Apanecatl (MH895v)

Apanecatl (MH895v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This is a black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name or ethnicity, Apanecatl. The glyph shows a frontal view of a flower-like quincunx with four large “petals,” small concentric circles at the center, and four short “leaves” poking out between the petals.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The usual glyphs for Apanecatl involve water (for apantli, canal). This sign has more of a religious significance, apparently, given that it looks much like representations of tonalli (day and solar associations and at the core of the religious divinatory calendar, the tonalpohualli). See below for examples of tonalli signs. This glyph also has a shape much like the Matlalin flower which appears to have a strong cultural significance, given its shape and coloring.

The name includes "Apan" (from apantli, canal or waterway), suggesting a reading of "Canal Person.” But Apanecatl was short for Atempanecatl or Atecpanecatl, according to Susan Gillespie, The Aztec Kings, 1989, 258. According to the Crónica Mexicayotl, Apanecatl was a legendary teomama (bearer of a divine force) in the migration that eventually reached and founded Mexico City.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

luys apanecatl

Gloss Normalization:

Luis Apanecatl

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Flowers

Gender (male)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Religion (Indigenous)

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

frontal view

quincunx or quatrefoil

Keywords:

flores, agua, quincunces, soles, etnicidades, migraciones legendarias, tonalpohualli, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Apanecatl, a name of an important historical figure, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apanecatl
apantli, waterway, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apantli
-e, possessive suffix, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/a
-catl, a suffix that indicates affiliation or ethnicity, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/catl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

(nombre étnico con asociaciones religiosos-indígenas)

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 895v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=863&st=image.

Image Source, Rights:

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Orthography:

"y" for i

Historical Contextualizing Image: