Zapotec Writing - Famsi

It may be noted that in the graphic representations illustrated in Figures 7.11 and 7.12, the
size of the bolts of lightning in relation to the human figures is larger. In contrast, the known
representations of lightning in the material culture from several parts of Mesoamerica are
miniaturized versions (Figure 7.13). The use of color in some graphic representations and the
type of materials from which the miniature forms were made reinforce or amplify the already
discussed significations. Beyer (1965: 52) had already established the connotations of the blue
and yellow colors—pigments with which lightning is sometimes painted in polychrome murals
or codices—as indexical to water and fire respectively. 106 In other instances lightning is painted
black, most likely to denote obsidian. 107 The miniature serpent-bolts from Teotihuacan
illustrated in Figure 7.13 are made precisely of obsidian, a material imbued in native perceptions
with the ‘quality of luminosity’ (Saunders 2001: 232), and one of the examples found in one of
the offerings associated to the Main Temple from Mexico-Tenochtitlan was manufactured from
travertine, a stone that originates from water calcareous depositions. 108 Notable is the similarity,
despite the temporal and geographic differences, between the miniature version of a lightning
bolt from another offering in the Main Temple of Mexico-Tenochtitlan illustrated in the same
figure (upper right, left item) and the representation of bolts of lightning in the Cociyo busts
from Lambityeco (see Figure 7.9). Along the length of the example from Tenochtitlan were
glued pyrite incrustations, and their circular shape resemble the small disks that decorate the
bolts of lightning branded by the Cociyo impersonators at Lambityeco.
106 Of the examples illustrated in Figures 7.11 and 7.12, the serpent-lightning on the north jamb in
building A from Cacaxtla is painted blue (as well as the associated volutes), and the ‘Reed’ sign that
signals ‘Dart’ in the central interior curvature is yellow. In the scenes from screenfolds Tonindeye
and Tonalpouhqui, the bolts of lightning are yellow, although in the later case the tone is darker. In
the scene from codex Magliabechiano the rendering of lightning is blue in color.
107 That is the case of the bolts of lightning held by the rainmaker painted in the back wall of tomb
2004-1 from Ixcaquixtla. The spiked triangular motifs in this mural, which denote the glow of
lightning, are painted white with sets of small parallel lines in a yellow-orange color.
108 Other serpent-bolts found in offerings from the Main Temple at Mexico Tenochtitlan, measuring no
more than 15 cm in length, were manufactured from wood, flint, and green marble (López Luján,
personal communication, March 2005).
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