Lord 8 Deer Jaguar Claw
The most-fully-documented historical-mythological figure in pre-Conquest Mesoamerica. His 52-year biography (1063-1115 CE) is recorded across four pre-Conquest codices with extraordinary chronological precision: Codex Zouche-Nuttall devotes pages 26-84 to his life (the longest single biographical narrative in any pre-Conquest Mesoamerican manuscript); Codex Bodley, Codex Colombino-Becker, and Codex Selden cross-corroborate the dynastic chronology. The 94-conquest tally, the 1097 pilgrimage to Cholula for the Toltec turquoise-nose-piece confirmation, the 1101 conquest of Red and White Bundle (with the killing of his half-sister Lady 6 Lizard and her husband Lord 11 Wind), and the 1115 sacrifice by Lord 4 Wind together constitute the most politically-developed dynastic narrative in the codex corpus. The Cholula nose-piece episode is structurally crucial for understanding postclassic Mesoamerican political-legitimization: by traveling to the Toltec capital and receiving the imperial mark, 8 Deer asserted membership in a pan-Mesoamerican political class that connected the Mixteca to the Aztec/Mexica ascendancy via the Toltec-political-ancestry framework. His sacrificial death at the hands of Lord 4 Wind is interpreted in modern Mixtec studies (Byland & Pohl 1994; Jansen & Pérez Jiménez 2007) as the structural completion of the half-sibling-conflict arc that opened with the 1101 Red and White Bundle conquest: 4 Wind, related by marriage to the conquered Lady 6 Lizard / Lord 11 Wind line, exacted vengeance for the earlier killings. The dynasty 8 Deer founded continued under his sons through the colonial period, with the Tilantongo line surviving as a recognized indigenous-noble cacicazgo into the 17th century.
Parentage
- paternal: Lord 5 Crocodile "Sun of Rain"
- maternal: Lady 9 Eagle "Cocoa-Flower"
Powers
- Conquered ninety-four towns as warrior-king
- Drilled the New Fire to inaugurate his rule
Epithets
- Iya Nacuaa Teyusi Naña Lord Eight Deer Jaguar ClawCodex Zouche-Nuttall, pp. 42-84 (primary)
Relations
- half sibling: Lady 6 Lizard "Jade Fan"Half-sister via shared father Lord 5 Crocodile; rival queen of Red and White Bundle; killed by 8 Deer in the 1101 conquest.
- sibling: Lord 12 Earthquake "Bloody Jaguar"Full brother; war-companion in the conquests.
- spouse: Multiple wives across the conquered polities; most-prominent Lady 13 Serpent of Hua Chino, principal Coya equivalent and mother of his political heirs · MixtecCodex Zouche-Nuttall pp. 59-65 (primary)
- killer of: Lady 6 Lizard "Jade Fan"Killed in the 1101 conquest of Red and White Bundle; half-sister via shared father Lord 5 Crocodile.Codex Zouche-Nuttall pp. 56-58 (primary)
- killer of: Lord 11 Wind "Bloody Jaguar"Killed in the 1101 conquest of Red and White Bundle.Codex Zouche-Nuttall pp. 56-58 (primary)
- killed by: Lord 4 WindCodex Zouche-Nuttall p. 81 (primary)
Sources
- existence: Codex Zouche-Nuttall pp. 26-84 (the most-extensive single biographical codex narrative in pre-Conquest Mesoamerica) (primary); Codex Bodley pp. 9-15 (primary); Codex Colombino-Becker (primary); Codex Selden (Añute) (primary)
- birth-1063ce: Codex Zouche-Nuttall p. 28 — year-bearer-day register (primary); Caso, Reyes y Reinos de la Mixteca (1977-1979) — the foundational chronological reconstruction (secondary)
- cholula-pilgrimage-1097: Codex Zouche-Nuttall p. 52 (primary)
- death-1115ce: Codex Zouche-Nuttall p. 81 (primary); Byland & Pohl, In the Realm of 8 Deer (1994) (secondary)