The mountainous landscape of the Mixteca is composed of thousands of hills, hundreds of towns and plains, and dozens of rivers. In order to specify which hill, town, plain, or river was being represented, Mixtec scribes decorated the rather featureless ΓÇ£substantiveΓÇ¥ signs with additional pictures. These additional pictures (which ΓÇ£qualifyΓÇ¥ exactly what place was being represented) are called ΓÇ£qualifiers.ΓÇ¥ Consider the following examples...
