Atezcahuacan (Mdz42r)

Atezcahuacan (Mdz42r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

There are two visible components to this compound place name for the town of Atezahuacan. The top element is a shallow pool or puddle, atezcatl) with some thick black lines of curren. The bottom part is a mirror (tezcatl) with a black center and a red ring around this center part. The mirror in this example has four small circles on its perimeter, perhaps suggesting a vibrance that we see with gemstones, such as gold xihuitl or the chalchihuitl, or the sun tonatiuh. Neither the possession (-hua-) nor the locative suffix (-can) are shown visually.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

It may be that a mirror pond is the central landscape feature, or it may be that tezcatl) is included in the glyph to ensure the phonetic reading of atezcatl) and not just atl) for the water. The -hua- (possessor) and -can (locative suffix) are not obviously indicated visually. The Codex Mendoza glyph collection includes two different renderings of Atezcahuacan. See below, right.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

atezcahuacā. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Atezcahuacan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

possessive pronoun

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle, circular or rounded

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

quincunx or quatrefoil

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

pools, ponds, puddles, water, mirror, reflection, piscinas, estanques, charcos, agua, espejo, reflexión

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
atezca(tl), pool or puddle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atezcatl
tezca(tl), mirror, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tezcatl
-hua- (possessor), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/hua
-can (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/can-2

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Where There Are Lagoons" (Gordon Whittaker, forthcoming essay, 2022); "Place That Has a Pool of Water" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 172)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"Donde Hay Lagunas"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Gordon Whittaker

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 42 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 94 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).