ufdatastudio/mixtec-figures

Introduction

This dataset contains 3 different directories, codex_nuttall/, codex_selden/, and codex_vindobonensis/. Each directory contains images taken from the Mixtec Codex Zouche-Nuttall, Mixtec Codex Selden, and Mixtec Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus I respectively. The folders comprise images of human Mixtec figures.

To learn more about the Mixtec, read the blog post here. In addition to covering the Semasiographic Writing System of the Mixtec civilization, the post contains more general information about who the Mixtec were, as well as their contributions.

A Look at Figure Segments

These images of human Mixtec figures were extracted from pages of the respective codex using Segment Anything by Meta AI.

File Formats and Figure Names

Below is an example of a human figure taken from the Codex Nuttall.

Example 1 - A Human Figure Taken from the Codex Nuttall

Within the codex_nuttall/gender/female/ directory, this file is named 044-a-03.png. The numerical values in the naming convention for each of the files denote pageNumber-figureQuality-figureNumber. The first field, pageNumber, indicates on which page in the Codex the figure was extracted from or where it can be found when referecing the full document.

The figureQuality field is used as a marker of quality for the extracted image. In this convention, images can be a, b, or c with a being a high quality image and c being an image that is not easy to pick out. A thorough explanation for how the quality marker was assessed can be found on the README file in this GitHub repository.

The figureNumber field indicates what number in chronological order the figure is on the page from which it was extracted using conventions for reading a Mixtec Codex. These conventions are discussed in detail in The Complete Codex Zouche-Nuttall: Mixtec Lineage Histories and Political Biographies by Robert Lloyd Williams.