axolotl (T2782:15:17r)

axolotl (T2782:15:17r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the glyphic element axolotl (a type of salamander) has been carved from the compound place name glyph Axoloapan (see below).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

AGN Tierras 2782, exp. 15

Date of Manuscript:

1590

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Otumba, Mexico

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Misc.

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

Keywords:

salamanders, salamandras, animales

Museum & Rare Book Comparisons:

Museum/Rare Book Notes:

This mixed media piece called “Abundancia,” by César Menchaca García, is dated 2024. At the lower end is the head of an axolotl, which has become a very strong source of pride in contemporary Mexico in the twenty-first century, as people struggle to preserve the species in the surviving lakes of the capital, such as are found in Xochimilco. On display in the Secretaría de Educación Pública, Mexico City. Photo by S. Wood, 7 May 2025.

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

axolo(tl), a type of salamander, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/axolotl

Image Source:

Single-page codex, Archivo General de la Nación, México, Ramo de Tierras Vol. 2782, Exp. 15, Fol. 17r.

Image Source, Rights:

The Archivo General de la Nación (AGN), México, holds the original manuscript. This image is published here under a Creative Commons license, asking that you cite the AGN and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.