Atlauhpolco (Mdz10r)

Atlauhpolco (Mdz10r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Atlauhpolco (contemporary, Atlapulco or Atlapolco) has two notable components. One is a flow of water (atl) heading to the viewer's right from the center of the glyph. The other is a ravine {atlauhtli) formed by two mountains or hills. The latter have the standard bell shape painted with two tones of green. The one on the left also has the classic red and yellow horizontal stripes at the base. The one on the right might have had those stripes, too, but this is obscured perhaps by the water flow. The water is a classic turquoise blue with white droplets/beads and turbinate shells coming off the flow. The locative suffix (-co) is not shown visually, but the mountains and ravine could provide a semantic locative in its place.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Berdan and Anawalt (The Codex Mendoza, 1992, v. 1, p. 173) suggests a comparison with Xalatlauhco, which also has a ravine or gorge, but with sand in place of the water. See below, right. Atlauhpolco and Xalatlauhco are actually near to one another, as shown in the Pintura del Gobernador, Alcaldes, y Regidores de México (Códice Osuna): Estudio y Transcripción, ed. Vicenta Cortés Alonso (1976).

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

atlapulco. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Atlauhpolco, pueblo (Atlapulco, State of Mexico, today)

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:

locative (not visual, but represented semantically)

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

bell-shaped (upright)

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

wavy

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

upward

Keywords:

mountains, hills, water, shells, cerros, caracoles, agua, montañas, ravines, barrancas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

atlauh(tli), deep ravine or gorge, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atlauhtli
-pol-, an intensifier (often negative), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pol
-co (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/co
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"In the Very Deep Gorge" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 173)

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 10 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 30 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).