Acxotlan (Chav16)

Acxotlan (Chav16)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the place name Acxotlan (“Place of Laurel or Fir Branches”) shows a frontal view of two upright branches with brush-like vegetation (seemingly, acxoyatl). These are standing on a simple, landscape drawing of a hill (not the early bell-shaped tepetl glyph). Hence, we are calling this a simplex, given the focus on the branches. The hill, however, could serve as a semantic visual for the locative suffix (-tlan), and so we are designating this a compound glyph.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Source Manuscript: 
Chavero, Codex (Chav)
Date of Manuscript: 

1578

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Plants, Flora
Religion (Indigenous)
Wood, wooden things
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
shading and parallel line hatching
spiky
symmetry
vertical, upright
Parts (of compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Keywords: 

ramas, abetos, laureles, fir tree branches, laurel tree branches, religious festival decorations, fiestas religiosas

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

Acxotlan, a neighborhood of merchants in Tenochtitlan, https://gdn.iib.unam.mx/diccionario/acxotlan/39341
acxoya(tl), a type of branch used in the festival of Huei Tozoztli, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acxoyatl
-tlan, near; often found as a suffix on place names, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Lugar de Ramas de Laurel o Abeto

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

The Codex Chavero of Huexotzinco (or Códice Chavero de Huexotzinco), https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_03246_001/?sp=16

Image Source, Rights: 

The Codex Chavero of Huexotzinco (or Códice Chavero de Huexotzinco) is held by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México. It is published online by the World Digital Library and the Library of Congress, which is “unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection.”

See Also: 

Acxotlan (Chav16)

Acxotla (CmpRG)

acxoyatl (CmpRG)