Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan and the Heroes of Ancient Oaxaca: Reading History in the Codex Zouche-Nuttall

241 Pages·2009·45.011 MB·English

by  Robert Lloyd Williams

Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan
and the Heroes of Ancient Oaxaca
the linda schele series in maya and pre-columbian studies
This series was made possible through the generosity
of William C. Nowlin, Jr., and Bettye H. Nowlin, the National Endowment
for the Humanities, and various individual donors.
Cities of the Ancient Mixtec World
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Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan
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and the Heroes of Ancient Oaxaca
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READING HISTORY IN THE CODEX ZOUCHE-NUTTALL
Robert Lloyd Williams
Foreword by F. Kent Reilly III Introduction by John M. D. Pohl
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS AUSTIN
Frontispiece map created by Elaine Day Schele, July 2008
Copyright © 2009 by the University of Texas Press
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Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2009
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Williams, Robert Lloyd.
Lord Eight Wind of Suchixtlan and the heroes of ancient Oaxaca :
reading history in the Codex Zouche-Nuttall / Robert Lloyd Williams;
foreword by F. Kent Reilly III ; introduction by John M. D. Pohl. — 1st ed.
p. cm. — (Linda Schele series in Maya and pre-Columbian studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-292-72121-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Codex Nuttall. 2. Manuscripts, Mixtec. 3. Eight Wind, 935–1027.
4. Mixtec Indians—History. 5. Mixtec Indians—Kings and rulers.
6. Mixtec language—Writing. 7. Picture-writing—Mexico. I. Title.
F1219.56.C62532W557 2009
972'.01—dc22 2009013444
Dedicated to many: the great Mixtec people of Oaxaca, past
and present, my professors Kent Reilly and Brian Stross, family,
friends, un-friends, colleagues, fellow students, teachers, Bill
and Sammie McCown, Richard McCown, Madge Simmons, and
my brother Twelve Flower.
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contents
Foreword by F. Kent Reilly III ix
Author’s Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction by John M. D. Pohl 1
part one
1 It Happened Long Ago 29
2 The People of the Codices 45
3 The Narrative Structure of Codex Zouche-Nuttall Obverse 57
4 Sacred Geography, Personified Geography 63
5 Caves in Mesoamerican Iconography | Chalcatzingo and
the Mixteca 69
part two
6 Lord Eight Wind’s Introduction 93
7 The War from Heaven, Part One 101
8 The War from Heaven, Part Two 107
9 Lord Eight Wind’s Family 115
10 Transition to the Future | Eight Wind, Two Rain, and Eight Deer 121
part three
11 Rituals of Order | Codices Zouche-Nuttall and Vienna 135
12 The Problem of the Two Dead Lords 146
13 The Epiclassic Mixtec Ceremonial Complex 156
appendix i | Biographical Sketches of Major Personnel from the
Codices: Lord Eight Deer the Usurper, Lord Two Rain the King, and Lady
Six Monkey of Jaltepec 163
appendix ii | Notes for Codex Zouche-Nuttall Pages 1–4 187
appendix iii | Codex Zouche-Nuttall Reverse Day Dates on Pages
46a–48a for Year 5 Reed (AD 1095) and Lord Eight Deer’s Campaign as
Lord of Tututepec 190
Color photo section follows page 48.
Bibliography 199
Index 209
foreword
Some seventeen hundred years ago in the mountainous western Mexican
state of Oaxaca, a culture developed that left us with the rarest of commodi-
ties: books. This culture—the Mixtecs—existed in a world defined by moun-
tains, valleys, and caves. Politically, this landscape was divided into a series
of very small principalities that in many ways resembled the city-states of
Renaissance Italy. The ruling lineages of this group focused on an ideology
based on ancestors, marriage alliances, and warfare. The books that the
Mixtecs produced were principally devoted to these genealogies and their
roles in political legitimization.
Europeans first became aware of these native books, called “codices,”
when Hernán Cortés included two of them in his gift of New World curiosi-
ties to Emperor Charles V. They were among those items intended to elicit
royal interest, delight, and amazement.
Since their introduction into the European academic landscape, these
manuscripts have sparked strong interest. Though there have been many
attempts at interpretation, the great breakthrough was achieved by Al-
fonso Caso when, in 1949, he published a definitive argument establishing
their Mixtec origins (El Mapa de Teozacoalco, 1998). As Caso’s research pro-
gressed, it became apparent that these manuscripts contained historical
information. He noted:
The Indians not only of Mexico, but from the whole of Mesoamerica possessed
a true historical vocation, and they told and wrote history. (trans. Manuel Agui-
lar and Claudia Alarcon)
Since Caso’s groundbreaking discoveries there have been many efforts
to recover the specifics of Mixtec history as they wrote it. Two of their docu-
ments have been resistant to historical, chronological analysis; namely, Co-
dex Zouche-Nuttall obverse and Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus I obverse.
In them, the Mixtec calendar has been both a key and an impediment to
ix