Ce Cuauh (MH492r)

Ce Cuauh (MH492r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the date and personal name Ce Cuauh ("One-Eagle," attested as male in the contextualizing image, below) consists of the head of an eagle (cuauhtli) in profile, facing toward the viewer's right. The feathers on the back of the eagle's head are spiky, and its beak is open. The numerical notation for "One" is not shown visually; its only presence is in the gloss and in the fact that we only see one eagle head.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This name comes from the tonalpohualli, the 260-day divinatory calendar. Calendrics were an important element in the Nahuas' religious views of the cosmos.

Here is an example of one step in the evolution of calendrical personal names, which were gradually dropping their numerical components. The absolutive (-tli) at the end of Cuauh has also fallen away, which is common in personal names. Absolutives will disappear, and sometimes they will be added when it is unexpected.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

marcos ceguauh

Gloss Normalization: 

Marcos Ce Cuauh (or Cecuauh)

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Xitlali Torres

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
Keywords: 

eagles, águilas, números, numbers, feathers, plumas

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 
Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Uno Águila, 1-Águila

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 492v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=52&st=image.

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Orthography: 
Historical Contextualizing Image: