Apan (TK206v)

Apan (TK206v)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the place name Apan (“On the Water”). The compound has two elements, and it is read from bottom to top. On the bottom is a swirling sign for water (atl), painted a purple-gray color, and with alternating droplets or beads and turbinate shells alternating as they splash off. Lines of current (movement) also run through the water. Above the water is a red swallowtail flag (pamitl) on a white post with a cap on the top. The flag supplies the phonetic syllable (-pan) for the locative suffix, meaning on.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Pamitl (vs. panitl) is the preferred spelling for flags on the eastern side of the Valley of Mexico. But either flag can still supply the locative suffix -pan, with an “n.” Apan can not only mean “On the Water,” but it could be short for apantli (canal). The gloss gives apā, with an overbar, but it seems unlikely that the overbar means anything more than the one -n. There is one personal name Apan in this collection, but there are no other place names for Apan (as of May 2026). We do have two apparent individuals from a place called Apan, as their names or ethnicities are Apanecatl. See below.

Side Note: The folio numbers are not always clear in the copy published online by the British Museum. Marc Thouvenot gives this page the number K04_B in his TLACHIA digital collection, https://tlachia.iib.unam.mx/tepetlaoztoc/K04_B.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

apā

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

Apan

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Tepetlaoztoc, Codex (aka Kingsborough) (TK)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1556

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Tepetlaoztoc, East of Lake Tetzcoco

Semantic Categories: 
phonetic dimensions
place name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
visual movement
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Flags, banners
Movement
Names (places)
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
purple
red
Shapes and Perspectives: 
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
upward
Keywords: 

agua, canal, canales, banner, banners, bandera, banderas, nombres de lugares, topónimo, topónimos, fonetismo

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

pam(itl), flag, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pamitl
-pan, locative suffix, on, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pan
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

posiblemente, Sobre el Agua

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

The Codex Kingsborough, also known as the Códice de Tepetlaoztoc, and the Memorial de los indios de Tepetlaoztoc, is not on display. It was transferred from the British Library and is now held by the British Museum. It is shared on line at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am2006-Drg-13964

Image Source, Rights: 

©The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. Please also cite the <em>Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphsem>, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities Projects, 2020-present) and this URL.

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Apan (MH602v)

Apanecatl (MH486v)

Apanecatl (MH504v)