A hand-painted 1691 manuscript map from Mexico's Ixtlán District in the Sierra Norte region of Oaxaca is heading home after over a century. Written in Zapotec and Spanish, it documented land ownership for Spanish bureaucracy. Zapotec scholars Michael Dürr and Sebastián van Doesburg helped identify it before its return.
1691 Zapotec map from Santa Catarina Tepuxiula to be repatriated to Mexico
Site mentioned
📍 Santa Catarina🌍 Show on the globe
Key facts
- Manuscript map dates to 1691 and 1709, made in Mexico
- Created to regularize land titles and ownership before Spanish bureaucracy
- Hand-painted scroll recounting story of Santa Catarina in the Villa Alta district, Sierra Norte region, Oaxaca, southern Mexico
- Believed to be written in both Zapotec and Spanish languages
- Held at American Geographic Society library in New York since 1917, purchased from mining engineer A.E. Place for $1,917
- Originally sold by British consular official Constantine Richards of Mexican-Scottish descent in early 20th century
- Believed by Zapotec language scholars Michael Dürr and Sebastián van Doesburg to be one of two documents from Santa Catarina
- Map previously incorrectly identified as the Lienzo map
- Scroll was rolled rather than folded accordion-style like typical codices
- Being repatriated to Mexico in the coming weeks
Sources
Villa Alta - Power of Attorney in Oaxaca, Mexicopowerofattorneynative.com
The first series of maps in this project: “Power of Attorney, Villa Alta, 1700-1821.” The first step in the process was to compile and organized the letters of ...
Map of Villa Alta District, Oaxaca, Mexico. Source: State Office for...researchgate.net
The Villa Alta District in Oaxaca is composed of 25 small, rural municipalities, mostly ranging from a few hundred to twelve hundred people, of which most are ...
Tira de Santa Catarina Ixtepeji - UWM Libraries Digital Collectionscollections.lib.uwm.edu
This manuscript map is hand-painted and recounts part of the history of Santa Catarina Ixtepeji, in the Ixtlán District in the Sierra Norte region of Oaxaca in ...
Indice del archivo del Juzgado de Villa Alta, Oaxaca : epoca colonialir.vanderbilt.edu
Indice del archivo del Juzgado de Villa Alta, Oaxaca : epoca colonial. Indice ... Campus Map · Media Resources. 419 21st Avenue South • Nashville, TN 37203.
Was this story useful?
Keep exploring
Every site on this page sits on the globe, and the people who research them are on the Discord.
3D Globe · Sites by country · Story Archive · Research Library · Weekly Journal · Search
AI-generated text · images from the original sources · always verify with the sources.