amilli (Mdz25r)

amilli (Mdz25r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element has been carved from the compound glyph for the place name, Amiltzinco. The bottom portion of this sign is a milli, or small agricultural parcel. The land is long, horizontal, and segmented into smaller pieces, painted in alternating purple and orange or terracotta. The water element (a-) of amilli is not represented visually. A two-toned green maize plant with two ears of corn, one red and one yellow, grows on the parcel. While we see the land from a bird's eye point of view, we see the plant in elevation.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Even though we do not see the water (atl) sign in this glyph for amilli, there may be an assumption that the land is irrigated, because it has a healthy and fruitful maize plant growing out of the field.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Agriculture, Gardens, Stock Raising
Corn, Maize
Food, Eating, Cooking
Landscape Features
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
green (dark)
green (light)
orange/terracotta
purple
red
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
symmetry
segmented
rectangular
bird's eye view
horizontal
Keywords: 

maize, corn, maíz, milpa, fields, irrigation, agricultural parcel, riego, agricultura

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

amil(li), an irrigated field, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/amilli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

irrigated field

Whittaker's Transliteration: 

Mexico City

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

tierra de regadío o de riego

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 25 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 60 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: 

milli (Mdz6r)

Amiltzinco (Mdz25r)