Atotolco (TK206r)

Atotolco (TK206r)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound Nahuatl hieroglyph representing the place name Atotolco (perhaps “Turkey Watering Place”) has three elements. It reads upward from the water (atl) phonetic syllable -a-, then the two turkey (totolin) heads for the “totol” part of the name, and finally a pottery jug (comitl), providing the phonetic syllable for the locative suffix -co. The turkey heads connect seamlessly with the flow of water, curving upward in an artistic way. The water has the usual lines of current and alternating droplets or beads and turbinate shells splashing off the flow. The turkey beaks come up and touch the pottery jug or pot on both the left and right. The turkey heads are shown in profile.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

A similar place name, Atotonilco, apparently refers to a place with a natural hot spring. This one is lacking a key syllable to intend the same meaning. But the translation “turkey watering place” would benefit from some substantiation. If this place name is not about turkeys, then that element could be a phonogram.

Side Note: The folio numbers are not always clear in the copy published online by the British Museum. Marc Thouvenot gives this page the number K04_A in his TLACHIA digital collection, https://tlachia.iib.unam.mx/tepetlaoztoc/K04_A.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

.atotolco.

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

Atotolco

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Tepetlaoztoc, Codex (aka Kingsborough) (TK)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1556

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Tepetlaoztoc, East of Lake Tetzcoco

Semantic Categories: 
phonetic dimensions
place name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
reduplication (in gloss/text)
reduplication (visual)
syllable: a/atl (from atl)
syllable: co/con/com (from comitl, pot/jug)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals: Birds
Names (places)
Pottery, Earthenware
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing left
facing right
profile view
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
3
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
upward
Keywords: 

agua, barro, jarra, olla, guajolote, pavo, pavos, nombres de lugares, topónimo, topónimos, fonetismo

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

totol(in), turkey, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/totolin
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
-co, locative suffix, at, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/co

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

posiblemente, Bebedero de Pavos

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

The Codex Kingsborough, also known as the Códice de Tepetlaoztoc, and the Memorial de los indios de Tepetlaoztoc, is not on display. It was transferred from the British Library and is now held by the British Museum. It is shared on line at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am2006-Drg-13964

Image Source, Rights: 

©The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. Please also cite the <em>Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphsem>, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities Projects, 2020-present) and this URL.

Orthography: 
intrusive period
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Totol (MH484v)

totolin (MH525r)