Atl Itlalacyan (Osu35v)

Atl Itlalacyan (Osu35v)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the place name Atl Itlalacyan (Where Water Sinks into the Earth). This compound hieroglyph includes a green, bell-shaped hill or mountain (tepetl), which can serve as a visual locative. It might also suggest this is an altepetl. "Tepetl," per se, does not enter into the name. Blue water pours down in three little streams in the air above the mountain. These streams have lines of current and droplets or beads at the lower end of each one. At the top of the mountain is a small reservoir of water. Perhaps the water coming down is rainwater that feeds the reservoir. Or perhaps the visual seeks to show how rainwater seeps into the Earth. The region could have a sinkhole or a spring-fed stream that goes underground.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Atlitlalacyan is the name of a town in contemporary Morelos, Mexico. According to Chimalpahin, this town may have some connection to Chapoltepec. [See: Domingo Francisco de San Juan Antón Muñón Chimalpain Cuauhtlehuanitzin Primer amoxtli libro. 3a. Relación de las Différentes Histoires Originales Víctor M. Castillo F., ed., Mexico: 1997, p. 28.] The way the mountain is drawn in this hieroglyph is similar to the one that refers to a ravine (see Atlauhpolco, below). So perhaps the water sinking place is in a ravine. The red and yellow horizontal lines at the base of this hill or mountain point to the location where a natural spring could emerge, which is attested in a number of hieroglyphs in this collection. Also, the mountain and spring together could stand for altepetl (town, socio-political unit, or ethnic state).

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

Atlitlalacyan.

Gloss/Text Normalization:

Atl Itlalacyan

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Osuna, Codex (Osu)

Date of Manuscript:

1551–1565

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

bell-shaped (upright)

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

frontal view

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

agua, sumidero, sumideros, manantial, manantiales, cisterna, cisternas, embalse, embalses, depósito, depósitos, nombres de lugares, topónimos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
tlal(li), land, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlalli
tlalaqui, to sink into the earth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlalaqui
i-, possessive, its, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/i
-yan, locative suffi, x referring to a place where something occurs or is done habitually, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yan

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

posiblemente, Lugar del Sumidero

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Library of Congress Online Catalog and the World Digital Library, Osuna Codex, or Painting of the Governor, Mayors, and Rulers of Mexico, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_07324/. The original is located in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.

Image Source, Rights:

"The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse." But please cite the Biblioteca Nacional de España and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs if you use any of these images here or refer to the content on this page, providing the URL

Historical Contextualizing Image: