Atonal (MH623r)

Atonal (MH623r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This glyph for the fairly common personal name, Atonal (“Water" the day sign, or Dzawindanda in Mixtec), shows descending water (with lines of current and a turbinate shell or droplet at the end of the main stream). At the top of the water is an added swirl, which might represent the vibrance of tonalli, although this is a tentative reading. If this glyph is only water (atl), then it is a simplex and not a compound.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This is likely a case where a relatively average citizen was given an illustrious calendrical name. The famous Atonal was a Mixtec ruler. According to Wikipedia, Atonaltzin (in the reverential form of the name in Nahuatl) was also called Dzawindanda by the Mixtecs. He ruled the Mixtec kingdom of Coixtlahuaca. After the first Motecuhzoma took power over Coixtlahuaca, sometime in the second half of the fifteenth century, the Nahuas executed Atonal apparently in revenge for the deaths of a large number of long distance merchants. Maarten Jansen and ‎Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez (Time and the Ancestors, 2017, 337) suggest the following meaning for Atonal: "Atonal refers to a person with a calendar name that contained the day sign Water."

Other Atonal glyphs from the Matrícula de Huexotzinco often have radiating short lines to show the tonalli, and one has a sun with an aura of these short lines. See below. But, there are many different renditions of the famous name Atonal across this digital collection.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

Diego
atonal

Gloss Normalization: 

Diego Atonal

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Codex (Huex)
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
personal name
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
neologisms (visual, glyphic)
noun(s)
visible movement
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Celestial Phenomena
Gender (male)
Movement
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Religion (Indigenous)
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bird's eye view
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
Other Cultural Influences: 
Mixtec
Keywords: 

nombres de hombres, nombres personas famosas, gobernadores, Mixtecos, calendarios, días, agua, sol, canales, tonales, fuerzas animadoras, religión indígena, tonalpohualli

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
tonal(li), sun, day, personal animating force, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tonalli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Agua-Fuerza Animadora (?)

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 623r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=328st=image.

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Atonal (Mdz7v)

Atonal (MH487v)

Atonal (MH554v)

Atonal (MH607r)

Atonal (MH626v)