comalli (Mdz16v)

comalli (Mdz16v)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This glyphic element showing a comalli (griddle) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Comaltepec. It is a simple circle with the interior painted yellow, the same color used for naming the color (coztic) in the Codex Mendoza. The outer black line still inadvertently shows some green paint because it was placed in the center of a tepetl glyph.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This is not the usual color in this codex for ceramics, which is more of an orange (see comitl, for example), and the discrepancy is difficult to explain. The comalli (clay griddle) was always a fired ceramic prior to contact and still today in many homes. According to Berdan and Anawalt (1992, vol. 2, 164), the comalli was made from clay called tezoquitl (stone-mud) or comallalli (comal-earth). The comalli that appears in the Codex Mendoza on folio 60 recto rests on a classic three-stone hearth.

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)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Food, Eating, Cooking
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle, circular or rounded
Keywords: 

griddle, cooking grill

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

comal(li), clay griddle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/comalli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

clay griddle

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el comal

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 16 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 43 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: 

Comaltepec (Mdz16v)

coztic (Mdz23r)

comitl (Mdz13v)