Sixteenth to eighteenth century pictographs from the “Maps, drawings and illustrations” of the National Archives of Mexico
Documentary heritage submitted by Mexico and recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register in 2011.
© National General Archives of Mexico
Map: Zolipa; Misantla. Ver.
These 334 pictographic records of maps, documents, drawings and illustrations from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries contain data characterized by a "distinctly Indian style or Indian influence." They include representations and pre-Hispanic glyphs that are evidence of enormous wealth, deep symbolism and meaning and continue being the subject matter of comprehensive study. The value of the documents lies in being key items to understand the worldview of the various indigenous cultures that populated the American territory in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and left a legacy of multi-ethnicity in Mexico. In that sense they constitute the historical memory that survived European settlement in America.