apantli (Mdz48r)
This element of a canal (apantli) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Ahuilizapan (see below). The canal is shown in a cross-section. It has a red and yellow liner and a trapezoidal shape, all of which suggests some degree of construction rather than a natural shape. The water is turquoise blue and has black lines of varying thickness that suggest current and flow (movement). Some of the water pours over the edge of the liner. Splashing off the water are droplets and turbinate shells, which are emblematic in the iconography of water.
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
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
water channel
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 48 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 106 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).
