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Search Issues: Update 2026-09-16 - Repairs to some of our search pages are ongoing. Thank you for your continued patience!
Meanwhile, elements of the Advanced Search are working and the Alphabetical Listings are working, too.
a type of weapon: a spear-thrower or dart-thrower (see Molina and Karttunen); also attested as a name (Atlatzin) in 16th-c. Mexico City
oncan ye ynpan acico yn oncan chaneque çan no chichimeca oquinmocniuhtitacico yn mexica oncan oquicuitacico yn atlatl auh yn quitemacac yn atlatl ytoca xohuitzil quinmacac yn mexica chichimeca = They arrived among the natives there, who were also Chichimeca. The Mexica made friends with them and there took up the atlatl. And [the natives] gave them the atlatl called xohuitzil; the Chichimeca gave it to the Mexica.
iuhquin cozpul ommoteca in impan iaume = When they threw darts with the atlatl, a yellow mass seemed to spread over the enemy
quicuique yn atlatl ynic tlaminaya yaoc = they took up the atlatl with which they shot darts in war
ynic tlaxintli tomaoac veyac mamazyo tepoztli yn iquac ca quauhtica ŷ quitlaça = It is fashioned from a thick, long [piece of wood]. It [the dart] has flight feathers; copper is at the tip. They hurled it with the piece of wood.
¶ viji. acatle xihuitl 1279. años. ypan inyn oncan nauhxiuhtihque mexica yn atlacuihuayan. oncan quinextiliq. yn atlatl = The year Eight Reed, 1279. By this time the Mexica had spent four years in Atlacuihuayan. There they discovered the atlatl (or spear-thrower)