Mixtec writing

An example of the pictorial representations the Mixtec's used for non-verbal communication through writing. Here, in this picture, which is a reproduction of a work from the Codex Zouche-Nuttall, a village is being sacked by some warriors.

Mixtec writing was the logographic script that the ancient Mixtec people of Mesoamerica used from roughly 1200 to 1600. This writing system primarily consisted or consists of certain signs, symbols and pictorial representations that were asserted in easily understandable and appropriate positions in a body of 'text'. An individual sign or symbol of the language portrayed in the Mixtec writing system would usually illustrate several ideas, concepts or objects, or what we know as words. A single picture could describe an entire English phrase or sentence. For example, a pictorial rendition of a dead body, or a crypt, could indicate that someone was dead (while this is the obvious conclusion for such an image, a picture such as this could mean a variety of things aside from a corpse or the dead) Syllables or letters were not (or at least, very rarely) present.

The Mixtec Civilisation

The Mixtecs are remebered as one of the most significant Mesoamerican ethnic groups of the Post-Classic era, because of their progress as a civilisation, but also for their internal warring and dividedness as a nation, which ultimately had an effect on other peoples in the vicinity. The Mixtec people were also skilled in the art of metal work, and also in the artwork they produced.

In the Classic period, the Mixtecs inhabited in settlements situated on hilltops in northwestern Oaxaca. They later moved to valleys close to these hillsides, and eventually to the Valley of Oaxaca, in the Post-Classic period. This expansion down into the valleys would have been recorded on many deerskin manuscripts, but only several of these have survived to be examined. Despie the rarity of these manuscripts, the remaining have provided an invaluable insight into Mixtecan history spanning from around as early as 940 to 1550.

It was between the years of 1522 and 1524 that the Spanish conquered the Mixtec peoples. Despite this, very few Spaniards chose to populate the area, due to the lack of agriculural (among others) resources and general decline after the 16th century plagues in the region. It was only in the 19th and 20th centuries that commercial agriculture in the region expanded, and that people began to move into and live in the area. Today, the people who live in the area are mostly peasants, but some people, who compose the small but slowly growing middle class, have other proffessions such as school teachers, politicians, technicians, among several others.

Writing Subjects and Documented Information

The Mixtecs wrote mostly about their history, genealogical events and war conquests and losses, as well as other subject matters such as their place names and human sacrifices of their captives, to a lesser extent. While the preceding appears to be the most written about topics, all types of information was recorded, including their dates and calendar, political changes, religious ceremonies, and people in general. These scripts exist as some of oldest and longest records of Mesoamerica, and their translation has given historians much knowledge of not just the Mixtec's but also of their neighbours and even their enemies.

Calendar

Like most other Mesoamerican cultures, the Mixtec people had a 260 day long sacred calendar. The days that made up this calendar were represnted in Mixtec writing by the combination of a numeral (called the coefficient) and a certain sign or symbol. This numeral ranges between 1 and 13, while the sign can be any of the following 20 symbols: