Axayacatl (TR34v)

Axayacatl (TR34v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound hieroglyph for the personal name Axayacatl, held by a late fifteenth-century Mexica ruler known for imperial expansion, shows the head of a man in profile, looking toward the viewer's right. His eye is open. Running down his face is a stream of water with five short sprays, each one with either a droplet or a turbinate shell at the tip. The water is painted the usual color of turquoise blue.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Some have translated this name as Water Face, but this is also the name of an insect. If the latter is meant, then this glyph is fully phonographic. The Spanish-language gloss was written in two hands, with the reverential suffix (-tzin) added to the name at a later point along with the translation "Face of Water." The contextualizing image shows the rulers seated on a petlatl and icpalli, symbols of his rule. His knees are up, and he is covered with a cape having a red and blue-trimmed diamond shape on his back and the same red and blue trim where the cape meets his feet.

For another rendition of the glyph for Axayacatl, see Marc Thouvenot's vignette about an image from the Códice Matritense de la Real Academia, https://vignettes.sup-infor.com/imagen/5-RA_01_051r_f. In that one, the water curves around the top of the head and spills down over Axayacatl's face.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

Axayacantzin
caradel
agua

Gloss Normalization: 

Axayacatzin, cara del agua

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Telleriano-Remensis, Codex (TR)
Date of Manuscript: 

ca. 1550–1563

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully phonographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Politics, Power, Governance
Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
red
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
facing right
leaf, marquise, pointed oval
profile view
striped
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
right to left
Keywords: 

Axayacatzin, gobernante, tecuhtli, tecutli, teuctli, tlahtoani, tlatoani, nombres de hombres

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

a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
xayaca(tl), face, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xayacatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Agua-Cara (o Cara del Agua)

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Telleriano-Remensis Codex, folio 34 recto, MS Mexicain 385, Gallica digital collection, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8458267s/f94.item.zoom

Image Source, Rights: 

The non-commercial reuse of images from the Bibliothèque nationale de France is free as long as the user is in compliance with the legislation in force and provides the citation: “Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France” or “Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.”

Orthography: 
intrusive "n"
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Axayacatl (Mdz10r)

Axayacatl (Mdz19r)

Axayacatl (FCbk8f2r)