3. Mixtec Pictography: Conventions and Contents

Abstract

A ANCIENT MEXICAN pictorial manu- script represents a special and unique form of writing.It does not record a number of sentences phonetically, hut conveys information more directly through images, with only incidental interference of the language.Nevertheless, the result is a book, made up of a series of figurative paintings which can be read as a text.The possible readings may differ in their phonetic and idiomatic realizations, but, given effective communication, their contents will agree.The high degree of conventionalization of the images arid signs certainly contributed to a conventional reading.A specific group of codices was painted in the Mixtec region, in the southwestern part of Mexico, during Late Postdassic and Early Colonial times.These manuscripts contain unique historical data about the elite lineages that ruled the different kingdoms, or caci-cazRos, of that region, especially those of Tilantongo and Teozacualco in the Mixteca Alta.The Mixtec provenance and historical character of these codices were firmly established by the works of Alfonso (,'aso, who laid

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