Contecatl (MH744v)

Contecatl (MH744v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name, title, or ethnicity, Contecatl (perhaps “Person of Contlan”), is attested here as pertaining to an elite man. One of the elements is a ceramic pot or jug (comitl) with a flared neck and at least three handles. The jug provides phonetic the start (Co- or Con-) to the name. Above that is an object typically used as a glyph for Tecpanecatl (see below). It has a shape something like the letter capital M, but each vertical segment has a small circle on the top. Coming off from these circles are short, twisted ropes.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The word conteca appears in the Florentine Codex as a form of the verb teca, to lay out, with a directional (-on-) and an object (c-). (See our entry for teca in the Online Nahuatl Dictionary.) But such a reading seems unlikely here, where names that end in -teca are often referring to an affiliation with a pueblo—likelysContlan here. Since the term in the Florentine Codex does not end with -tecatl but rather -teca, it is plural, referring to the people of Contlan.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
Syntax: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
Keywords: 

cerámica, jarras, etnicidad, pueblos, afiliación, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 
Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

una persona de Contlan

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 744v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=567&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).

Orthography: 
Historical Contextualizing Image: