acolli (Mdz38r)

The protruding bone at the site of the shoulder does draw attention to that part of the anatomy. The water-colored band at the wrist is a phonetic complement that clarifies that this word starts with a- (from water, atl), and it is not just a maitl (hand, arm). The adornments on the arm seem to recall a historical or divine figure and, more generally, the ethnicity of the Acolhuas of Tetzcoco. Gordon Whittaker calls "acol" a pseudo-logogram, for in place names it is not literally about a shoulder but provides the phonetics for "a" (water) and "col" (bend, or curve), referring to "the curve of the lakeshore." [See Whittaker, Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 180.]