220) MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 
factory because no month signs are recorded and a day 
with a certain name and number frequently occurs 
twice in one year. The year bearers are the same as 
among the Aztecs for most of the documents, namely, 
Knife, House, Rabbit, and Reed, but in a manuscript 
ascribed to a tribe in southern Mexico called the 
Cuicatecs, the year bearers are Wind, Deer, Herb, and 
Movement (Fig. 80). Conquest of a town is shown by 
a spear thrust into the place name. Individuals are 
often named after the day on which they were born. 
Thus 8 Deer is a warrior hero in the Codex Nuttall and 
3 Knife is a woman who also plays a prominent part. 
In some of the manuscripts from southern Mexico we 
see details that are very close to those in the codices of 
the Mayas. 
Mitla. The famous temples of Mitla are the best- 
preserved examples of architecture on the highlands of 
Mexico. They are peculiar in form and decoration. 
The word Mitla is a corruption of the Aztecan word 
Mictlan, place of the dead. This site was the burial 
ground of Zapotecan kings and may have been a place 
of pilgrimage. It seems to have been conquered by the 
Aztecs in the last decade of the fifteenth century. 
While the architecture belongs in a class by itself the 
frescoes have the distinct character of the Aztecan 
period. 
At this site we miss the lofty pyramids of Monte 
Alban. There is one fairly large mound at Mitla but it 
has no surviving superstructure. The temples are 
placed on low platforms which usually contain cruciform 
tombs. The buildings are carefully oriented and are 
assembled in groups of four which almost enclose square 
paved courts. The heavy walls have surfaces of cut 
stone and a filling of concrete or rubble and are orna- 
