Cozcacuauhtenanco (Mdz13r)

Cozcacuauhtenanco (Mdz13r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Cozcacuauhtenanco features a cozcacuauhtli, which is a king vulture and a calendrical symbol, and a turquoise blue parapet or rampart (tenantli). The vulture is shown as just a head, in profile, looking toward the viewer's left. Its visible eye and beak are both open. The beak is a tan color, and the head of the vulture is a purple-gray. A red protrusion appears above the beak, and a red ring appears at the neck--like a necklace (cozcatl), which is a phonetic indicator for that part of the word for king vulture (cozcacuauhtli). It also wears a white earring. The rampart has a horizontal rectangle with four circles inside it, and each circles contains a smaller concentric one. Along the top of this rectangular wall are three stepped elements like crenelation.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Gordon Whittaker (Deciphering Azted Hieroglyphs, 2021, 78) describes the king vulture's iconography as a visual compound of necklace and king vulture, rather than a compound of necklace and eagle, which is what the word cozcacuauhtli sounds like. Thus, he calls the necklace a "semantic indicator that reinforces the value of the avian logogram." The necklace is just a hint of a real necklace, primarily comprised of a natural ruffle, perhaps, although the cozcacuauhtli glyph of the Codex Magliabecchiano wears a necklace of shells. For further comparison, see the cozcacuauhtli glyph in Tlachia (UNAM, 2018).

Frances Karttunen's interpretation of the wall as being indicative of a "fort," suggests she sees it more than a wall, but rather a rampart or parapet, as both are defensive features of architecture.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

cozcaquauhtenanco, pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Cozcacuauhtenanco, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

calendrics

day name

phonetic dimensions

place name

Syntax:

locative (not visual)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.

Architecture, Construction, Buildings

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Time, Calendar, Frequency

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

crenelated

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

parapets, ramparts, walls, crenelation, king vultures, eagles, birds, necklaces, fortalezas, murallas, parapetos, almenas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cozcacuauh(tli), king vulture, redheaded eagle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cozcacuauhtli-0
cozca(tl), necklace, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cozcatl
cuauh(tli), eagle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuauhtli
tenan(tli), wall, fortification, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tenantli
tenami(tl), wall, fortification, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tenamitl
-co (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/co

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"At Fort Vulture" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"At the Walls of the King Vulture" (Whittaker, 2021, 78); "On the Wall of the Vulture" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 181)

Whittaker's Transliteration:

^COZCACOZCACUAUH-TENAN.

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"En la Muralla del Buitre" o "En la Fortaleza del Buitre"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Gordon Whittaker; Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 13 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 36 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).