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.
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 barricade, an enclosure, town walls; this term also came to refer to a "pyramid" (see attestations)
See an image that represents tzacuilli in the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities, 2020-present).
Motenan, motzacuil. Inin tlatolli, intechpa mitoaya in tlatequipanoa: azo calpixcati, azo achcacauhti = Your wall, your enclosure. This was said of those who served in some capacity, such as tribute collectors or captains.
Mitoa in ascan, tetepe tzacuilli, itzacuil tonatiuh, yoan itzacoal metztli. = They are now called pyramids—the pyramid of the sun and the pyramid of the moon. [Dibble and Anderson translation. The transcription is as published, including the "s" in axcan, and the "a" in itzacoal metztli. See tzacualli for another way of referring to "pyramids." (SW)]