Cozcatetl (MH826r)

Cozcatetl (MH826r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Cozcatetl (“Bead Necklace” or “Necklace Beads”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a necklace (cozcatl) with a horizontal string of three beads (tetl). The ends of the cord are loose and not really long enough to tie the necklace on a human neck. But the suggestion of a necklace is there.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

As shown in some of the glyphs involving necklaces below, they are beads most often, but they can also be strings with corn cobs, shells, bells, a pendant ring, or even a piece of wood to hold onto or tie up an enslaved person.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Jewelry, Crowns, or other Adornment

Rope, cord, string, leather ties

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

frontal view

tied, bound, or bundled

Museum & Rare Book Comparisons:

Museum/Rare Book Notes:

These beads are located in the Regional Museum of Guadalajara. The strings are not the originals. Presumably these strands represent chalchihuitl (green) and xihuitl (turquoise), but the distinction between blue and green is not always hard and fast. (Photo by Stephanie Wood, 4 February 2025.)

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cozca(tl), necklace, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cozcatl-0
te(tl), stone, egg, gem, counter, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Collar de Cuentas

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 826r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=726&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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: