lived ├▒udzahui --the Rain Place.(1) This tutorial
illustrates how the natural and cultural landscapes
of that Rain Place were depicted in the codices.
Recording the location of past events was very
important to the ancient Mixtecs, and as a result the
pages of the codices are filled with images that
allow us to reconstruct the "where" of the Mixtec past.
The study of toponyms--pictorial representations of
places-- has been a major topic of study for codex
researchers. In fact it was through toponymic
decipherment that the codices were first firmly linked to the Mixteca, in Alfonso Caso's 1949 commentary on the Mapa de Teozacoalco.(2) Although the kings and queens, the textiles, and the featherwork depicted in the codices have long since vanished, the landscape of the Mixteca remains, and remains important to the people who live in it.