acatl (Mdz50r)

acatl (Mdz50r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for reed (acatl) has been carved from the compound glyph for the place name Acazacatlan ("Near the Reedy Straw"?). This component of the compound glyph singles out the reed plants, which are tall, leafy, and turquoise-colored. The grasses that also appeared in the original compound have been removed from this glyph. Remnants of the yellow color of the grasses (zacatl) remain on the edges of these reed plants.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This element for reed/cane shows classic plants, painted a classic color. Reeds were year signs in the Mesoamerican calendar and day signs in the day count (tonalpohualli). Reeds also had many practical uses, one of which was for making darts and arrows. Thus, some of the attestations of the glyph for acatl will look a lot like darts and arrows (acatl or mitl), with their red and yellow coloration at each end and with added feathers, but without the arrowhead. The added arrowhead is more likely meant to convey mitl, not just acatl. The presence of two reed plants (acatl) may be intended as a plural.
Wikipedia has published a photo of acatl plants.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
day name
year name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Plants, Flora
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
Keywords: 

reeds, xiuhpohualli, año, turquesa, xihuitl

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

aca(tl), reed, cane, reed-arrow, reed-dart https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acatl

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

reed

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

la caña

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 50 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 110 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).

See Also: 

acatl (Mdz42r)

Acazacatla (Mdz50r)