Date
1978

Location
245 South Fetterly Ave. (at 3rd St.)
Edward R. Roybal Comprehensive Health Center, exterior

Media Notes
Glazed ceramic tile, 277' x approximately 3 1/2'
Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall, architects and engineers. Anthony J. Lumsden, principal for design.

photo © Robin Dunitz

Description
A series of 99 pictographs illustrating significant events in the life of Eight-Deer Ocelot-Claw, a Mixtec leader who was born in 1011 and ruled a region of southern Mexico that now includes Oaxaca. His exploits are described in seven books of symbolic picture-writing, known as the Codex Nutthall. The original Codex Nutthall is in the collection of the Huntington Library in San Marino. Only 16 of the several hundred traditional codices written by ancient Mesoamericans still survive. They were made of deerskin or bark paper and opened like folding screens.