Codex Telleriano-Remensis

The Codex Telleriano-Remensis is one of the finest surviving exemplars of Nahua pictorial writing. This image comes from the third section of the manuscript, a history of the Aztec people from 1198 to 1562 depicted in pictographic writing with annotations in Spanish. At the top, in a red square with a light blue frame, is a glyphic representation of the year 2 Reed (1507), below which are glyphic and textual descriptions of the events that occurred in that year. This was a truly exceptional year, as it celebrated the simultaneous restart of all Nahua calendrical cycles with the New Fire Ceremony, the most important event in the Nahua calendar, which only happened once every fifty-two years.

The celebration was spectacular. Elaborate monuments and buildings were commissioned for the occasion. On November 6, 1507, sculptures of gods were ritually sacrificed, and people destroyed their old belongings and altars, cleaned their homes, and turned off all fires. At dusk, the city was immersed in impenetrable darkness. The pictographs in the manuscript narrate what followed: priests dressed as divinities (right) climbed the Huixachtecatl hill (green), where a holy temple had been built for the occasion (white pyramidal structure). There they waited for the stars to align (top right), and when they did, the priests lit an immense fire that glowed over the entire city (top left, depicted as three yellow flames). The fire was passed by runners to homes everywhere; with it, families lit pyres so numerous that night became as luminous as day. At dawn, people wore new clothes, renewed their belongings, and fasted until noon. Time had restarted, and people cherished renewal. Below, a pictograph narrates a tragedy that occurred the same year: the drowning of 1,800 warriors in the Tozac (Atoyac) River.