Atotonilco (Mdz30r)

Atotonilco (Mdz30r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex glyph for Atotonilco (perhaps "At the Hot Springs") doubles as the glyph for atotonilli (hot water). To express the concept of hot water, the glyph includes a ceramic pot (terracotta-colored) with a black (or gray) bottom. It sits on two stones (with the typical wavy lines of purple and orange or terracotta coloring), and water spills over the edges of the top of the pot. The water is a turquoise blue with lines of current and turbinate shells and droplets (or local jade beads) coming off the flow. The -co locative suffix, intentionally or not, can be conveyed by the ceramic pot (comitl).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This simplex glyph could be considered a compound, given that it contains elements that are also glyphic in and of themselves--the stones (tetl, the water (atl), and the pot (comitl), with all their classic glyph-like characteristics. Atotonilco is likely a place with hot springs or thermal waters, having nothing to do with cooking, even if that visual is meant to bring forth the phonetic reading of hot water.

Pedro Carrasco (Estructura político-territorial del imperio tenochca, 2016) explains that this Atotonilco with the smaller glyph came to be called Atotonilco de Tula in Spanish, to distinguish it from Atotonilco El Grande (Hueiatotonilco).

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

atotonilco. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Atotonilco, pueblo

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:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Ceramics, Pottery

Containers, Dishes, Eating Utensils

Fire, Tobacco, Incense, Smoke

Food, Eating, Cooking

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

purple (light)/lavender

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle, circular or rounded

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

symmetry

Keywords:

hot water, boiling water, pots, fires, water, shells, aguas termales, aguas calientes, fuegos, caracoles, agua hervida

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
atotonil(li), hot water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atotonilli
totonil(li), something heated, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/totonilli
totonil(ia), to heat something, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/totonilia
-co (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/co

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Place of Hot Water" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"On the Hot Water" (Berdan & Anawalt, vol. 1)This simplex glyph for Atotonilco doubles as the glyph for atotonil(li) (hot water). To express the concept of hot water, the glyph includes a ceramic pot (terracotta-colored) with a black bottom. It sits on tw

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 30 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 70 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).