Cozcayec (MH885v)

Cozcayec (MH885v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Cozcayec (“Good Necklace”) is attested here as a woman’s name. The glyph shows a horizontal necklace with three beads on a twisted cord. If this is a special necklace, the beads may be greenstone (jade or jadeite). Nothing obviously represents the -yec suffix (from yectli, something good) on the name.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

See other examples of necklaces below. Necklaces (cozcatl) could be made of many different objects, such as shells, beads of various kinds (including greenstone and turquoise), golden bells, carved wood, maize flowers, and corn cobs. Eagle heads combined with necklaces are not literally about jewelry, but provide the phonetic elements for the bird called the cozcacuauhtli, the king vulture.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

juana cozcayec

Gloss Normalization: 

Juana Cozcayec

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Gender (female)
Jewelry, Crowns, or other Adornment
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Rope, cord, string, leather ties
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
frontal view
twisted or entwined
Keywords: 

collares, cuentas, cuerdas, nombres de mujeres

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
yec(tli), good, pure, clean, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yectli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Collar Bueno

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 885v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=843&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: 
See Also: 

cozcatl (TR43r)

cozcatl (Mdz34r)

chipolcozcatl (Mdz64r)

cozcatl (Mdz55r)

Cozcamiyauh (MH537v)

Toxicco (Mdz12r)

Xochicozcatl (MH884v)