apantli (Mdz46r)
This element of a canal (apantli) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Cozamaloapan (see below). It has a yellow lining and a trapezoidal shape shown in a cross-section; this may suggest some construction rather than a natural shape. Water typically has droplets and turbinate shells splashing off, and this is no exception, except that the placement of these is somewhat affected by the removal of the object from the center of the canal. The water is turquoise blue--the usual color--and it has black lines of varying thickness, suggesting current and flow (movement).
Stephanie Wood
The apantli glyph or element can have a wide range of color combinations for the lining around the water, while the representation of the water remains much the same (but with or without the splashes coming off the top). The lining can be a single color (red, yellow, or green), or it can be two or three colors. See some examples below.
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
water, shells, agua, conchas, canales, construcción
apan(tli), water channel or canal, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apantli
pan(tli), furrow, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pantli
-apan (locative suffix), on the water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apan-0
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
-pan (locative suffix), on, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pan
water channel
el canal, o en la orilla del agua
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 46 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 102 of 188.
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).
