Mixtec codex tradition

Timeline

1. c. 900–1200Valley of Oaxaca · OaxacaThe Mixtec and neighboring groups developed a codex grammar centered on name glyphs, day signs, and place identifiers, used specifically to record noble lineages and political events, forming a regional tradition parallel to Aztec pictography.
2. 1311–1320Mixtec–Zapotec frontier · OaxacaIn the early 14th century CE, the Mixtec codex tradition was still maintained by local rulers and priests, who displayed folding-screen codices at ritual and diplomatic occasions to demonstrate lineage legitimacy; most codices of this period have been lost, but their formal conventions survived through chains of oral transmission and copying into the famous codices extant from the 16th century.
3. c. 1500–1600Oaxaca region · OaxacaAfter the conquest, some Mixtec codices were copied or adapted through interactions between indigenous people and Spanish friars; surviving works such as the Codex Zapotega indirectly preserved the pictographic grammar of the pre-14th century.