The tlaquimilolli, or sacred bundle, is an extraordinary form of the quimilli or “bundle,” an object used in many Native American cultures, including the Mexica and Maya of Mesoamerica.
Creators: Mexica-Aztec priests
Date of Creation: c. 1325-1521
Place of origin: Tenochtitlan-Tlatelolco
Physical measurements: Unknown
Materials: Textiles, pelts, bones, and other media
Process by which it was made: Collection and wrapping
Current location: There are no extant tlaquimilolli. Images of sacred bundles can be found in Contact-era codices, including the Florentine Codex.
Further Reading
Bassett, Molly H. The Fate of Earthly Things: Aztec Gods and God-Bodies. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2015.
Dean, Carolyn, and Dana Leibsohn. “Hybridity and Its Discontents: Considering Visual Culture in Colonial Spanish America.” Colonial Latin American Review 12, no. 1 (2003): 5-35.
Durán, Diego. Historia De Las Indias De Nueva-España Y Islas De Tierra Firme. Vol. 1, Mèxico D.F.: Imp. de J.M. Andrade y F. Escalante, 1867-1880.
Grecco Pacheco, Daniel. “Ontologias envolvidas: conceitos e práticas sobre os envoltórios de tecido entre os maias.” Antipoda: Revista Antropología y Arqueología. 2019, n.37, pp.119-135. ISSN 1900-5407. http://dx.doi.org/10.7440/antipoda37.2019.06.
Guernsey, Julia, and F. Kent Reilly. 2006. Sacred bundles: ritual acts of wrapping and binding in Mesoamerica. Barnardsville, N.C.: Boundary End Archaeology Research Center.
Houston, Stephen, David Stuart, and Karl Taube. The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience among the Classic Maya. Joe R. And Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006.
Karttunen, Frances. An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl. Norman, OK: The University of Oklahoma Press, 1983.
Lockhart, James. Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts. Nahuatl Studies Series. Edited by James Lockhart and Rebecca Horn. Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2001.
Magaloni Kerpel, Diana. “Powerful Words and Eloquent Images.” Chap. 10 In The Florentine Codex: An Encyclopedia of the Nahua World in Sixteenth-Century Mexico, edited by Jeanette Favrot Peterson and Kevin Terraciano, 152-64. Texas: The University of Texas Press, 2019.
Martínez, José Luis. “Gerónimo De Mendieta.” Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl, no. 14 (1980): 131-95.
Mendieta, Gerónimo de. Historia Eclesiástica Indiana. México: Antigua Libreria, 1870.
Olivier, Guilhem. “The Sacred Bundles and the Coronation of the Aztec King in Mexico-Tenochtitlan.” In Sacred Bundles: Ritual Acts of Wrapping and Binding in Mesoamerica, edited by Julia Guernsey and F. Kent Reilly, 199-225. Barnardsville, NC: Boundary End Archaeology Research Center, 2006.
Olko, Justyna. Insignia of Rank in the Nahua World: From the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century. Boulder, US: University Press of Colorado, 2014.
Online Nahuatl Dictionary. 2020-2022
Sahagún, Bernardino de. Book 6: Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy. Translated by Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J. O. Anderson. General History of the Things of New Spain. 12 vols. Vol. 6, Santa Fe, NM: The School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1969.
———. Book 7: The Sun, the Moon and the Stars and the Binding of the Years. General History of the Things of New Spain. 12 vols. Vol. 7, Santa Fe, NM: The School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1953.———. Book 11: Earthly Things. Translated by Charles E. Dibble and Arthur J. O. Anderson. General History of the Things of New Spain. 12 vols. Vol. 11, Santa Fe, NM: The School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1963.
Information contributed by Molly Bassett.