Centzontepec (Mdz16r)

Centzontepec (Mdz16r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph combines tepetl) (hill, mountain) with the number 400 (centzontli). The tepetl is the usual bell shape painted a two-tone green. It has the usual red and yellow horizontal stripes at its base. The number four hundred is represented with a sign that looks like a tree, but it could also intend a pony tail or bunch of hair. It is vertical and narrow, with short black spikes coming off what looks like a black trunk. The locative suffix (-c) is not shown visually, but it combines with -tepe- to form -tepec, a visual locative suffix meaning "on the hill" or "on the mountain."

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Four hundred is also a very common, large, vigesimal number that is found across the culture. But perhaps this place was known for having four hundred something, perhaps a reflection of its population or labor force. Labor teams were usually counted in multiples of 20.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

çençontepec. puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Centzontepec, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
locative (visual not silent)
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Numbers, Math
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black
green (dark)
green (light)
red
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
spiky
bell-shaped (upright)
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Keywords: 

mountains, hills, montañas, cerros, números, numbers, 400, cuatrocientos

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

centzon(tli), four hundred or large clump of grasses or lock of hair, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/centzontli-0
cen-, one entire, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cen
tzon(tli), head, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzontli
tepe(tl), hill, mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl
-tepec, on the hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepec 

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"On the Hill of the Four Hundred" (Karttunen apparently agrees with this reading by Berdan and Anawalt) [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"On the Hill of the Four Hundred" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 184; these authors spell the place name ÇenÇontepec))

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 16 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 42 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).