Xonecuilli

Authors: ASE Tech Team

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Xonecuilli CC-BY Enrique Gómez Candelario

CC-BY Enrique Gómez Candelario

CC-BY Enrique Gómez Candelario

Xonecuilli refers to Ursa Minor.

Etymology and History

For ancient aztecs, the knowledge of the night skies and stars movement had great importance for their calendars and the measurement of both agricultural and sacred cycles. However, great part of this knowledge was lost as consequence of the Spanish conquest which occurred on continental America in the 16th century.

The elements of the Aztec society such as culture, economy and science is preserved in the tlacuilos, word that comes from the ancient Nahuatl word tlacuiloa, which means writing with drawings. These Tlacuilos where stored in the amoxcalli, meaning amoxtli: books and calli: house. Later their became known as codices; a word that came from the Latin word Codex which means written book.

After the Spanish conquest many of the pre-hispanic Codexes where destroyed, their main feature is that their where drawn in many different materials such as deer skin, amate paper or cotton fabric and they had no text only draws or glifos. However the collection of Mesoamerican customs continued prior to the Spanish conquest thanks to the work of some native indians and some Spanish priests, this codexes are known as Colonial Codexes and there is a change of the way of drawing because of the new techniques of drawing and the new materials imported from Europe, also because of the incorporation of descriptive text both in Spanish and Nahuatl.

Sadly, the Aztec astronomical knowledge in the remaining codexes is really small. The next image is one of the few that names some constellations and astronomical phenomena identified by the Aztec, it belong to the Primeros Memoriales (first memorials), which is a colonial manuscript of the 16th century written by Fray Bernardino de Sahagun.

The Ursa Minor constellation is identified as Xonecuilli which means twisted foot, and is related to Nanahuatzin, this character is represented with twisted feet, filled with boils and sores, this sick and poor God sacrificed himself to become Tonatiuh the Sun god. Apparently, this constellation can also be associated with the Southern Cross and its surrounding stars as is referred by Tezozomoc. For its part, Sahagun speaks of his resemblance to bread made in the form of letter S and called by the Aztecs xonecuilli.

Weblinks

• Prehispánicas
• Mythology
• Códice París
• REAL CÉDULA PROHIBIENDO LA HISTORIA GENERAL DE LAS COSAS DE NUEVA ESPAÑA DE FRAY BERNARDINO DE SAHAGÚN

Reference

• References (general)