Chalchiuh (MH736r)

Chalchiuh (MH736r)
Simplex Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Chalchiuh shows a stylized version of a green stone (chalchihuitl)in a frontal view.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

martin
chalchiuh

Gloss/Text Normalization:

Martín Chalchiuh

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Jewelry, Crowns, or other Adornment

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

Turquoise or Jadeite/Nephrite

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

circle, circular or rounded

frontal view

quincunx or quatrefoil

segmented

Keywords:

jades, green stones, chalchihuites

Museum/Rare Book/Realia Comparisons:

Museum/Rare Book/Realia Notes:

This stone bas relief carving of a precious green stone appears on the side of a headdress on a pre-contact sculpture in the Museo del Templo Mayor. Comparing this carving against the hieroglyph above, the memory of the details remained strong as of 1560. Photograph by Stephanie Wood, 18 January 2026.

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

chalchihui(tl), a precious green stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chalchihuitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Chalchihuite

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 736r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=550&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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: