Ancient Scripts - Aztec

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Aztec
Quick Facts
Type Logophonetic
Genealogy Mesoamerican
Location Americas > Mesoamerica
Time 1400 CE to 1600 CE
Direction Variable
The Aztecs, or Mexica as they called themselves, were the elite of a militaristic empire centered at Central
Mexico when the Spanish conquistadores landed in America at the beginning of the 16th century CE. The
Aztecs originated in the semiarid environments of northern Mexico as one of the many barbarian or
"Chichimec" tribes. When they arrived at the fertile Valley of Mexico at 14th century CE, they found the
land already settled and divided by city states. They built their city, Tenochtitlan, in the marshes of Lake
Texcoco, and quickly adopted much of the culture of their new neighbors. As a result, the Aztecs adopted
a writing system that had been used for many centuries before and shared by many of the other nations of
Central Mexico.
The language that the Aztec spoke was called Nahuatl. It was also the language of the majority of the
people in Central Mexico and a lingua franca in large parts of Mesoamerica. The origin of Nahuatl writing is
poorly understood. It most resembles Mixtec writing in that both use dots for numbers less than twenty (in
contrast to the baranddot notation used in Maya and Zapotec), share similar construction style of
compound signs, and place emphasis on short texts that rely on painted scenes for narratives instead of
longer texts. It is thought that Mixtec writing influenced Nahuatl writing, but both are possibly influenced by
earlier writing systems of cities such as Xochicalco, Cacaxtla, and the even more ancient Teotihuacan.
Nahuatl writing was primary written on perishable media such as deerskin and paper codices. Due to
ravages of time and purposeful destruction of books by both the Aztecs and the Spanish conquistadores,
no preColumbian book has survived to the modern age. All surviving documents containing Nahuatl writing
were composed after the Conquest and contained a mixture of Aztec glyphs and Spanish notes. There are
a few codices made before the Conquest from the Puebla region in a somewhat different style known as
the "international" MixtecaPuebla, style, but their exact relationship to either Aztec or Mixtec writing is still
somewhat obscure.
General Overview
Nahuatl writing had three primary functions, namely to mark calendrical dates, to record accounting
mathematical calculations, and to write names of people and places. No continuous texts like those of the
Maya, EpiOlmec, or even Zapotec writing system has been be found. As noted earlier, pictorial
representation of events are used in lieu of long texts to record history.
Like other Mesoamerican scripts, the core of Nahuatl writing consists of a set of calendrical signs and a
vigesimal number system. The most important calendrical cycle observed by the Aztecs was the 260day
sacred calendar, called tonalpohualli in Nahuatl. The tonalpohualli is essentially two parallel and interlocking
cycles, one of 20 days (represented by "day signs"), and one of 13 days (represented by numbers called
"coefficients"). The following are the 20 day signs in the Aztec sacred calendar. The Nahuatl names are in
red, and their meanings in English are in blue.
Writing Systems Phonetics Historical Linguistics Interactive Resources Social About

A date in the tonalpohualli is composed of a day sign and and a coefficient. So, for example, the first day in
the 260day cycle would be 1 Cipactli. As both the day sign and the coefficient moves forward, the next
day would be 2 Ehecatl. This goes on until 13 Acatl is reached, at which point the coefficient cycle loops
back to 1, and hence the next day would be 1 Ocelotl. Similarly, upon reaching the last day sign on day 7
Xochitl, the day sign cycle goes back to the first sign, and the next day would be 8 Cipactl.
The Aztecs had a 365day solar calendar called xiuhpohualli, which consisted of 18 months of 20 days, and
an unlucky 5day period at the end of the year. However, they rarely recorded dates in the solar calendar on
manuscripts, and never on monuments.
In addition, like other Mesoamerican cultures, the Aztecs also employed the Calendar Round, a 52year
period created by interlocking the 260day and 365day cycles. A year in the Calendar Round was named
by the tonalpohualli name of last day of the last month in the xiuhpohualli for that year. Because of the way
the math worked out, only four day signs, namely Calli, Tochtli, Acatl, and Tecpatl, could be part of a year's
name, and hence they were called "year bearers". Accompanying the year bearers were coefficients, which
could range from 1 to 13. To distinguish Calendar Round years from days in the 260day calendar, years
glyphs were drawn inside rectangular "cartouches". A good example occurs in the Codex Telleriano
Remensis, a document written after the Spanish Conquest but at a time when knowledge of the pre
Columbian culture was still available. In this document, Aztec years are correlated to Western Gregorian
years.
As you have probably gathered by now, Aztec numbers are represented by long sequences of dots. In
general, the Aztecs almost exclusively used dots on manuscripts as well as on stone monuments, but the
more ancient baranddot system does make rare appearances on carved monuments as well, primarily due
to artistic consideration. The dot system, while feasible for calendrical use (since no number will ever
exceed 20), was impossible when dealing with accounting, especially since the Aztec Empire had to record
large amounts of tribute frequently demanded from its provinces. The Codex Mendoza, another post
Conquest manuscript, depicted life in Central Mexico around the time of conquest and also contained a
section on the tribute exacted by the Empire. To count items in excess of 20 efficiently, the Aztecs used
glyphs for the numbers 20 (a flag), 400 (a feather), and 8000 (a bag of incense).
For example, the number 500 would be a feather and five flags (400 + 5 x 20 = 500). To indicate that the
multiple glyphs forming a number belong to a single sign group, a line is drawn to connect all the glyphs.
The line is then connected to the object it is counting.
The previous examples are taken from the Codex Mendoza, and they provide both the Aztec and Spanish
versions of the information they are conveying. On the left, you can see the a bundle topped by a series of
five flags, which is the number 100 (5 x 20), and is reflected by the Spanish caption "ient cargas de
cacao", meaning "100 loads of cacao beans". In the middle, the Aztec representation is that of four flags
and a bird, which is mirroed in the Spanish caption "ochenta pieles de pajaros deste color", or "80 pelts of
birds of this color". And finally, on the right, the caption "cccc manojo de plumas coloradas" meant "400
bundles of red feathers" and is shown in Aztec as a schematic, black feather (400) with a bundle of red
feathers.
Logograms
In addition to calendrical and numeric signs, a number of highly pictorial logograms were used to write down
personal names, names of places, and historical events. For example, there are many records of the Aztec
army conquering other cities documented in the Codex Mendoza. To show that a city has been conquered,
the city's name is written next to the "conquered" glyph which is a temple (pyramid) in smoke and flames
with its top toppling over. In the following example, the ancient cities Colhuacan and Tenayucan were
shown to be conquered. And to drive the point home, Aztec warriors are shown with captives taken from
these conquered cities.
The Nahuatl language is polysynthetic, which means that compound words and long phrases are
constructed from roots and affixes. Reflecting this characteristic, Aztec names are often written as groups
of highly pictorial logograms that make up the roots of the name. The glyphs are joined together or even
sometimes combined into a single glyph (a process called conflation) to show that they form a compound
word. The following are a number of examples of logograms forming glyph blocks. Note that logograms are
transcribed using bold upper case letters in their root forms, meaning the unchanging part of the word. Also
note that Nahuatl nouns are transcribed in italicized lower case letters in the absolutive case, which is the
root plus an ending of either tl, tli, or li. While too longer to explain here, the absolutive case in Nahuatl
can be thought as the singular subject of a sentence.
Chilapan means "Above the River of Chiles" and graphically is composed of two
glyphs. The red (presumably hot) chile pepper glyph is the logogram CHIL, which
represents the Nahuatl root chilli ("chile"). The other glyph is a stylized cross
section of a river which is the logogram for APAN, standing for the Nahuatl root
apan ("river").
Macuilxochic is composed of the roots macuilli ("five", represented by five
dots), xochitl ("flower", represented by the logogram XOCHI), and the suffix c
("place") which is omitted. Note that in general, suffixes that meaning "place of",
or "near" such as c, co, and can are usually omitted from writing, likely
considered implicit by Aztec scribes. Macuilxochic therefore means "Place of
Five Flowers", or in other words, a place dedicated to the god Macuilxochitl or
"Five Flowers" who is also known as Xochipilli, the patron of arts in the Aztec
pantheon.
Ocelotepec contains a glyph in the form of a wildcat head that stands for the
logogram OSELO (ocelotl, "ocelot") and the hill glyph TEPE (tepetl, "hill").
Once again the grammatical ending c is omitted. Together the glyphs means
"Place of Ocelot Hill".
Xochimilco means the the "Place of Flower Fields", from XOCHI (xochitl,
"flower"), MIL (milli, "sown field"), and omitted suffix co ("place"). Nowadays
this is a historical region of Mexico City that still preserves the canal and man
made islands of the lake that once covered modern Mexico City.
Ilhuicamina, from ILWIKA (ilhuicatl, "sky") and MI (mina, "lance", "arrow"),
meaning "He Who Shoots an Arrow into the Sky", is the name of the fifth Aztec
emperor (also known as Moctezuma I). Note that the logogram ILWIKA "sky" is
represented by the band containing stars (the white dots) and the symbol for
Venus.
Chimalpopoca is composed of two logograms, CHIMAL (chimalli, "shield") and
POPOKA (popocac, "smoking"), which together means "Smoking Shield" and is
the name of the third Mexica emperor.
Atemoztli contains A (atl, "water") plus conjugated form of the verb temoa
("fall", "descent") to yield "Descent of the Waters", is the name of the 16th Aztec
"month" of twenty days. Note that the temple in this case is part of the logogram
TEMO.
Ehecatlapechco means "Place of the Altar of Ehecatl" and is composed of the
logograms E'EKA (ehecatl, "wind", represented by bearded mask) and
TLAPECH (tlapechtli, "altar"), and omitted suffix co.
Rebus Writing
While a lot of Nahuatl names can be represented by joining logograms together for their meaning,
sometimes it is difficult to visually depict a concept graphically. To solve this, in certain cases a logogram
is used for its phonetic value rather than its meaning in order to represent another root, suffix, or syllable(s)
that sounds identical or similar to the logogram. This process is called rebus writing and is also quite
productive in Aztec writing, as you can see in the following examples.
Coatzinco means "Place of Little Snake", and contains the logograms KOA
(coatl, "snake") and TZIN (tzintli, "buttocks", represented by the lower half of
the body). The buttocks, tzintli, is used in this case as its root form tzin
happens to be homophonous with the diminutive suffix tzin which roughly means
"little". The suffix co ("place of") is omitted.
Oztoticpac is composed of root ostotl ("cave") and suffixes icpa ("above") and
c ("place of"), and means "Place Above the Cave". The glyph for cave OSTO is
the head of a reptilian earth monster, as Mesoamericans viewed caves as living
beings. And in order to write the suffix icpa, the sign IKPA (icpatl, "yarn") is
used for its phonetic value. Also, its position on top of the cave reinforces the
concept of "above".
Cuauhnahuac means "Place Near the Trees" and consists of cuauhtli means
"trees" and endings nahua ("near to") and c. The logogram KWAW in the form
of a stylized treebranch tree represents the root cuah. To represent nahua,
Aztec scribes used the sign group NAWA containing a mouth and a speech
scroll to represent the verb nahua "to speak clearly" (whose noun form is
"Nahuatl", the name of the language of the Aztecs). In the present day this city
is known as Cuernavaca, a form resulting from the Spanish mishearing
Cuauhnahuac and transforming into a word with Spanish meaning.
Calixtlahuaca is composed of the words calli ("house") and ixtlahuaca ("plain").
The glyph KAL in the form of a house transparently represents the root cal. What
is interesting is that the lower element, the brown rectangle with vertical notches,
would be read as the logogram MIL (milli, "sown field", as in Xochimilco above)
except for the two round objects inside which are in fact eyes. The root for "eye"
in Nahuatl is ix, which means that the eyes serves as a kind of phonetic
complement or indicator to tell the reader that the brown rectangle glyph is the
lgoogram IXTLAWAKA instead.
Phonetic Glyphs
Rebus writing is one of the ways to represent sounds rather than meanings in Nahuatl writing. In addition, a
number of Nahuatl logograms can also function as singlesyllable phonetic signs. And in fact, like rebus
writing, their phonetic values are derived from the words the logograms represent. However, unlike rebus
writing which uses the full sound of the root, phonetic glyphs are always singlesyllable and take their value
from the first syllable (minus any ending consonants) of the word the logograms represent. This is called
the acrophonic principle and is found throughout writing systems of the world.
The following is a chart of Nahuatl glyphs with known phonetic values.
For example, the glyph a is derived from atl "water", tla is a set of teeth and based on the word tlantli
"tooth", and ko which is from comitl "pot". Note that while logograms are transcribed using uppercase
"tooth", and ko which is from comitl "pot". Note that while logograms are transcribed using uppercase
letters, phonetic signs are transcribed with lowercase letters.
Often names found in Aztec manuscripts and monuments included a good amount of phonetic glyphs.
Sometimes the phonetic glyphs serve to complement logograms, in that they spell out one or more
syllables of the logogram. Sometimes the glyphs spell out whole syllables without the presence of
logograms. And somewhat more rarely, the entire name is written out fully phonetically.
Mapachtepec is composed of the Nahuatl roots mapachtli ("raccoon") and tepe
tl ("hill") plus the ending c ("place"), which together means "Place of Raccoon
Hill". Instead of drawing a raccoon, the root mapach is written fully phonetically
by a combination of the phonetic glyph ma and the logogram PACH "moss" used
as a rebus.
Xocoyoltepec means "Place of Wood Sorrel Hill", from xocoyolli ("wood sorrel"),
tepetl and ending c. The wood sorrel or oxalis is xocoyolli in Nahuatl and is
denoted by the logogram XOKOYOL in the form of a threeleaf plant glyph. The
foot under the plant is the phonetic glyph xo, functioning as a phonetic
complement to make it clear that the plant depicted is indeed the wood sorrel.
Amacoztitlan, from amatl ("paper"), costli ("yellow"), and tlan ("place"),
meaning "Place of Yellow Papers". The water glyph is the phonetic sign a in this
case, providing the initial vowel /a/ and serving as the phonetic complement for
the logogram AMA "paper". Costli "yellow" is expressed as the yellow coloring of
the AMA logogram. The ending tlan is phonetically depicted by the glyph tla.
Tozoztontli is the third month of twenty days in the Aztec solar calendar. It
means "Little Vigil" and is a derivation of the verb tosoa ("to hold vigil").
However, the root is in fact toso, which is why the word is represented by a bird
(phonetic glyph to) pierced by a spine (phonetic so).
Piaztlan means "Place of Acocote", composed of the root piaztli ("acocote", a
long dried gourd used to extract maguey nectar), and ending tlan. The root piaz
is almost fully spelled out completely using the phonetic glyphs pi and a. The
ending tlan is omitted in this case.
Cihuatlan simply means "Place of Woman". The head of the woman functions
as the logogram SIWA (cihuatl, "woman"). The two black vertical stripes is the
phonetic sign wa and serves as phonetic complement to show that the female
head should be read as cihua rather than the similarlooking female logogram
NAN "mother". The ending tlan is once again omitted.
Ilancueitl was the wife of the first Aztec emperor Amacapichtli. Her name means
"Old Woman Skirt" and is composed of the roots ilamatl ("old woman") and cue
itl ("skirt"), which is represented by the rectangular skirt logogram KWE. The first
root ilamatl changes to ilan in this situation and appears to be only represented
by the phonetic glyph la above the skirt. However, the mask inside the skirt
might be a logogram for ilamatl, which means that the phonetic glyph la would
serve as a phonetic complement.
Tizoc is the name of seventh Aztec emperor as recorded in colonial
manuscripts, although the exact form and meaning of his name is unknown. In
fact, there are several ways to write his name that compound the confusion. In
the current example, it is written phonetically as teso, or Tesoc, which might be
a derivative of the verb eso "to bleed" and supports one interpretation of his
name as "He Who Bleeds People", a properly martial monicker. On the other
hand, on the famous Tizoc Stone which commemorates his military conquests,
his name is drawn as a leg with dots. The dots typically represent chalk, tisatl,
and the leg might be the phonetic glyph xo, which would support the reading of
Tisoc. However, whether his name has anything to do with chalk is unknown.
Interestingly, one of the differences between Eastern and Western Nahuatl
dialects is the alternation of the sounds /e/ and /i/, meaning that one word in
Eastern Nahuatl with the sound /e/ has a corresponding word in Western Nahuatl
with /i/. It is likely that his name was written Tesoc in the older, more prestigious
Eastern dialect but spelled as Tisoc in the Western dialect which was the dialect
of the Aztecs.
One might find that from the previous examples the Aztec writing system is complicated and not
straightforward to modern eyes. Glyphs can be polyvalent, functioning as both logograms and phonetic
signs, and are not always read in a linear fashion but could jump from one end to another. However, Aztecs
and their neighbors produced countless numbers of manuscripts with subject matters as diverse as time
keeping, astrology, mythology, genealogy, and history. While these manuscripts were highly pictorial,
intimate knowledge of the underlying language, Nahuatl, was absolutely essential to fully interpret the
glyphs. In this regard, the Aztec glyphs truly constituted an active and productive writing system.
Related Links
GB Online"s Ancient Mesoamerican Writing.info about manuscripts
Nombres Geogrficos de Mxico.
Aztec Calendar.tells you today"s "date" in the Aztec calendar
Mexica/Aztec Calendar Systems.about how the solar and the sacred calendar work
Prehispanic Calendars.
Nahuatl Culture.with section on Aztec writing
Codex Mendoza.
Images from Codex Mendoza.
Aztecs on History.com.
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ROBERTL QUETZALCOATL 2 years ago
MEXICAN PRIDE IS INDIAN PRIDE
INDIOS Y MESTIZOS
8

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Ocelot lant li N. A. Tezcat lipoca a year ago > ROBERTL QUETZALCOATL
You made me sad by posting this, do not call yourself an Indian, indians
are from india. Mestizo is a racist term, so you shouldn't use it. Mexica
pride, is native pride. We were here first. Spanish is a language for a dead
age.
6

Reply
Zoe Saadia a year ago > Ocelotlantli N.A. Tezcatlipoca
I cannot agree more! Well said! Thank you :)
4

Reply
ROBERTL QUETZALCOATL
a year ago
> Ocelotlantli N.A. Tezcatlipoca
YOUR BRAINWASHED BY THE CRIOLLOS.
EVERYBODY KNOWS INDIANS ARE FROM
INDIA BUT THE NAME TODAY ALSO MEANS
NATIVE AMERICANS. MEXICANS ARE ASHAMED
OF THEIR OWN RACIAL HERITAGE SO WERE
TOLD TO REJECT THE NAME INDIAN. THERE
ARE MANY PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE THAT
MEXICO HAS TO BE A WHITE COUNTRY TO
BE GREAT. WELL THEN ASK YOURSELF WHY
MEXICO IS SUCH A FUCKED UP COUNTRY
WHEN IT'S ALWAYS BEEN RUN BY WHITE
PEOPLE. I'M NOT INDIAN I HAVE VERY LITTLE
INDIAN BLOOD BUT I"M MORE THAN PROUD TO
BE MEXICAN I LOVE OUR INDIAN BLOOD. THE
MEXICA WERE FROM MEXICO CITY OUR BLOOD
IS FROM ALL THE INDIANS OF MEXICO. DO YOU
KNOW ANYBODY MORE IGNORANT THAN PEOPLE
WHO ARE ASHAMED OF THEIR OWN RACIAL
HERITAGE? WHY ARE CHICANOS PROUD TO BE
INDIAN WHILE THOSE FROM MEXICO ARE ASHAMED
OF BEING INDIAN? WERE TOLD TO REJECT THE TERM
INDIAN NOT BECAUSE IT'S FROM INDIA BUT BECAUSE
IT ACKNOWLEDGES THE FACT THAT MEXICANS ARE
NOT WHITE. I'M SO GLAD I WASN'T BORN IN MEXICO
BECAUSE I WOULD RESPECT WHITE PEOPLE AT THE
SAME TIME I LOOKED DOWN ON INDIANS.
1

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Ocelot lant li N. A. Tezcat lipoca
a year ago
> ROBERTL
QUETZALCOATL
You are right, except to accept the word indian, it's a white
mans term and we should not use it Nocniutl. If we are to be
a band, a tribe then we must stop using it. I do not discredit
you, except in that word. We are natives, use that, it's
thousands of times better. Let the european filth know us for
what we are, ininke nikantlaka. These people from here. If
you are to call your self anything, call yourself native, I beg of
you, do not give the white man a thing to look down on you
with. Natives stand tall, indians accept the res as well as
their names. Am I getting through? I don't disagree with you
brother, I just feel your wording is misguided.
3

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Gana a year ago > Ocelotlantli N.A. Tezcatlipoca
hello, i am native Algerian, native berber speaking language,
which an old native language and not official.the official
language is arabic.what hurts is that a lot of people call us
arabic people which is wrong.berber or exactly amazigh
language which is the language of zinedine zidane mother
tongue is the first one in nkrth africa long time before the
arraival of arabes invasion to spread islam.
we are proud to be natif amazigh for ever
tanmirt nwen merra
Gana
1

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Ocelot lant li N. A. Tezcat lipoca 7 months ago > Gana
I hope your people one day gain prominence, I disapprove
of colonial stifling of native language. Please don't take
offence to my asking this, but what religion do you follow?

Reply
Sara 4 months ago > Ocelotlantli N.A. Tezcatlipoca
Using "native" is not accurate because various people can
be natives. Native means being born relative to a place. If
you say you're just native, people are going to ask, "but
native to what?"

ROBERTL QUETZALCOATL
a year ago
> Ocelotlantli N.A.
Tezcatlipoca
WHILE I DISAGREE WITH YOU I'M GLAD
YOUR FOR OUR TRUE MEXICAN HERITAGE.
I DON'T SPEAK GACHUPIN BUT IT WOULD BE
NICE IF YOU COULD SOME HOW START A
MOVEMENT WHERE MEXICO'S TRUE MEXICANS
WOULD FIGHT (NOT PHYSICAL) TO RETURN TO
A POSITION OF POWER. THEY SHOULD BE
ENCOURAGED TO BEAR MANY CHILDREN AND
THEIR CHILDREN TO HAVE MANY CHILDREN.
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MEXICANS SHOULD BOYCOTT ALL MOVIES
THAT SHOW CRIOLLOS. THIS MAY SOUND
SILLY BUT IT'S ONLY SILLY IF PEOPLE FAIL
TO ACT. THEIRS MORE TRUE MEXICANS THAN
CRIOLLOS BUT THE CRIOLLO RULES.

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I leader33 3 years ago
poop is also represented as an aztec symbol i just dont know withc one
9

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Trucker36 3 years ago
Helpful
4

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Pet er S Lopez 3 years ago
"Nahuatl writing was primary written on perishable media such as deer-skin and
paper codices. Due to ravages of time and purposeful destruction of books by
both the Aztecs and the Spanish conquistadores, no pre-Columbian book has
survived to the modern age."
~Too bad, so sad. I imagine some tales passed down by elders remain.
@Peta_de_Aztlan
2

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ancient script s 3 years ago Mod > Peter S Lopez
Many tales were written from these elders' oral stories right after the
conquest. There is a sizable corpus of pre-Columbian Nahuatl literature
preserved in alphabetic form, but obviously much more were lost. I'd love
to see what was in the library of Texcoco, supposedly the greatest
repository of books in the Aztec Empire.
4

Reply
Michael a year ago > ancientscripts
I will to really like to learn more of understanding how to read their
true meanings. I'm a custom engraver and alot of my customers
want some Aztec designs therefore before I engrave something that
I don't have the knowledge.

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SilvrSurfr77 3 years ago
it was helpful. thanx.
2

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Hannayusufiscool 3 years ago
this was helpful,
2

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Shaelynnfedoski 3 years ago
I HATE READING!!!!!
3

i like t rains 2 years ago > Shaelynnfedoski
and i hate you!
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and i hate you!
12

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I mnot t elling 2 years ago > Shaelynnfedoski
then go back to preschool
4

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dudet t e 3 years ago > Shaelynnfedoski
yeah I do to
4

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Poop 3 years ago > dudette
same
1

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gonzalit os 25 days ago
I am not a nahuatl expert but maybe Cuaunahuac (which is the modern mexican
city of Cuernavaca) would be more properly translated as Place Surrounded by
Trees, because you indicate in this page that nahua means near, but please check
other nahuatl names like Anahuac, which means Place Surrounded by Water, and
also nahua is related to the four directions of the universe (naui=4), the four cosmic
directions that surround everything. Also when you visit Cuernavaca today, there
are huge wonderful forests in the faraway western outskirts of the now almost
deforested city, so in prehispanic times Cuaunahuac was probably in the midst of
forests, thus surrounded by them.
-- In relation to Tizocs symbol of a foot or leg with dots , probably the dots are
skin scratches that bleed more than chalk marks. This would make sense and
would be an apropriate graphic symbol for a ruler that does bloodletting penance.
1

