Cacalomacan (Mdz33r)

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph represents the place name Cacalomacan. It includes a crow (cacalotl) and an arm with a hand (maitl). The locative suffix -can is not shown visually. The crow is a dark gray, shown in profile, looking to the viewer's right. Its beak is open, perhaps a subtle commentary on the crowing sound they make. The human arm above the bird is bent at the elbow, and the open (left) hand appears above the head of the bird.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The open hand is poised to grab or capture (ma) the bird, which adds a possible layer of graphic syllepsis, overlapping with maitl.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

graphic syllepsis

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cacalo(tl), crow, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cacalotl
ma(itl), arm/hand, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/maitl
ma, to grab or capture, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ma-0
-can (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/can-2

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza folio 33 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 76 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).