Eight-Deer Ocelot-Claw, Mixtec Chieftain or Life of an Aztec King, East Los Angeles, 1978

Eight-Deer Ocelot-Claw, Mixtec Chieftain or Life of an Aztec King, East Los Angeles, 1978. Edward R. Roybal Comprehensive Health Center, exterior, 245 South Fetterly Avenue (at 3rd Street). 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. Glazed ceramic tile, 277' x approximately 3 1/2', by Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall, architects and engineers. Anthony J. Lumsden, principal for design. -- Dunitz, Street gallery, p. 310 #40