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Anit aRai1 a year ago
I am fascinated by the way that Mexico and Mexican languages have such an
unbroken and connected history in so many ways, much more than most other
societies of the New World. The Pre-Columbian, colonial, and modern period are
so much more interconnected in Mexico than elsewhere. Your website helps with
that integration, which more people of the world should learn from.
1

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screaming snail 2 years ago
quite informative
\
1

Red_Tet zcat lipoca 2 years ago
Okay, the problem that I'm having is that while all of these are obviously
logophonetic/logosyllabic, they are also all nominatives. Now I realize that since
Nahuatl is a polysynthetic language that the distinction between nominal and
verbal nuclei is not as firm as in analytic languages, I am forced to wonder about
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verbal nuclei is not as firm as in analytic languages, I am forced to wonder about
whether or not their system can be considered a fully fledged writing system if it
lacks representations of actions and abstractions.
1

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Toki 2 years ago
I was trying to find the meaning of a horizontal bar with a small circle either side in
the center of the bar. Any ideas?
1

Reply
ancient script s 2 years ago Mod > Toki
There is a few Maya glyphs that generally fit this description, but I can't
recall an Aztec glyph like this. Typically bar and circles are numbers, but
they're usually stack on top of each other or side by side, not combined
like that.

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ot il 2 years ago
does anyone know the aztec symbol for harmony, or theyre symbol for butterfly
effect, indras web, interconnectedness, etc

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ancient script s 2 years ago Mod > otil
Sorry, I don't know of how these concepts were expressed in Aztec
glyphs.

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Guest 2 years ago
any information on what the symbol for "star" is appreciated

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ancient script s 2 years ago Mod > Guest
Star is "citlali" is Nahuatl. It forms part of the names "Citlaltepec" and
"Citlaltepetl", which looks like this
http://sites.estvideo.net/mali...
The top part of black half circle with white dots is "citlali", presumably the
white dots are stars in the black night sky. After the conquest they also
used the European 8-corner star:
http://sites.estvideo.net/mali...

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Rafael 2 years ago > ancientscripts
Do you know any links for the Quetzalli

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kyle McGee 2 years ago
worst site ever been on did not help me at all I say go to any other website
please

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ancient script s 2 years ago Mod > kyle McGee
Sorry if you honestly feel that way. I'm always looking for any constructive
feedback. However, if you're just trolling, then you're not worth my time.
10

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Genghis Sean a month ago
Just wanted to say, loving the site. Please though, when you get time, go through
this work of yours and edit it. There are quite a few mistakes, and I've only started.
I mention this because this is a site informing about languages and writing. The
more accurate your writing is, the more accurate the reading us.

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Daniel Lipka 7 months ago
MEXICAN PRIDE

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HEROt heAdmin 10 months ago
how did u do all of this this is amazing!

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Ocelot lant li N. A. Tezcat lipoca a year ago
Niltze nocniutl, thank you very much for posting this. I hope to someday find
someone has made a modern font or script for us to use, a unified one that works
across latin spelling conventions, so we don't have the "Qui and ki" and "Hue and
We" dispute between spanish and english area speakers. Our people deserve at
least their own script for our own damn language. lol

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Thinker? a year ago
I believe their is pre-conquest books that still exist but are probably hidden away
from the public

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D. Jenny Torres a year ago
This is the most helpful site i have found so far, idk y they say its bad, ill take
whatever i can get

Mohammed a year ago
his is me as a unicorn
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Mohammed a year ago
Wow thank you for your national teaching i am very pleased

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st eve nash a year ago > Mohammed
No problem

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bob a year ago
what's u

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KUNG FU PI G WEENER 2 years ago
THANkS

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Desert Moons Dm 2 years ago
Great site. I find I come back to again and again. It has helped me recognize rock
inscriptions I come across as writing..rather than just scratches in the rock. To
post this comment I had to agree to discus rules and I am not sure about that.
When i chose facebook it wanted access to my friends lists..so did not login that
way, Thanks for a well organized , well written and informative site.

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DUDE09 2 years ago
LAME

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Collet t e Flores 2 years ago
Great site - you made it easy to get around and understand. Thanks.

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j oy t wum 2 years ago
i officially hate reading boring stuff

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Kelli 2 years ago
So what is the main issue of this content?

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Ancient Scripts - Aztec

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10/10/14 Ancient Scripts: Aztec

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