Atlauh (MH737r)

This black-line drawing—with added brown watercolor--of the simplex glyph for the personal name Atlauh (“Ravine”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a bird’s eye view of spinning and flowing water that is caught between two dark lines. This seems to be is a visual suggestion of water that is flowing through a ravine (atlauhtli). In many glyphs for ravines, water is evident and seems to be a crucial component of a ravine (see examples, below), something evident, too, in the a- start to the word, which comes from atl, water. The movement and swirling of water also have great importance in the Nahua visual culture.