Atlixxocan (Osu2v)

Atlixxocan (Osu2v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This colorful compound glyph for the place name Atl Ixxocan or Atlixxocan comes from folio 2 verso (image 7) of the Codex Osuna. It shows swirling water (atl) painted turquoise blue. The water has at least four water droplets (small, concentric circles) at the tips of short streams spinning off from the center. In the center of the swirling water is a starry eye, upside-down, with a red eyelid, a white pupil, and a white iris. This may be a reference to a place with a natural spring (ojo de agua, in Spanish).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

There is a syllable that goes unaccounted for visually, the second “x” plus the o. The element “xo” often refers to feet, but nothing like that appears here. Our Online Nahuatl Dictionary includes a reference to a chirimía (flute) player who was from Atlixxocan. Also, the Codex Osuna discusses land distribution in Atlixxocan by the Oidor, Doctor Ceynos.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

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)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Names (places)

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

blue (turquoise)

red

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

circle (half)

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

upward

Keywords:

ojos, ojo de agua, remolinos, nombres de lugares

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
ix(tli), eye, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ixtli
-can, place of, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/can-2

Image Source:

Library of Congress Online Catalog and the World Digital Library, Osuna Codex, or Painting of the Governor, Mayors, and Rulers of Mexico (Pintura del Gobernador, Alcaldes y Regidores de México), 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: