chilli (Mdz13v)

chilli (Mdz13v)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Tecuantepec (today: Tehuantepec). It is a small, upright, red chile pepper with a green stem.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This sign is not a phonogram of that place name, but an ideogram. It is like an emblem that tells us something about the region of Tehuantepec, where hot peppers are grown in abundance.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Food, Eating, Cooking
Plants, Flora
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
green (dark)
red
Shapes and Perspectives: 
pointed (see also spiky)
vertical, upright
Keywords: 

chiles, peppers

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

chil(li), red pepper, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chilli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el chile

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 13 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 37 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).

See Also: 

Tecuantepec (Mdz13v)