Parallel Nahuatl and Pictorial Texts in the Mixtec Codex Sierra Texupan

The Codex Sierra Texupan is a sixty-two-page libro de cuentas, or book of community accounts, that combines Nahuatl-language writing with a parallel pictorial component. Indigenous writers and artists in the Mixteca Alta region of the modern state of Oaxaca, Mexico, compiled the book over a fifteen-year period from 1550 to 1564. This article presents some preliminary findings on the interrelationship between the manuscript's pictorial and alphabetic texts as well as observations about its language. The findings are part of a forthcoming transcription, translation, and analysis of this unique manuscript, which reveals how the community of Texupan responded actively and creatively to multiple changes and challenges in the early colonial period.