Chalchiuh (BMap I55)

Chalchiuh (BMap I55)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This painted black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the name Chalchiuh (short for chalchihuitl, “Greenstone”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph involves two concentric circles, with the inner circle painted black. This black region does have an open center that is left natural in color. The outer circle is left natural, too. Around the perimeter of the outer circle are four evenly placed very small circles, also left natural. The result is a quincunx shape. The small circles almost give the stone four corners. They may be there to suggest vibrance.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Often, the four small circles will have a dot inside, which brings to mind beads, and the chalchihuitl precious greenstones were often carved into beads and worn in necklaces and bracelets. The jade or jadeite beads were metaphors for drops of water. This glyph could also be a metaphor for a woman’s genitals.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

This glyph is not glossed; the decipherment of the glyph comes from Gordon Whittaker’s contribution to the study by Mary E. Miller and Barbara E. Mundy (2012).

Source Manuscript:

Beinecke Map (BMap)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1565

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City or the Valley of Mexico

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gender (male)

Jewelry, Crowns, or other Adornment

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

circle, circular or rounded

quincunx or quatrefoil

Keywords:

jade, piedras verdes, quincunces, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

chalchihui(tl), greenstone or jade, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chalchihuitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Chalchihuite

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Beinecke Map/Codex Reese, section 8, no. 55 in the Whittaker study (published in the Miller/Mundy book, 2012), and see the original at: https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3600017

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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: