Colhuacan (Azca17)

Colhuacan (Azca17)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This painted black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the place name Colhuacan (perhaps “Place of the Colhua”) shows a glyph of a mountain, which has a peak curling to the right. The curling or twisted mountain is a phonetic indicator that the place name begins with Col-.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

As with other cases in this manuscript, the place name doubles as an ethnic identifier. In the scene on Image 17, a leader of the Colhuaque met with a leader of the Xochimilca.The two men sit facing each other, and speech scrolls flow both directions (see the contextualizing image). In other Colhuacan glyphs (below), one will see that the curling mountain top can face right or left. One, from the Colhuacan Relación Geográfica, shows water emerging from the horizontal slit at the base of the mountain.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

colhuaq^e

Gloss Normalization:

Colhuaque (gente de Colhuacan, hoy Culhuacan)

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Azcatitlan, Codex (Azca)

Date of Manuscript:

post-1550, possibly from the early seventeenth century.

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

perhaps Tlatelolco, Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

red

tan

Shapes and Perspectives:

frontal view

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

Keywords:

paisaje, montañas, torcidas, torcido, pueblos, topónimos, nombres de lugares

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Colhuacan, an important altepetl in the southern Mexico City area, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/Colhuacan
col(li), a bent or twisted thing, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/colli
-hua (singular possessive suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/hua
-can (locative suffix), where, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/can-2

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"Lugar de los Colhua"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

The Codex Azcatitlan is also known as the Histoire mexicaine, [Manuscrit] Mexicain 59–64. It is housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and hosted on line by the World Digital Library and the Library of Congress, which is “unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection.”
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15280/?sp=17&st=image

Image Source, Rights:

The Library of Congress is “unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection.” But please cite Bibliothèque Nationale de France and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.

Historical Contextualizing Image: