cempohualmatl (HJ276:79:pt2:89r)
This notation that is like a compound glyph consists of a black and white line drawing of a flag or banner (pantli), which counts for the number twenty, facing right with a hand (maitl or matl) below it. With measurements, we tend to find that the intended term is matl more often than maitl, even though of course the image is of a hand, without a doubt. The context is a land measurement. Here, what we are presuming to be a "cempohualmatl" compound is clearly used to indicate the dimensions of an agricultural parcel. One measure is six of these groups of twenty plus ten small black circles for a total of 130 (unspecified lengths, but perhaps from one hand to the other when the arms are stretched out, a fathom). The other measure of the rectangle is three units plus fifteen black small black circles for a total of 75 (again, probably 75 fathoms). See the historical contextualizing image for reference. Measurements of this sort in Spanish are often called varas (like yards) or brazas (fathoms). We have another cempohualmatl in this collection, that one is glossed, and it also comes from a land suit.
Robert Haskett
As noted, the matl may be something like the measurement of two outstretched arms, from hand to hand, in length. When speaking of the human body, the distinction between hand and arm is ambiguous. Note the various examples of hands (in this case, being anatomical, usually called maitl), below. While called "hands," these hands are practically full arms! Of course, some hands do appear as just the hand, often (though not exclusively) when combined in a place name ending in -man.
This compound glyph appears on a pictorial manuscript submitted by indigenous petitioners on or around October 11, 1549, as evidence during a land dispute between the Cuernavacan community of Panchimalco and the Marquesado del Valle. One of the pictorials found in the so-called Códice del Marquesado del Valle, it pictures a parcel of agricultural land belonging to the community that had allegedly been usurped by the Marqués twelve years previously, when it was planted with sugar cane (see the contextualizing image). For more information, consult: Códices indígenas de algunos pueblos del Marquesado, 1933 and 1883, “Códice núm. 9; and Santiago Sánchez, Códices del Marquesado del Valle, 2003, 86-122.
Robert Haskett
1549
Robert Haskett
measurement, hand, arm, braza, xiuhpohualli, año, turquesa, xihuitl
ma(tl), a unit of measure, usually considered as the equivalent of about six feet and sometimes translated into Spanish as braza and fathom in English, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/matl
ma(itl), hand or arm, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/maitl
veinte brazas
Robert Haskett
Single-page codex, Archivo General de la Nación, México, Ramo de Hospital de Jesús, leg. 276, Exp. 79, pt. 2, fol. 89r.
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.
