nepohualtziztin

Galen Brokaw brokaw at BUFFALO.EDU
Wed Jul 7 14:16:55 UTC 2004


I was wondering if anyone has run across the term nepohualtzitzin or
something with a similiar meaning.
Boturini claims that the Nahuas employed a system of knotted, colored
strings to record historical information. He says this system was called
nepohualtzitzin, and he compares it to the Peruvian quipu. As far as I
know, this is the only reference to such a system in Mesoamerica. He
claims that he saw one of these devices in Tlaxcala but that it was very
old and deteriorated. I was wondering if anybody had come across any
other references to anything similar. As far as I know, this does not
appear in any way in the Florentine, which makes Boturini's much later
assertion seem kind of suspicious.
Thanks,
Galen



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