cuauhpilolli (Mdz13v)

cuauhpilolli (Mdz13v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex glyph of a cuauhpilolli represents the place name, Cuauhpilollan. The glyph depicts a red leather thong with a loop. Attached to it are two brown eagle feathers together that are bound together at the top with a down feather ball, tlateloloyotl). This device hangs down like a pendant.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This device might have been worn by nobles, tied around their necks. It was also a device worn by the deity (or his representative) associated with the clouds, Mixcoatl, according to a source quoted in our online Nahuatl Dictionary (link provided in this record). See the headdress worn by the eagle in the compound glyph for Cuauhquechollan for some striking similarities to this device. And, see the cuauhquemitl (below, right) for another example of the use of brown eagle feathers for ritual devices.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Feathers

Leather, hides

Religion (Indigenous)

Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

brown

red

Keywords:

pendants, colgantes, eatles, águilas, piel, cuero

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cuauhpilol(li), eagle feather pendant, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuauhpilolli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

eagle feather device for the nobility

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

el colgajo de plumas de águila

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 13 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 37 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).