Azcatitlan (Azca7)

Azcatitlan (Azca7)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph represents the place name Azcatitlan. It shows a bird's eye view of an ant *(azcatl) in the middle of a circle that may be filled with sand. Overlapping with this circle of dots, on its lower left side, is a curving set of teeth that provides the phonetics for the locative (-titlan) ("in," "between," etc.).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

As Gordon Whittaker (2021, 102) has noticed, when the locative is -titlan, it is a full set of teeth (rather than just the two, upper, front teeth) that provides the visual, as is the case here, for the phonogram.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

Ascatitla

Gloss Normalization: 

Azcatitlan

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Azcatitlan, Codex (Azca)
Date of Manuscript: 

post-1550, but content about the migration from Aztlan to about 1527

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

perhaps Tlatelolco, Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
place name
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
locative (visual not silent)
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Names (places)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle, circular or rounded
curving, curvy, curved
dotted, granular, textured
facing right
bird's eye view
profile view
Parts (of compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
right to left
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

azca(tl), ant, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/azcatl
tlan(tli), teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
-titlan (locative suffix), in, between, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/titlan

Image Source: 

The Codex Azcatitlan is also known as the Histoire mexicaine, [Manuscrit] Mexicain 59–64. It is housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and hosted on line by the World Digital Library and the Library of Congress.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15280/?sp=7&st=image

Image Source, Rights: 

The Library of Congress is “unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection.” But please cite Bibliothèque Nationale de France and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.

Historical Contextualizing Image: