SACRED BUNDLES :

RITUAL ACTS OF
WRAPPING AND
BINDING IN
MESOAMERICA
Julia Guernsey
University of Texas, Austin

F. Kent Reilly III

Texas State University, San Marcos

EDITORS

BOUNDARY END
ARCHAEOLOGY RESEARCH CENTER
Barnardsville, North Carolina

2006
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

Introduction
Julia Guernsey
F. Kent Reilly, III v

1 Middle Formative Origins of the Mesoamerican Ritual Act of Bundling

F. Kent Reilly, III 1

2 Late Formative Period Antecedents for Ritually Bound Monuments

Julia Guernsey 22

3 Fit to be Tied : Funerary Practices Among the Prehispanic Maya

Kathryn Reese-Taylor
Marc Zender
Pamela L . Geller 40

4 Soul Bundle Caches, Tombs, and Cenotaphs : Creating the Places of Res-
urrection and Accession in Maya Kingship
David A . Freidel
Stanley Paul Guenter 59

5 Fabric Structures in Classic Maya Art and Ritual

Matthew G. Looper 80

6 Power Material in Ancient Mesoamerica : The Roles of Cloth among

the Classic Maya
Dorie Reents-Budet 105

7 Jade and Chocolate : Bundles of Wealth in Classic Maya Economics

and Ritual
David Stuart 127

8 Textile Designs in the Sculptured Facades of Northern Maya Architec-

ture : Women's Production, Cloth, Tribute, and Political Power
Jeff Karl Kowalski
Virginia E . Miller 145

9 Ancestral Burdens in Gulf Coast Cultures

Annabeth Headrick
Rex Koontz 175

xvu
10 The Sacred Bundles and the Coronation of the Aztec King in
Mexico-Tenochtitlan
Guilhem Olivier 199

11 Sacred Bundle Cults in Highland Guatemala

Allen J . Christenson 226

About the Authors 247

xviii
 10

THE SACRED BUNDLES AND THE CORONATION OF THE AZTEC

KING IN MEXICO-TENOCHTITLAN

Guilhem Olivier
Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas,
Universidad Nacional Autónoma, Mexico City

n Mesoamerica, gods were represented in different ways : as anthropomorphic statues made

I of different materials (stone, wood, rubber, resin, seeds, etc .), as paintings and bas-reliefs, but
also in the shape of symbolic objects associated with the gods . These objects were wrapped
in cloth, and they formed sacred bundles, which were called tlaquimilolli in Nahuatl (Molina
1977, fols . 134r, 90r) . The tradition of the sacred bundles, far from being the prerogative of spe-
cific populations or particular deities, is found in a geographical area which exceeds the limits
of Mesoamerica and relates to most of the deities worshipped at least since the Classic Period
(Stenzel 1970; Olivier 1995) . These sacred bundles evoked such a fervor that certain chroniclers,
and not the least important ones (Fray Andrés de Olmos in particular), could affirm that they
constituted the main devotion of the Indians (Mendieta 1980[1870] :79-80) .
Despite this, their study is difficult, partly because of the secret character of the rituals
devoted to them . Furthermore, the persistence of clandestine cults related to sacred bundles
during the Colonial Period explains the discretion of indigenous informants . In fact, the Span-
ish Inquisition searched in vain for the main sacred bundles that were kept at the Templo
Mayor of Mexico-Tenochtitlán (Sepúlveda y Herrera 1912 :115-140) .
We have depictions of the tlaquimilolli in several historical codices, such as Mixtec
pictographic manuscripts and those narrating the migrations of different peoples .' In contrast,
however, the tlacuilome (painters) represented few bundles in religious codices .2 In fact, tla-
quimilolli merit only brief mention in the written sources, sometimes to explain their mythical
origins or within descriptions of the migrations; they are even more rarely mentioned in the
descriptions of rituals . The work of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún is an example of the discre-
tion of the Native informers on the subject . Indeed, the word tlaquimilolli appears only once
in the Primeros memoriales and also only once in the Florentine Codex (Sahagún 1979, X :191) .3
These appearances are fleeting indeed : the informers do not describe the content of the tlaqui-
milolli nor do they evoke its function or the rites dedicated to them . However, we shall see that

1 Instead of enumerating each of these manuscripts, I refer the reader to the works of Maarten Jansen (1982 :318-325) and John
M .D . Pohl (1994 :23-41) dealing with the Mixtec codices and to the work of Elizabeth Hill Boone (2000) that deals with all the
pictographic manuscripts containing migration narratives .
2
Some appear in the Codex Vaticanus 3773 (Seler 1902-1903 :60-64) and in the Codex Borgia (Seler 1963 :35-36) .
3 This subject was difficult to evade, since the aim was to narrate the Mexica migration during which the god bearers (teomama)
appear in all the codices and written narratives carrying the god as a bundle (for the Codex Boturini see Kingsborough 1964 :4 ; for
the Codex Azcatftlan see Barlow and Graulich 1995 :3, 7; and for the Codex Mexicanus see Mengin 1952 :18ss; etc .) .

199
Ancient America Special Publication No . 1
Copyright © 2006 by the Boundary End Archaeology Research Center
200 SACRED BUNDLES [Chapter 10

the illustrators of the Florentine Codex (Sahagún 1979, lib . VIII :fol. 46v) were not so discreet,
and they depicted sacred bundles in their illustrations of an important ceremony .
Thus, due to the relative scarcity of our sources and the paucity of their information,
few scholars have dealt with the sacred bundles .4 In this paper I shall examine some origin
myths of the sacred bundles and also, rather briefly, some of their main functions . In particu-
lar, I shall demonstrate that the sacred bundles played a central role in the coronation rites
of the Mexica tlatoani or king (Figure 1) . To bolster this interpretation, the significant role of
the tlaquimilolli during the feast of Toxcatl will also be examined . I shall conclude with some
comments regarding the presence of sacred bundles in crowning rituals represented in Mixtec
codices .

4 See Nowotny (1961 :32; 1966), Stenzel (1970), Jansen (1982 :318-325), Schele and Miller (1983), Gutiérrez Solana (1986), Pohl
(1994 :23-41), and Olivier (1995) .


Olivier] THE SACRED BUNDLES AND THE CORONATION OF THE AZTEC KING
201

ORIGIN MYTHS OF THE SACRED BUNDLES

Several myths tell how, after the death of the gods, their relics were collected by pious
people who used them to form sacred bundles . Thus, Gerónimo de Mendieta (1980[1870] :79-
80) states that after the birth of the Sun and the Moon at Teotihuacan and the sacrifice of the
gods to ensure their movement, the sacrificed deities left behind pieces of cloth for mankind :

"And these believers or servants of the mentioned dead gods wrapped these
clothes in certain sticks, and making a hole or a notch in the stick, they placed
as its heart some little green stones and snake and tiger skins, and this bundle
was called tlaquimilolli, and each one named it after the demon that had given
him the cloth . . ."

We also know other origin myths for specific sacred bundles . For example, the one
belonging to Mixcoatl was made with the ashes of the incinerated body of the Goddess Itzpa-
palotl or else with a white flint knife that resulted from the explosion of the goddess's body
after its cremation by Iztacmixcoatl and the Mimixcoa .5 Similarly, after his cremation, the
ashes of Quetzalcoatl were wrapped by his devotees in a jaguar skin to make his tlaquimilolli
(Alva Ixtlilxóchitl 1985,1:387) .
In the first myth collected by Mendieta, the tlaquimilolli are made from the clothes of
the gods, and these clothes form the wrapping, the vessel of the bundle . In contrast, the sourc-
es that tell the saga of Mixcoatl and Quetzalcoatl insist on the sacred nature of the contents of
the bundle : they are relics (that is remains, from the Latin reliquiae) of the deity that constitutes
the heart of the sacred bundle . In one case, humans are in charge of constructing the frame of
the tlaquimilolli (the stick with an embedded precious stone), while in the other the Mimixcoa
or other worshippers gather the remains of Itzpapalotl or Quetzalcoatl (the obsidian knife or
the ashes) which they wrap up in a cloth or jaguar skin .
The migration narratives of the Aztecs illustrate these two ways of obtaining a sacred
bundle. The Historia de los mexicanos por sus pinturas (García Icazbalceta 1941 :221) reveals that
after the victory of Huitzilopochtli in Coatepec, the Mexicas

"made a temple to place the loincloth of Huitzilopochtli and, thirty nine years
after their departure, they took the loincloth of Huitzilopochtli and gave it to
Vingualti (sic) so that he would bear it on the road with much reverence . . ."

"hicieron un templo donde pusieron el mástel de Uchilobos, y cumplidos treinta é

nueve años de su salida, sacaron el mástel de Uchilobos, y lo dieron a Vingualti para
que lo trajese con mucha reverencia por el camino . . ."

According to Cristóbal del Castillo (2001 :120-121), it was the bones of the
mythical guide that constituted the contents of the tlaquimilolli later adored by the
Mexicas (Figure 2) .
It is important to note that in the myth recorded by Mendieta, the outline of the pro-
cess by which the divine relics were abandoned following the birth of the sun in Teotihuacan
is scrupulously reproduced in the Mexica account where the victory of Huitzilopochtli in
Coatepec is clearly comparable to the emergence of a new sun (Seler 1990-1998 :96; Graulich
1997:224-233) .

5 Leyenda de los Soles (Velázquez 1945 :124 ; Bierhorst 1992 :93 [152]) ; Anales de Cuauhtitlan (Velázquez 1945 :3; Bierhorst 1992:3 [231) .
 [Chapter 10
202 SACRED BUNDLES

FIGURE 2 . GOD BEARER (TEOMAMA) OF HUITZILOPOCHTLI'S SACRED BUNDLE

FROM THE CODEX BOTURINI

(AFTER KINGSBOROUGH 1964 :4)

As with Huitzilopochtli, the information on Tezcatlipoca presents two traditions relat-

ing to the origin of his tlaquimilolli . On one hand, Bartolomé de Las Casas (1967,1 :643) reports
that Tezcatlipoca was the founder of the town of Tezcoco and that

" . . .alive, he went inside the Sierra Nevada volcano, and that, from there, he
sent them the bone of his thigh, which they placed in their temple as their main
god, and the Tezcocans gloat a lot because of that . . ."

" . . .vivo se metió en el volcan de la Sierra Nevada, que está cerca de alli, e que de aquel
lugar les envió el hueso de su muslo, el cual pusieron en su templo por su principal dios
y dello se jactan mucho los de Tezcoco . . ."

Juan Bautista de Pomar (1986 :59), after having described the tlaquimilolli of Tezcatli-
poca in Tezcoco, in particular made up of a mirror (Figure 3), reveals that
Olivier] THE SACRED BUNDLES AND THE CORONATION OF THE AZTEC KING
203

FIGURE 3 . TEZCATLIPOCA'S MIRROR AS A SACRED BUNDLE

IN THE CODEX AZCATITLAN

(AFTER BARLOW AND GRAULICH 1995 :7)

" . . .when the ancestors of the inhabitants of the district of Huitznahuac came
[ . . .], this mirror was talking to them in a human voice so that they would keep
on walking, neither stopping nor settling down until they arrived in this land
of the Chichimec Aculhuaques ."

" . . .cuando vinieron los antepasados de los del barrio de Huitznahuac (. . .] venia
hablando con ellos este espejo en voz humana, para que pasasen adelante y no parasen
ni asentasen en las partes que, viniendo, pretendieron parar y poblar, hasta que
Llegaron a esta tierra de los chichimecas aculhuaque ."

These myths, as well as other texts, show the wide variety of objects that could consti-
tute a sacred bundle : pieces of cloth, sticks, flint, ashes, arrows, mirrors, gems, hair, bones, etc .
Each element has a close metaphoric or metonymic relation to the god head it represents . The
tlaquimilolli of Cinteotl, god of maize, contained an ear of corn (Figure 4) .6 The warrior-god

6 Codex Telleriano-Remensis (Quiñones Keber 1995 :fol . 14r) . Fray Francisco de Burgoa (1989,11 :268) mentions the existence of a
204 SACRED BUNDLES [Chapter 10

FIGURE 4. EAR OF CORN AS CINTEOTL'S SACRED BUNDLE

FROM THE CODEX TELLERIANO-REMENSIS

(AFTER QUIÑONES QUEBER 1995 :FOL. 14R)

of hunting, Mixcoatl, appears under the guise of a bundle containing arrows or fire sticks .?
The same fire making instruments are found in a tlaquimilolli belonging to Huitzilopochtli
(Torquemada 1975,1 :115-116) and we can see the same instruments atop several bundles rep-
resented in the Codex Nuttall (Figure 5) (Anders, Jansen, and Pérez Jiménez 1992:16, 17, 18, 19,
21, etc.).' In Tezcatlipocá s bundle, according to Juan Bautista de Pomar (1986 :59),

" . . .there was a mirror, its surface polished and brilliant, the size and dimension
of a large half-orange, done in a coarse black stone . With this stone, there
were also many beautiful stones such of jades, emeralds, turquoises and other
different sorts . And the piece of cloth which was closest to the mirror and the
stones was painted (with motifs) of human bones ."
bundle that contained an ear of corn and little green stones in the Zapotec town of Quegolani .
7
Durán (1967,1:73) ; Historia de los Mexicanos por sus pinturas (García Icazbalceta 1941 :224) ; Motolinía (1971 :13) .
s In fact, there are links between the sacred bundles and the New Fire ceremony (Jansen 1982 :323 ; Olivier 1995 :113-115, 131) . An
interesting example is found in the Selden Roll (Burland 1955) . Also of note, in the 20th century, is the Evening Star Bundle of the
Pawnee Indians : " . . .one important feature of the Evening Star Bundle is a set of fire sticks with which the grand high priest of the
Pawnee kindled the "new fire" for the new year" (Wissler 1920 :570) .


Olivier] THE SACRED BUNDLES AND THE CORONATION OF THE AZTEC KING
205

FIGURE 5 . FIRE MAKING INSTRUMENTS IN A MIXTEC SACRED BUNDLE

FROM THE CODEX NUTTAL

LIULI
\` 16
w~-~ OMR&

• Co

-_ f# EO-∎

(AFTER ANDERS, JANSEN, AND PÉREZ JIMÉNEZ 1992 :FOL . 21)

" . . .estaba un espejo de alinde, del tamaño y compás de una media naranja grande,
engastada en una piedra negra tosca . Estaban con ella, muchas piedras ricas sueltas,
como eran chalchihuites, esmeraldas, turquesas, y de otros muchos géneros . Y la manta
que estaba más cercana del espejo y piedras, era pintada de osamenta humana ."

We shall come back to this mirror that, among other things, constituted an important
symbol of royal power both in Central Mexico and in other Mesoamerican regions, such as the
Maya zone (Schele and Miller 1983; Olivier 1997:285-287) .9

9 Inthe Codex Azcatítlan (Barlow and Graulich 1995 :7), there is a teomama carrying a sacred bundle surmounted by a glyph
composed of a mirror with a volute ; the unit constitutes an anthroponymic glyph of Tezcatlipoca . Interestingly, a mirror that
roughly dates from the years 500-900 AD was discovered in a cave located close to Tempe, Arizona . The pyrite mirror, 10 .8 cm in
diameter, was found wrapped in cotton fabric and a deer skin, and tied with cords made of yucca fiber. What resembles closely
the tlaquimilolli described by Pomar was associated with burnt remains of warriors and an iconography that could be related to
Tezcatlipoca (Di Peso 1979 :94-96 ; Olivier 1997 :96) .
206 SACRED BUNDLES [Chapter 10

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE SACRED BUNDLES

The different elements contained in each sacred bundle certainly deserve a detailed
analysis regarding their symbolism, their relationship with their deities, and their functions .
Due to lack of space, and because I have already dealt with this subject elsewhere (Olivier
1995, 1997 :94-99), I shall briefly mention here three of the main functions of the sacred bun-
dles .
First and foremost, the tlaquimilolli served to establish a direct communication with
the god head. This function is very evident in the Mexica migration narrations . Through his
sacred bundle, Huitzilopochtli revealed his will to his carriers (teomamaque) who then trans-
mitted it to the people (macehualtin) :

said Teochichimeca, Azteca, Mexitin [ . . .] they brought what was their

" . . .the
keeping, their bundle . To it they prayed ; to it the Azteca listened when it spoke,
and they answered it, but they did not see in what way it talked to them"

" . . .in motenehuaya teochichimeca azteca mexitin quihualhuicaya in tleyn intlapial

yn intlaquimilol catca yn quimoteotiaya quicaquia in tlahtohua auh quinanquiliaya
yn azteca auh yn amo quittaya yn quename quinnotzaya" (Alvarado Tezozómoc
1949 :17; Codex Chimalpahin in Anderson and Schroeder 1997:68-69) . 10

We also have seen that the sacred bundle of Tezcatlipoca, which consisted of a
wrapped mirror, guided the forefathers of the Tetzcocans, "talking to them in a human voice
(hablando con ellos este espejo en voz humana)" (Pomar 1986:59) .
The tlaquimilolli also had an important function during wars ." The Tlaxcalans used the
arrows contained in the sacred bundle of their patron, Camaxtli-Mixcoatl, to foretell the result
of a battle (Mendieta 1980 :147; Sandoval 1980,11 :234) .12 As for the femur of Tezcatlipoca that
was worshipped by the Tetzcocans (Las Casas 1967,1 :643), it could also have had a warlike
"use." Indeed, an Inquisition process from 1539 talks about the leg of the Goddess Chantico:

" . . .they say of this devil or idol that it was made in such a way that one could
cut his thigh and his leg, and that, when they go to war, on the land of those
they wanted to conquer, they would take the thigh or the leg of this idol and
strike the ground with it, and thus, they say, they overcome, conquer and
enslave their enemy . . ."

" . . .de este diablo ó ídolo, dizque tenía tal figura, que le podían quitar un muslo con la
pierna, y cuando iban á la guerra, en la tierra que habían de conquistar tomaban aquel
muslo ó pierna del ídolo y con ella herían la tierra, y con aquello Bizque vencían, é
conquistaban y sujetaban á los enemigos . . ." (Procesos . . .González Obregón 1912 :179-
180,183) .

No direct testimony of the use of Tezcatlipocá s femur has been preserved . However,
if one takes into account the warrior character of this deity and the links between mutilation

10 See also Cristóbal del Castillo

(2001 :122-123) .
11
According to Sahagún (1988 :523), the armies were preceded by priests "carrying their idols ." They were probably sacred
bundles .
12
This same function was attributed to a sacred bundle in the town of Zapotlán in Nueva Galicia (Relación geogáfica del siglo XVI:
Nueva Galicia Acuña 1988:226) .


Olivierl THE SACRED BUNDLES AND THE CORONATION OF THE AZTEC KING
207

and warfare, one can suppose that the sacred relic of Tezcoco was also used at the time of the
military campaigns of the Acolhuas (Olivier 1997:298-301) . The tlaquimilolli also are mentioned
whenever a conquered people was made to hand over their sacred bundle to their conquer-
ors . 13 Some particularly prestigious and powerful sacred bundles provoked disputes : one can
mention the failed attempts by Topiltzin Acxitl Quetzalcoatl, king of Tollan, to acquire the
tlaquimilolli of the God Nauhyoteuhctli from the city of Teotenanco, or the fruitless attempts
by Motecuhzoma II to acquire the coveted sacred bundle of Camaxtli that belonged to the
Huexotzinca (in Anderson and Schroeder 1997 :54-55 ; Castillo F . 1991; Durán 1967,1 :72) . Sev-
eral myths explain the value attributed to these sacred relics, particularly for warlike activi-
ties . To cite just one example, it is important to remember that the conquests of Mixcoatl were
interrupted after his sacred bundle was stolen (García Icazbalceta 1941 :217) .
The third function of the sacred bundles was their role in the acquisition of political
power. The conflicts around the possession of the tlaquimilolli demonstrate the link between
these objects and power . An example is that of a bundle disputed by the Tenochca and the
Tlatelolca during the Mexica migration (Torquemada 1975,1 :115-116) . By choosing the best
tlaquimilolli (the one that contained the sticks used to light a fire), the Tenochca not only es-
tablished a significant distinction vis-à-vis the Tlatelolca (who were deceived by the apparent
value of the green stone in the other bundle), but they also anticipated the conquest of Tlate-
lolco by the Tenochca king Axayacatl .
The link between the sacred bundle and the acquisition of power can be also found in
the chronicles of the Quiché Maya from Guatemala that mention the "Pisom C'ac'al" ("Shroud-
ed Glory" or "Bundle of Flames") . The tribes received these objects from the Lord Nacxit, who
reined over the famous Kingdom of the East, the source of all political power . 14 When the
forebears of the Quiché abandoned mankind,

" . . .then Jaguar Quitze left a sign of his being : This is for making requests of
me. I shall leave it with you . This will be your power 15 [. . .] he left a sign of his
being, the Pisom C'ac'al. . ." (Edmonson 1971 :212; Recinos 1986 :140; Tedlock
1985 :198).

Sacred bundles also appear in Classic Maya iconography and the glyph that represents
them in Maya writing has already been identified (T684) . Linda Schele and Jeffrey H . Miller
(1983 :61-93) analyzed this glyph and they consider it as part of the expressions that mean "ac-
cession to power ."
One could also analyze other functions of the tlaquimilolli, particularly that of propi-
tiating agricultural prosperity . 16 Nevertheless, the functions already mentioned correspond
perfectly to those attributed to political leaders : to communicate directly with the patron god,
to direct military campaigns aimed at conquering other peoples, and to guarantee agricultural
prosperity ." These functions will be addressed once more when the role of the tlaquimilolli in
the coronation ritual is further analyzed .

13
For example, when the Mexica accepted the domination of the Colhua, " . . .they gave the people of Colhuacan the cloth and
stick of Huitzilopochtli and thus they became their servants . . . ( . . .les dieron a los de Culhuacán la manta y el mástil de Huitzilopochtli y
quedaron a su servicio . . . )" (Historia de los mexicanos por sus pinturas, in García Icazbalceta 1941 :225) . See the illustration of this event
in the Tira de Tepechpan (Noguez 1978 :pl. 4) .
14 El Título de Totonicapán (Carmack and Mondloch 1983 :175,177,187,189) ; Popol Vuh (Edmundson 1971 :216-218; Tedlock
1985 :203-204; Recinos 1986 :142) .
15 Translation of Schultze-Jena (cited in Stenzel 1970
:350) and Recinos (1986 :140) . Edmonson (1971 :212) translates: "It is your
glory" and Tedlock (1985 :198), "Here is your fiery splendor ."
16
See Olivier (1995 :119-120) and note 6 .
17 On the functions of the king see, among others, Graulich (1998) .
 SACRED BUNDLES [Chapter 10
208

THE ROLE OF THE TLAQUIMILOLLI IN CORONATION RITUALS

The rituals devoted to the sacred bundles are poorly known . Some allusions refer to
the use of copal offerings and self-sacrifices as well as human sacrifices (Olivier 1995:120-124) .
It is important to stress here the discreet but symbolically essential presence of the sacred
bundles in the rites of enthronement . Yet the role of the tlaquimilolli in these rites has escaped
the attention of specialists .' $ However, some allusions scattered in the available documenta-
tion make it possible to propose a new interpretation of this significant ceremony .
The rites that followed the election of a new tlatoani and his four "ministers" are rela-
tively well-known through descriptions both in Nahuatl and Spanish . Sahagúri s informants
tell how, after being undressed, they were led to the temple of Huitzilopochtli . Priests then
dressed the future king in a dark green xicolli ("jacket") decorated with bone motifs :

"Then they veiled his face, they covered his head with a green fasting cape
designed with bone motifs"

"njman is conjxtlapachoa, is qujquaqujmjloa neçaoalquachtli xoxoctic omjcallo" (Codex

Florentino, Sahagún 1979, VIII :62) .

Another version, which appears in Motolinía (1971 :336) and is repeated by several
authors (Las Casas 1967,11 :407; Mendieta 1980 :155; Zorita 1999 :325-326), reports that the great
priest

" . . .clad [the future tlatoani] in a blanket painted with death-heads and bones
and, on his head, he put two pieces of cloth painted in the same way, one of
which was black and the other one blue ."

" . . .vestíale una manta pintada de cabezas de muerto y de huesos, y encima de la cabeza le
ponía dos mantas de la mesma pintura, y destas la una manta era negra y la otra azul ."

The piece of cloth decorated with bone motifs mentioned by Motolinía probably corre-
sponds to the xicolli described by Sahagúri s informants . As for the pieces of fabric, their number
and their color are different in both authors ." In the Spanish version, Sahagún (1988 :528) ex-
plains why the xicolli worn by the highest civil servant was the same as that worn by the priests
when they offered incense to the gods . However we know that this vestment was worn in
several different contexts and by members of various social categories, which renders Sahagúri s
comment debatable, a comment that is furthermore absent in the text in Nahuatl . 21 Deities or
their impersonators also wore the xicolli . Thus, at the time of the feast of Toxcatl, a statue of
Huitzilopochtli built with amaranth seed paste (Figure 6) was made over a wooden structure

's About this set of rituals, see Broda (1978 :221-225), Townsend (1987), and Graulich (1994 :74-82, 90-96) .
19 Las Casas and Mendieta only copy Motolinía, and Zorita simply specifies that they were made of cotton .
20 The xicolli was actually worn by priests, especially those who carried on human sacrifices, but also by civil servants called achca-
cauhtin charged with carrying on the executions decided by the tribunals, by nobles and merchants in specific religious contexts,
and by the governors as a symbol of their power (Anawalt 1976 :223-225; 1984:177-179) . Among the gods who wore the xicolli,
Anawalt (1976 :227) cites Quetzalcoatl and Huitzilopochtli . As far as the first god is concerned, this author relies on the famous
descriptions of divine ornaments that would have been given to Cortés by Motecuhzomá s envoys . However, a careful reading
of Sahagúri s informants' tale (Codex Florentino, Sahagún 1979, XII:11-12,15) is enough to confirm that the conquistador was not
dressed in Quetzalcoatl's vestments but actually with various parts of the clothes of the four deities that had been laid out . If it
is true that two of them were Quetzalcoatl and Ehecatl (an aspect of Quetzalcoatl), one will note that these are precisely the gods
whose clothes do not include the xicolli . On the other hand, it does appear among the clothes of the other two deities, Tlaloc and
Tezcatlipoca (ibid. :11-12) .
Olivier] THE SACRED BUNDLES AND THE CORONATION OF THE AZTEC KING
209

covered by a xicolli called tlacuacuallo that Sahagún (1988 :118) described as " . . .a piece of fabric
on which were represented the bones and the members of a person cut into pieces (. . .una manta
en la cual estaban labrados los huesos y miembros de una persona despedazada) ." 21 It is also necessary to
mention a cape (tilmatli) with the same motifs covering bones made of amaranth seeds laid out
in front of the statue of Huitzilopochtli all the way to his hips (Codex Florentino, Sahagún 1979,
11:72) . According to the account of this festival given by Diego Durán (1967,1 :44-45), the girls
who were cloistered in the temple of Tezcatlipoca prepared tamales of amaranth paste kneaded
with honey " . . .covered with cloths painted with [motifs of] death-heads and crossed bones . . .
( . . .cubiertos con unas mantas pintadas con unas calaveras de muerto y huesos cruzados . . .), which were
presented to the idol and then placed in front of the entrance to the oratory .
The relationship between Tezcatlipoca and this macabre iconography is confirmed by
the description of his tlaquimilolli : " . . .the piece of cloth which was closest to the mirror and
21 This jacket is represented in the Codex Florentino (Sahag(in 1979, III, lib. 12, fol . 30v, 31r) . It is also important to note that the
slaves offered in sacrifice by the merchants for the feast of Huitzilopochtli wore a divine jacket adorned with skulls and bones,
a vestment undoubtedly designed to identify them with the venerated deity (Codex Florentino, Sahagún 1979, IX :60; Sahagún
1988 :572) .
210 SACRED BUNDLES [Chapter 10

FIGURE 7 . STATUE OF TEZCATLIPOCA

• • 0 «Imam 0*0ab„10 • . .IlOb .am40%a r0 •l

b ••

(AFTER DURÁN 1967, I :PL . 9)

to the stones was painted [with motifs] of human bones ( . . .la manta que estaba más cercana del
espejo y piedras, era pintada de osamenta humana . . .)" (Pomar 1986:59) . In the same way, one finds
these motifs in an account by Diego Durán (1967,1 :47) of a statue of Tezcatlipoca (Figure 7)
that describes : "a red piece of cloth, decorated with death heads and crossed bones (. . .una
manta colorada, toda labrada de calaveras de muertos y huesos cruzados . . .) ." 22 In the Codex Borgia
(Seler 1963 :17), it is the loincloth of this deity that is painted with bones . Lastly, among the vic-
tims of the bonfire lit by the Franciscans in Tlaxcala, one notices a representation of Tezcatli-
poca carrying a cape where a skull and crossed bones appear (Muñoz Camargo 1984 :pl . 13) .
This type of decoration immediately evokes the deities of death. However, in the
codices, those are generally represented in the shape of skeletons but their clothing is seldom
decorated with bones .23 In the tonalamatl, the trecena that begins with the sign ce tecpatl is un-
22
The cape (tilmatli) of the "Lord of the Smoking Mirror" with motifs of human bones is represented in several iconographic
documents (see the Atlás de Durán (Durán 1967 :pl . 9), Codex Cospi (Aguilera 1988 :30), and The Codex Ramirez (in Alvarado Tezozó-
moc 1980 :lam . 22) .
23 In effect, only two representations of Mictlantecuhtli wearing clothes
decorated with bones have been found in the Codex
Fejérváry-Mayer (1901-1902:32, 37) .


Olivier] THE SACRED BUNDLES AND THE CORONATION OF THE AZTEC KING
211

der the authority of Tonatiuh and Mictlantecuhtli (Codex Borbonicus Paso y Troncoso 1988 :10;
Codex Borgia 1963 :70) . However, the "Lord of the Smoking Mirror" is sometimes represented
in lieu of the god of the dead from whom he borrows his characteristic nape ornament (Tona-
lámatl de Aubin 1981 :10).24 Proven in the iconography, the links between Tezcatlipoca, the
bones, and skulls are also underlined by the written sources .
Several documents relating to Huitzilopochtli testify to similar associations . Indeed,
"Left Side Hummingbird" was called Omitecuhtli ("Lord Bone") and one of the calendar
names of Tezcatlipoca was ce miquiztli ("1 Death") illustrated by a death head (Historia de
los mexicanos . . . García Icazbalceta 1941 :209; Codex Florentino, Sahagún 1979, IV :33). The lat-
ter could appear in the shape of a cut head while Huitzilopochtli communicated with his
extremely pious people via a skull that they had preserved (Sahagún 1969 :56-57; Serna
1987:320) . 25 Lastly, we saw that the bones of the guide of the Mexicas and the femur of the
patron deity of the Tezcocans had been used to form their respective sacred bundles .
I would suggest that the clothes with which one covered the new tlatoani were divine
clothing, ornaments of the statues or/and fabrics covering the tlaquimilolli . A text devoted to a
ritual of access for nobility in the area of Puebla-Tlaxcala stipulates that the future nobles were
covered with " . . .the cloths with which these five devils were covered ( . . .las mantas con que es-
tavan cuviertos estos cinco diablos . . .)" (Carrasco 1966:135). 26 Without any doubt, the clothes with
which one covered the new king also had a divine aspect . In Sahagún s version, the xicolli was
probably that of Huitzilopochtli, while the "fasting cape" must have belonged to Tezcatlipoca,
one of whose names was Nezahualpilli, "Fasting Prince" (Codex Florentino, Sahagún 1979,1 :67;
Codex Florentino, Sahagún 1979, III :12) . 27 If one accepts Motoliníá s version and still supposes
that the xicolli was Huitzilopochtlí s, we find ourselves with two "mantas" whose colors do
not correspond to the texts that, in addition, give us information about these deities' cloth-
ing . That being said, the black and blue are indeed colors characteristic of Tezcatlipoca and of
Huitzilopochtli, respectively, and it could very well be that these are the fabrics that covered
their tlaquimilolli . Moreover, illustrations in the Florentine Codex (Sahagún 1979, II :fols . 46r,
46v) depict figures who carry out the ritual prior to their enthronement clad precisely with
black and blue capes decorated with bones (Figure 1) . 28
The fact that Sahagún and Motolinía specify that these "mantas" were worn on the
head and even in front of the face lets us believe that the figures thus covered were symboli-
cally compared to sacred bundles . Significantly, Sahagún s informants, when describing the
covered head of the tlatoani, used the expression qujquaqujmjlo in which one finds the verb qui-
miloa that means "to bind or wrap something in a piece of cloth (liar o embolver algo in manta)"
and that figures into the composition of the word tlaquimilolli (Molina 1977:fol. 90r) . The rela-
tionship between this ceremony of enthronement and the sacred bundles is also illustrated by
the tlacuilo of the Codex Florentino (Sahagún 1979, vol. II, bk . 8:fol. 46r), who specifically reveals
the presence of a tlaquimilolli inside a temple in front of which rituals are carried out . Being the
24
In the Codex Tudela (Tudela 1980 :19r), it is Tezcatlipoca who is represented to illustrate the feast of Micailhuitzintli during which
an impersonator of Mictlantecuhtli was sacrificed . Moreover, in the written sources, one of the titles given to Tezcatlipoca is
"Lord of hell" (Alvarado Tezozómoc 1980 :312; Díaz del Castillo 1988 :104) .
25
The Historia de los mexicanos por sus pinturas (García Icazbalceta 1941 :210) tells us that " . . .Huitzilopochtli, younger brother
and god of those from Mexico, was born without any flesh, only with the bones . . . ( . . .Huitzilopochtlí, hermano menor, y dios de los
de México, nació sin carne, sino con los huesos . . .) ." Interestingly the Pawnee still venerated in the early 20" century several sacred
bundles, one of which was " . . .the bundle of the skull descended from the first man" (Wissler 1920 :570) .
21 The document mentions the five following deities : Camaxtli, Tezcatlipoca, Topantecuhtli (?), Amoxhutle (?), and Chipe (Xipe

Totec) (Carrasco 1966 :135) . The use of the cloths included in the bundles to carry out rituals is documented in the 20 11 century
among the Tzutuhil of Santiago atitlán (Mendelson 1958 :122; also see Christenson, this volume) and the Blackfoot (McClintock
1935:113-114) .
27 The dark green color mentioned by Sahagún could correspond to that of the vestment adorned with skulls and bones worn by
Tezcatlipoca in the Codex Cospi (Aguilera 1988 :30) .
28
Curiously, the illustrator of the Codex Florentino represented six figures instead of the four mentioned in the text .
212 SACRED BUNDLES [Chapter 10

images of the gods or more exactly the receptacles (ixiptla) of divine power because of the or-
naments that covered them, the personages in the process of enthronement also incorporated
the power of the tlaquimilolli by covering themselves with the divine fabrics that wrapped the
sacred bundles .
Let us return to the enthronement rituals of the new tlatoani . He had to light the censer
in front of Huitzilopochtlí s statue and Sahagúri s informants (Codex Florentino, Sahagún 1979,
VIII :62) specify that the future king " . . .stood always with his face covered by the fasting cape
designed with bones ( . . .çan is quatlapachiuhticac: in neçaualquachtli, omjcallo) ." The four "main
figures" who accompanied the king carried out identical rituals and were equipped in the
same way except for their fasting cape, which was black (ibid . :63). These important characters
then descended the steps of the Great Temple and were conducted to a room where they were
to remain for four days, occupied with penitential exercises and fasting, leaving only at mid-
day and midnight, always covered by the fasting cape decorated with motifs of bones, to burn
incense and carry out self sacrifice in front of Huitzilopochtlí s statue . The room where they
were confined was called tlacochcalco or tlacatecco (ibid.) . When the four days of penitence were
completed, the tlatoani and his companions were installed in the palace where, after consult-
ing the soothsayers, a date was fixed to celebrate the festival of their election . New clothing and
feather ornaments then replaced the macabre ornaments of the lords (Codex Florentino, Sahagún
1979, VIII :63-64; Sahagún 1988 :529) . Other rituals were practiced, especially in connection with a
military campaign whose results would forecast the success of the future tlatoani's reign.
The significance of this clothing decorated with skulls and human bones appears
related to the symbolic death of the future lords . To this assumption, one can cite the signifi-
cant identity between the name of the place where the rite of passage was carried out and the
funerary room where one prepared the remains and the statues of the dead kings (Alvarado
Tezozómoc 1980 :433; Durán 1967,11 :298).'9 The particular insistence of the Nahuatl text on the
fact that the penitents were veiled and the link between the verb quimiloa, "to bury the dead
(amortajar muerto)" and death can hardly leave any doubt about the significance of the ritual .
We know that at the time of the tlatoani's funeral a statue representing the defunct ruler was
decorated with clothing of four divinities : Tlazolteotl, 30 Tlaloc, Youalahuan (Xipe Totec) and
Quetzalcoatl (Alvarado Tezozómoc 1980 :433-434,454-455 ; Durán 1967,11 :298,311) . However,
the bodies of the sovereigns, in general, were burned and it appears that the symbolic death of
the tlatoani before his enthronement was of another type . In any case, the deities in charge of
this last ceremony were different .
It has been suggested that there was a link between the "mantas" that covered the king
and his ministers and the sacred bundles of Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca . A significant
element is in favor of this interpretation : the building where the seclusion of the king and of
his companions took place was precisely, according to Pomar (1986:59, 78-79), the place where
the sacred bundles of Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca were preserved . 31
When they did their penitential exercises, the future lords were thus in contact with
the tlaquimilolli of these two deities . Perhaps the assumption that these important figures iden-
tified themselves, through the use of the "mantas" of the tlaquimilolli, with the gods Huitzilo-
pochtli and Tezcatlipoca is explained by the specific way in which these gods had abandoned

19 When he describes the ceremonies carried out during the funerals of king Ahuitzotl, Durán (1967,11 :394) reveals that it was
indeed the same place : "And there [Tlacochcallil the king of Tezcoco put royal capes on him, which was as a royal anointment . . .
(Y allí [Tlacochcallil le puso el rey de Tezcoco unas mantas reales, que fue como investidura real . . .) ."
30 Alvarado Tezozómoc and Durán cite Huitzilopochtli but the ornaments are those of Tlazolteoti (Graulich 1987:262) or of the
Earth Goddess (Dyckerhoff 1970 :199-201, cited in Graulich ibid .)
31
See also Motolinía (1971 :336), Mendieta (1980 :155), and Torquemada (1977, IV :79) . Cecelia Klein (1987 :309-314) identifies this
edifice with the Tlacochcalco Quauhquiauac, which would correspond to the Eagle temple exhumed in the enclosure of the Great
temple .


Olivier] THE SACRED BUNDLES AND THE CORONATION OF THE AZTEC KING
213

the world to men . Contrary to other myths that explain the birth of the tlaquimilolli by the
recovery of the remainders of the deities after their cremation (Quetzalcoatl, Itzpapalotl), even
though here we have warlike deities (the bodies of the dead warriors were burned), it is after
a stay inside the ground that the bones of Huitzitl and of Tezcatlipoca are recovered by men
in order to constitute the sacred bundles . 32 Consequently, it seems legitimate to compare the
mythical formation of the tlaquimilolli of Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca that comes after a
period of burial 33 with the retreat and the penitence of the future tlatoani .
The rites of enthronement of the Mexica kings thus consisted, so we believe, of a ritual
circuit that reproduced the mythical stages lived by their tutelary gods . The symbolic death of
the tlatoani corresponded to the burial of Huitzitl, which became Huitzilopochtli, and with the
disappearance of Tezcatlipoca, events necessary before their tlaquimilolli could be built . 34 The
clothing used by the future king illustrated his transformation into a sacred bundle but also
expressed his passage inside the ground before his "rebirth" as a sovereign .35
The creation of tlaquimilolli is often linked to the coming of a new era, as is wonderfully
expressed in the myth that tells of their origins right after the birth of the Sun and the Moon in
Teotihuacan (Mendieta 1980 :79-80) . The same pattern is found in the birth of Huitzilopochtli
and the formation of his sacred bundle, since the Mexica god is identified with the victorious
Sun . The association between the sacred bundles and the coming of a new era strengthens our
hypothesis concerning the meaning of the seclusion of the new tlatoani . His coronation was
clearly identified with the birth of a new Sun and the beginning of a new era, as is made clear
by a Nahuatl metaphor: "Now there is sunlight, it is day ; this means that something new ap-
pears, a new custom begins, the king takes his office, he is elected (Axcan tona tlatui quitoznequi
hitla yancuic mochiua yancuic tlamanitiliztli ompeua . Anoço tlatoani motlalia, mopepeua)" (Sahagún
1978 :133-134) . 36 It seems logical that the new ruler would be assimilated to the patron deity
of his group and that he should be dressed, during his passage through symbolic death and
rebirth, with the clothes that wrapped the sacred bundles of Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca .

32
I have explained elsewhere the reasons for believing that Popocatepetl was only a mountain at the time when the body of Tez-
catlipoca was buried there (Olivier 1997 :299-300) . One must also point out that volcanoes were considered as mountains above
all, that is as water recipients and that the smoke that came out of the volcanoes was thought to be clouds (Broda 1991 :461-500) . In
the case of Huitzitl, it has been specified that " . . .when your soul escapes, when you die, let them bury your body in a stone box
and let your bones rest there for four years until your flesh had rotten and gone back to the earth . . . ( . . .in iquac oquiz in moyollia
inic otimic ma tepetlacalco quitocacan in monacayo oncan oc nauhxihuitl onoz in momiyo, occenca palani tlalli mocuepa in monacayo . . .)"
(Castillo 2001 :120-121) . Further, it is important to note that Tezcatlipoca is associated with royal funerals during which the lord
was not burned but buried . The body of the Tepanec king Tezozomoc was covered with seventeen "mantas", " . . .and then they
put another one, a very fine manta where the idol Tezcatlipoca was painted in a very natural way . [ . . .] they gave the order to take
him to the great temple of Tezcatlipoca to bury him ( . . .y después le pusieron otra muy fina donde estaba el ídolo Tezcatlepuca retratado
muy al natural [ ] dieron orden de llevarlo al templo mayor de Tezcatlepuca para enterrarlo)" (Alva Ixtlilxóchitl 1985,1:351) .
33
The bundles of these two deities are represented on the back of the teomamaque in the Codex Azcatitlan (Barlow 1995 :7) . Alfredo
López Austin (1973 :62) provides us with what may be the key to that peculiarity (the sojourn underground by those gods) when
he comments on this scene : "These gods, as the people that come after them, have recently been in contact, within that mountain,
with obscurity, cold, water, death, the feminine concept, . . . and the snakes . A slight negligence on the part of a god carrier (teo-
mama) or a particular attention of the painter, and the secret is revealed: from each bundle a rattle snake tail emerges!"
34 It is important here to mention the results of a study by Claude-François Baudez (1997), dedicated to the enthronement ritual of
Pakal in Palenque . The future Maya king had to go down through a passage located to the west in the underground of the Palace
in that city, where his travail was likened to a passage in the underworld . Coming back out of the underground, through a pas-
sage in the east, corresponded to the emergence of the king from the earth . Those rites symbolized the king's death and rebirth
following a ritual passage similar to that of the sun .
3s
In Mexica statues, the earth monster Tlaltecuhtli and the earth goddess Coatlicue are indeed the only deities represented
with clothes adorned with skulls and bones (Gutiérrez Solana 1983:pls . 10,11,172,176; Alcina Franch et al . 1992:pls . II, XLIV,
XLV, LXXIV) . The earth goddess Ilamatecuhtli or Cihuacoatl, depicted in the feast of Tititl in the Codex Tudela (Tudela 1980 :fol .
27r), wears a robe adorned with skulls and cut hands . The skirt of Tlazolteotl is adorned with crossed bones in the Codex Laud
(1966 :29) . In the Dresden Codex (Thompson 1983 :74), Ix Chebel Yax (Goddess O), an earth deity and the wife of Itzam Na, is also
represented with a skirt with crossed bones . The skull and bone symbols are also related to seeds and rebirth, which perfectly
coincides with the logic of the enthronement rituals (López Austin 1994 :162, 173-174, 206 ; Graulich 1997:111 ; Olivier 1997:52-54) .
36
See also Durán (1967,11 :73, 316) and the Codex Ramírez (in Alvarado Tezozómoc 1980 :62) .
214 SACRED BUNDLES [Chapter 10

TOXCATL AND THE TLAQUIMILOLLI

To bolster this interpretation of the role of the tlaquimilolli in the coronation rituals, addi-
tional information relating to the feast of Toxcatl is warranted . Toxcatl was the main feast dedicated
to Tezcatlipoca and a minor feast of Huitzilopochtli . A young man chosen among war prisoners
represented the god Tezcatlipoca for a whole year . When he walked the streets, playing his flute,
smelling flowers, and smoking cigars, men would kneel down and eat dirt as a sign of respect, and
woman would present him their children . Shortly before the feast, the representative of Tezcatli-
poca was married to four women, who were the images of four goddesses, Xochiquetzal, Xilonen,
Huixtocihuatl and Atlatonan. The youth was then dressed by the king himself, who afterwards
would remain secluded in his palace . Twenty days later, the representative of Tezcatlipoca would
travel in a canoe, accompanied by his four women, towards a small temple called Tlacochcalco .
Of his own will, the youth slowly climbed the stairs of the pyramid . As he ascended each step,
he broke a flute . Once he reached the summit of the temple the priests opened his chest and then
lowered the body with caution (Figure 8) (Codex Florentino, Sahagún 1979,11 :66-71) .

FIGURE 8 . SACRIFICE OF TEZCATLIPOCA'S IMPERSONATOR IN TOXCATL

(AFTER THE FLORENTINE CODEX 1979, LIB . II:FOL . 30v)



Olivier] THE SACRED BUNDLES AND THE CORONATION OF THE AZTEC KING
215

A full analysis of these rituals would exceed the limits of this work, but I would like to cite
some of the results reached by my interpretation of this feast :37 from the testimony of Sahagún s
informants, one can reasonably identify the sacrificer in the feast of Toxcatl as the king himself . Not
only did he take care to personally adorn "his beloved god (ytlaçoteouh)", but he also remained af-
ter that locked up inside his own palace (Codex Florentino, Sahagún 1979,11:69) . I have interpreted
that retreat as the manifestation of a substitution, the "image" of Tezcatlipoca taking the place of
the tlatoani in the rite. In effect, the king offered himself as a sacrifice in the person of the represen-
tative of the "Lord of the Smoking Mirror ." Several metaphors reveal the narrow links that existed
between Tezcatlipoca, the flute, and the ruler (Codex Florentino, Sahagún 1979, VI:19, 43, 45, 50).
The instrument allowed the deity to communicate his will to the king, and the latter was himself
assimilated to the flute of the "Lord of the Smoking Mirror ." When he broke his flutes on the steps
of the temple, Tezcatlipocá s representative was expressing the temporary break in the relations
between men and the gods, which coincided with the death of the king . He also re-enacted, in
reverse, the myth of the solar origin of music (Thévet 1905 :32-33; Mendieta 1980:80-81). With the
appearance of new representatives of the gods, the king was reborn and the sound of the flutes
again manifested contact with Tezcatlipoca (Olivier 2002) .
Before proceeding with this interpretation, it is necessary to describe the second part of
the feast that was centered around Huitzilopochtli . A statue of the god made of amaranth was
then erected . This statue and a sacred roll, which represented the god's loincloth, were brought
in a procession by warriors and the teachers of the young men, then raised to the top of the
temple . Arrows were shot in the direction of Huitzilopochtli s statue . A series of banquets and
dances followed and, at the end, the sacrifice of Tlacahuepan, the "image" of Huitzilopochtli
(Codex Florentino, Sahagún 1979,11 :71-77). In Diego Duráá (1967,1 :44) description, mention is
made of the preparation, by young secluded girls, of offerings concocted from amaranth and
honey and covered by a cloth bearing a motif of skulls and bones . They carried them to the
courtyard in front of the room where the statue of Tezcatlipoca was locked up . The Dominican
friar adds that young men shot arrows towards those bundles and raced to reach them .
All this strongly suggests that the sacred bundles of Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli were
present in this feast . In fact, another source specifies that, during the Toxcatl, the clothes worn by
the slave or the captive who had represented the "Lord of the Smoking Mirror" were kept in a
chest that was covered with a cloth representing the deity . This set, already identified as a tlaqui-
milolli, was adored in the house of the one who had captured or offered the "image" of Tezcatli-
poca (Codex Tudela, Tudeal 1980:fol . 15 v; Gómez de Orozco 1945 :42; Olivier 1995:110) . When the
sacrificer was the king, these divine clothes were either kept in the temple of the god or destined to
accompany the dead king on his last journey (Durán 1967,1:39; Alva Ixtlilxóchitl 1985,1 :351) .
The mention of the tlaquimilolli should not surprise us . If this interpretation of the feast
of Toxcatl is correct, and this is actually the ritual death of the king/ Tezcatlipoca, the presence of
sacred bundles whose mythical apparition followed the death of the gods and played an impor-
tant role in the king's enthronement ceremonies is logical . The "sacred roll" that represented the
loincloth of Huitzilopochtli (in teumjmjlli itoca, iuh mjtoa ymaxtli) (Codex Florentino, Sahagún 1979,
11:72, XII :52) is actually mentioned in the accounts of Mexica migration that his devotees car-
ried as a relic (García Icazbalceta 1941 :221) . That was the tlaquimilolli of the tutelary deity of the
Mexica, and that is what we find again in Toxcatl . One will note that the amaranth bones placed
around the paste statue of Huitzilopochtli had the same name as the "sacred roll :" they were
called teumjmjlli (Codex Florentino, Sahagún 1979,11:72) . And the motifs on the cloths that cov-
ered them are the same as those of the " . . .painted pieces of cloth with skulls and crossed bones
( . . .mantas pintadas con unas calaveras de muertos y huesos cruzados . . .)" that enveloped the "offer-

37 Olivier (1997:219-261 ; 2002) . See also Carrasco (1991) and Graulich (1999 :339-360) .
216 SACRED BUNDLES [Chapter 10

ings" of amaranth and honey described by Durán (1967,1 :44) .38 These motifs are identical to
those that adorned the tlaquimilolli of Tezcatlipoca in Tezcoco (Pomar 1986 :59) . Does that mean
that these bones are wrapped or that the "offerings" mentioned by Durán could actually be the
sacred bundles of the "Lord of the Smoking Mirror"? It is possible, since we saw that there was
in Tezcoco a tlaquimilolli of Tezcatlipoca made up of his femur (Las Casas 1967:643) . Can we
identify the wrapped amaranth bones as replicas of the sacred bundle ? When young men fight
to get to the wrapped bones, they in fact are training for the task that awaits them : to wage war .
Catching and keeping those bundles as a "relic" in fact corresponds to the capture of an enemy,
whose femur was kept as a trophy (Codex Florentino, Sahagún 1979,11 :60 ; Durán 1967,11 :165) .
Another hypothesis can be proposed . Tovar, to whom we owe a description of the paste
statue of Huitzilopochtli, records that " . . .for eyes they gave it two mirrors which were always
guarded in the temple, and which they called the eyes of god . . . ( . . .ponianle por ojos dos espejos que
siempre estaban guardados en el templo a los cuales llamaban los ojos del dios . . .)" (see The Tovar Calen-
dar, Kubler and Gibson 1951 :pl. VI) . The mention of these mirrors, always kept inside the temple,
cannot but evoke the tlaquimilolli of Tezcatlipoca that was kept in the Tlacatecco or Tlacochcalco in
Tezcoco (Pomar 1986:59) . If the loincloth of Huitzilopochtli was exposed together with the statue
of the god at the top of the temple, is it possible to imagine that the mirror of Tezcatlipoca was
also present near the statue of that deity? Then Tovar, who speaks only of Huitzilopochtli in his
description of Toxcatl, would have gotten the Mexica god confused with the "Lord of the Smoking
Mirror" (whose head is actually represented in the illustration of that feast), unless the merging
of these two deities, who were manifested especially through the ornaments of the gods and their
representatives (Graulich 1999 :358-359), also spread to their respective sacred bundles .
Whether amaranth bones or wrapped mirror, Tezcatlipocá s sacred bundle, as well
as that of Huitzilopochtli (his loincloth), were present in Toxcatl . The tlaquimilolli of both gods
played an important role during the king's enthronement ceremonies that we have interpreted
as a symbol of the ritual death of the future governor and his rebirth as a king . In the same man-
ner, in Toxcatl, the king was symbolically sacrificed through the representative of Tezcatlipoca .
It is important to note that the " . . .small and ill aligned temple . . . (. . .cu pequeño y mal aliñado . . .)"
upon which the "image" of the "Lord of the Smoking Mirror" was sacrificed bore the same
name, Tlacochcalco, as the place where the future rulers were secluded before their enthronement
and where the bodies of the dead kings were kept . The temple, on top of which the representa-
tive of the king-Tezcatlipoca was immolated, was homologous to the place where the future
king did the penitential rites assimilated to a symbolic death . We show that the tlatoani was then
in contact with the tlaquimilolli of Huitzilopochtli and of Tezcatlipoca . The presence of their sa-
cred bundles in Toxcatl confirms the parallels between that feast and the rites of enthronement .39

RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES ON THE SACRED BUNDLES

AND THE CORONATION RITUALS

Information from the Mixtec area contributes to a more ample analysis of the role of
sacred bundles in Mesoamerican rituals of coronation . Of course it is not my intention to pres-
ent here the detailed study that should be undertaken for this purpose, but merely to point
out some elements that may be common to both the Mexica and Mixtec rituals .
3sSahagún s informants (Codex Florentino, Sahagún 1979, XII :51-56) describe the preparation of the feast of Toxcatl held in the
presence of the Spaniards . One can see this xicolli in the illustrations in the Codex Florentino (Sahagún 1979, III, lib . 12:, fols . 30v,
31r, 31v, 32r) . Huitzilopochtlí s statue had a xicolli adorned with designs in the shape of human bones (Codex Florentino, Sahagún
1979,11:72, X11:52) .
' We do not know whether the enthronement ceremonies always occurred during the same vein tena . About Motecuhzoma II's
enthronement, Alva Ixtlilxóchitl (1985,11 :177) affirms that it was held during the Toxcatl veintena . On this subject, see López Luján
and Morelos García (1989:149-151), and Graulich (1994 :441) .


Olivier] THE SACRED BUNDLES AND THE CORONATION OF THE AZTEC KING
217

As I have stated before, there are numerous depictions of sacred bundles in the Mixtec
codices 40 and, as far as I know, there has not been a systematic study of them that takes into
account both their iconography and the contexts in which they appear . 4 ' Besides, the written
sources dealing with the Mixtec area do not contain detailed descriptions of the coronation
rituals, such as the ones available for Central Mexico . 42 Nevertheless, I would like to mention
some elements that seem interesting from a comparative perspective with Central Mexico .
For starters, several representations of rituals carried out before sacred bundles seem
to be related to coronation ceremonies . For example the famous 8-Deer Tiger Claw visited
the temple of God 1 Death, which contained a sacred bundle, before beginning the conquest
campaign that would lead him to the throne of Tututepec (Codex Bodley, Caso 1960:10 ; Jansen
1982:321; Boone 2000 :109) . One of the most important moments in the codices that narrates his
feats is the ritual in which his nose was perforated (Codex Bodley, Caso 1960:9; Codex Nuttall, in
Anders, Jansen, and Pérez Jiménez 1992:52 ; Codex Colombino León Portilla 1996:13) . This cer-
emony, which apparently has a Toltec origin, had the aim of granting him the title of tecuhtli, a
first step towards legitimizing his accession to the throne of Tilantongo . It must be remembered
that the new noble rulers of Central Mexico and the Puebla-Tlaxcala area carried out similar
rituals, as did the Mexica kings 4 3 In the case of 8-Deer, it is noteworthy that just before his ritual
of nose perforation he is seen with 4 Jaguar before a sacred bundle (see Codex Nuttall, Anders,
Jansen, and Pérez Jiménez 1992:52; and Codex Colombino León Portilla 1996:14) . Werner Stenzel
(1970 :349-350) interpreted a scene of the Codex Bodley (Caso 1960:31) that shows the king 4 Wind
with his turquoise nose ornament in front of a sacred bundle as a part of a coronation ritual . In
fact, among the objects that symbolize the power that 9 Wind - the Mixtec counterpart of Quet-
zalcoatl among the Nahuas and Nacxit among the Quiché Maya -brings down from the sky is
a sacred bundle (Codex Vindobonensis, Anders and Jansen 1992 :48) . Therefore we see that several
representations of sacred bundles among the Mixtec are linked to rituals of enthronement .
Some scenes of this type appear in the Codex Selden (Caso 1964 :5, 9,14) where rulers
such as 3 Rain, 9 Wind, 1 Cipactli, and 10 Monkey burn copal resin before a sacred bundle just
before their accession (Figure 9) . 45 It is worth noting that above each sacred bundle there is a
horizontal face that represents a deity called ñuhu, related to the earth and its first inhabitants
(Smith 1973:65-71).46 There could also be a link with death, because the word ñu -related to
ñuhu- is used to designate a deceased person in the Arte en lengua mixteca by Antonio de los
Reyes (Caso 1962 :126) . These links between the bundles, the earth, and death strongly recall
some of the elements of the symbolism of the tlaquimilolli identified for Central Mexico . Fur-
thermore, according to Jansen (1982 :319), who considers that the Mixtec concept ñuhu is used
to refer to deities, natural forces, and also founders of dynasties, " . . .the content of the Spheri-
cal Bundle in Mixtec terms is ñuhu [ . . .] We suppose that the concept ñuhu is implicit in the
Spherical Bundle and is therefore omitted in most cases ."
Such information supports a new interpretation of a small wooden statue preserved in
the Museum f°r Volkerkunde in Vienna . Although there is still debate about the identification
40 About the cult of the sacred bundles in the region of Yanhuitlan, see the Procesos por idolatría al cacique, gobernadores y sacerdotes
de Yanhuitlán, 1544-1546 (Sepúlveda y Herrera 1999 :passim) .
41 See, however, Jansen (1982 :318-332), Furst (1986 :61-62) and Pohl (1994 :23-31) .
42
Some information is found in the Relación geográfica de Tilantongo in the Relaciones geográficas del siglo XVI: Antequera (Acuña
1984 :233), in the work of Burgoa (1989,11 :125) and in Herrera (1945,111 :168-169) .
43
Many sources deal with this subject. See, for instance, Historia tolteca-chichimeca (Kirchoff, Odena G°emes, and Reyes García
1976 :171), Motolinía (1971 :339-344), Muñoz Camargo (1998 :85-89), Carrasco (1966), Durán (1967,11 :317), Alvarado Tezoz6moc
(1980:305, 438, 450), etc .
44
According to Maarten Jansen (1982 :321), " . . .for the prince the ritual before the ñuhu bundle was related to his inaugural cer-
emonies and was, perhaps, a condition to accede to power ."
45
These scenes have been interpreted by Caso (in ibid . :32, 37, 41), Furst (1986 :61), Pohl (1994 :28), and Jansen and Pérez Jiméruz
(2000 :122,148,167) .
46 See also the reflections by Jansen (1982 :295-308), Pohl (1994 :23-30) and Jansen and Pérez Jiménez (2000:111) .
218 SACRED BUNDLES [Chapter 10

FIGURE 9 . LORD 3 RAIN BURNS COPAL RESIN BEFORE ÑUHU'S SACRED BUNDLE
IN THE CODEX SENDEN

r ala tia &m lky

MIIti if#
. s

(ATER CASO 1964 :5)

of this figure '47 some scholars have proposed that it is a ñuhu deity giving birth to a king (Fig-
ure 10) (Pohl 1994 :29) .4S According to this hypothesis, we would find among the Mixtec a con-
cept quite similar to those just analyzed in the context of the coronation rituals of the Mexica
ruler : in both cases, the political rulers are in contact with the bundles that contain the relics
of their patron deities or their mythical ancestors .49 In other words, the symbolic death and re-
birth of the king after a passage through the underworld is symbolized among the Mexica by
the motifs of the crossed bones on the clothes of the sacred bundle that are worn by the future
king, while among the Mixtecs it is symbolized by the birth from a telluric Ouhu deity, a god
that is found in the sacred bundle to which the future king presents his offerings .

"Eduard Seler (1890) proposed that it could be Xolotl, and his hypothesis was accepted by Nowotny (1949) and Henry B . Nichol-
son and Eloise Quiñones Keber (1983:124-125) .
48 Certainly this deity has visible genitalia
. However, the god head of the Earth (Tlalteotl among the nahuas) appears as a mascu-
line or feminine being, and sometimes as a hermaphrodite . .
49
After analyzing the first plates of the Codex Selden, Maarten Jansen (1982 :322) concludes : "We find in the first pages of this
codex the institution of a cult of divine ancestors [the primordial couple represented by two bundles] as a way of legitimizing
dynastic power ."


Olivier] THE SACRED BUNDLES AND THE CORONATION OF THE AZTEC KING
219

Furthermore, this interpretation could be extended to a magnificent work preserved

at Dumbarton Oaks, which depicts a rabbit giving birth to a character with an eagle helmet
(Figure 11) . 5 ° The relationship between the rabbit and the earth is well known, indeed 1 Rabbit
was the calendar name of the Earth (Historia de los mexicanos . . ., García Icazbalceta 1941 :214;
Ruiz de Alarcón 1984:78, 86, 95, etc .) . The character with an eagle helmet could be the new
ruler, whose identification with the Sun was stressed above . It must be remembered that dur-
ing their coronation rituals, the Classic Maya kings followed a ritual path that led them to the
Underworld and later made them emerge as the rising sun from the tunnels of Palenque and
perhaps of other sites (Baudez 1997) . If the character emerging from the belly of the rabbit is
indeed the king, the telluric animal presents a motif whose symbolic meaning has been ex-
plained in several instances : he is wearing a skirt with crossed skulls and bones, just like the
Earth Goddesses and the clothes of Huitzilopochtlí s and Tezcatlipocá s tlaquimilolli .
50 First published in the Handbook of he Robert Wood Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Art (Dumbarton Oaks 1963 :23-24) : "Rabbit. Jade-
ite . Aztec . Said to have been found at Cempoala, Veracruz, Mexico . Seated, with a warrior's head in an eagle helmet at the waist . The
rear of the figure has a belt carved with skull-and-crossbone design ." According to Pasztory (1983 :254), "The meaning of the sculp-
ture is not entirely clear: the figure may refer to birth and death, to a woman dying in childbirth, or to a victim captured in battle ."

FIGURE 10 . WOODEN STATUE DEPICTING A BIRTH

MUSEUM FOR VOLKERKUNDE, VIENNA (AFTER NICHOLSON AND QUIÑONES KEBER 1983 :124)


220 SACRED BUNDLES [Chapter 10

FIGURE 11 . RABBIT-EARTH GIVING BIRTH TO A KING

DUMBARTON OAKS, WASHINGTON, D .C . (AFTER PASZTORY 1983:COLORPLATE 45)

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