Cozcatecuhtlan (Mdz55r)

Cozcatecuhtlan (Mdz55r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Cozcatecuhtlan has two main features, the necklace (cozcatl) which appears below the diadem or indigenous crown (which is called a xiuhhuitzolli, but it is a symbol for tecuhtli, a lord or noble). The cozcatl is made with precious green stone or jade beads (six of them), tied with a red cord, perhaps leather. We are seeing a profile of the diadem, which has a point at the front/top and a red tie at the back, the part that would be behind the head. The tie at the back looks akin to the loincloth, so perhaps it is cotton. The crown itself is colored turquoise. The locative suffix (-tlan, near) is not shown visually.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

These signs (and their colors) are indicative of high status and preciosity. Karttunen notes that the first part of the name influences the second part, so it is a reference to a bejeweled lord rather than the lord's jewels.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

cozcatecutlan
pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Cozcatecuhtlan, 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:

place name

Syntax:

locative (not visual)

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Jewelry, Crowns, or other Adornment

Leather, hides

Names (places)

Politics, Power, Governance

Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Turquoise or Jade

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

blue (turquoise)

green (dark)

red

Shapes and Perspectives:

pointed (see also spiky)

tied, bound, or bundled

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

profile view

facing right

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

upward

Keywords:

crowns, diadems, necklaces, coronas, diademas, collares, teuctli

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cozca(tl), necklace, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cozcatl
tecuh(tli), lord, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecuhtli
-tlan (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan
xiuhhuitzol(li), diadem, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xiuhhuitzolli

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Bejeweled Lord's Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Where the Noble's Beads Abound" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 182)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"El Lugar del Señor Enjoyado"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 55 recto, https://codicemendoza.inah.gob.mx/inicio.php?lang=english

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).