The “On Colors” Chapter in the Historia General de Sahagún: Its Structure, Contents, and Contribution to the Knowledge of Technology and Artistic Practices in Ancient Nahua Society

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Bringing the Past to Life, Part 2: Papers in Honor of John M. D. Pohl" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper revisits the structure and contents of the greatest source—the only one of its kind—concerning the knowledge of color technology and, consequently, artistic practices of the ancient Nahua: the chapter on colors in Sahagún’s “Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España,” which contains a description in Nahuatl of the origins and uses of coloring materials used since prehispanic times, accompanied by illustrations and Spanish descriptions. Although the version of this chapter included in the Florentine Codex has caused much ink to flow, this research aims to address other important aspects, not yet studied, to refine our reconstruction of the prehispanic and colonial knowledge about materials for rendering colors, their categorization, and cultural appreciation. Based on a comparative study of two variants of the text and an analysis of the illustrations in the Florentine Codex, this study aims, on the one hand, to clarify the content of the largest amount of data available on Nahua coloring materials, and on the other hand, to better define when, where, by whom, and in what context this information could have been provided, so that we can make a more thorough and conscientious use of it.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Bringing the Past to Life, Part 2: Papers in Honor of John M. D. Pohl   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39021.0