Atl Amaxac (CmpRG)

This is a compound glyph naming the town called Atl Amaxac. It is featured in the 1580 Relación Geográfica de Cempoala (originally Cempohuallan, and now Zempoala, Hidalgo). It consists of the term for water (atl) and a second word meaning “where the water divides” (amaxac), the final -c acting as a locative indicating the place where something happens. The large bifurcated hill (tepetl) is a semantic indicator for the “division” of the waters seen issuing out of it, as well as for the locative. There is a possible alternative reading, however. Maxactli can mean “crotch,” among other things, and the configuration of the hill could be interpreted as showing a crotch-like feature. If this is so, then the “a-“ of amaxac would be a second statement of atl, combining with the initial term to emphasize the watery nature of the place and name. Whatever the case, the naturalistic hill has an uneven black outline as well as wavy black lines in its interior, all of this depicting contours (three-dimensionality). The hill is colored tan and brown in its central part, with greens on its upper part and sides. The water symbol points down, coming down and out from the “crotch” or division of the hill. It has four or perhaps five “streams,” three of them tipped with round droplets (or precious gems) and the two with turbinate shells, all of them uncolored. The water itself is painted blue.