cult’ (focused on the moon) to a ‘sedentary solar destiny’. Crucially, the sun is represented by the eagle as it descends to earth, and it is the sun, metaphorically, that the Mexica are destined to carry with them in their search for a new place to settle.
In her Introduction to Mesoamerican Codices, Dr. Baquedano illustrated some of the key parallels between the Boturini and the Aubin. Both provide us with hugely important timelines - Boturini from 1168 to 1364, Aubin from 1168 to 1604.

Time itself was depicted iconographically by Nahua scribes by the colour turquoise. Perhaps the best visual example of this is the timeline presented in the Codex Mendoza, in which each successive year is shown in a turquoise-coloured cartouche. Turquoise and jade - both highly valued precious stones - were almost interchangeable in linguistic terms: the Aztecs called green and blue xoxouhqui and the Maya yax (one imagines this reflects the iridescence of the sacred quetzal bird). Dr. Baquedano gave us a powerful example of this in the context of the most important festival in the Mexica calendar - the New Fire Ceremony, held once every 52 years (see picture 4). Each of four high priests thrusts a bundle of (thirteen) reeds (4x13=52) into a huge fire atop a blue temple-pyramid, and each holds a dog painted blue, symbolic of the ‘funeral of time’ as one 52-year sacred cycle gives way to another (dogs were ritually sacrificed with their owners to accompany them to the afterlife...)

The Study Day centred on teaching Nahuatl, and we were treated to a wealth of material prepared by Dr. Johansson, exploring tlahtolli (word/text) through simple conversational phrases, grammar, iconography and translations (picture 5). A good time was had by all, and we owe Drs. Baquedano and Johansson a sincere tlazohcamati for sharing their wisdom and expertise with us. On display, incidentally, were just some of Patrick Johansson’s books, all highly recommended (picture 6). He is not only an eminent scholar but also a master of several languages and has written books for children as well as adults. Just last year we presented The Hall Junior School in London with a copy of his wonderful trilingual book Rootless Flower – as a thank-you from Mexicolore for inviting us 25 times (going back to 1992) to their school to run history workshops on the Aztecs...

Picture sources:-
• Photos by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore
• Pic 2: image courtesy of and © The Trustees of the British Museum
• Pic 4: image scanned from the Codex Borbonicus (ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1974).