Cuauhtecomatlan (Mdz40r)

Cuauhtecomatlan (Mdz40r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

The compound glyph for the place name Cuauhtecomatlan features a large wooden (cuahuitl) cup (tecomatl) with a set of teeth projecting out from the side of the cup, on our right. The teeth provide the phonetic element for -tlan, the locative suffix meaning "place." The cup has a sizable bowl and a stem. The entire thing is painted a terracotta color. The teeth are uppers and lowers, and the lower ones are imbedded in a skeletal jaw, all left white. There are a few other examples in the Codex Mendoza of fleshless jaws and at least one set of teeth without any mandible (try a Quick Search for teeth).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The gloss omits a final "n" on the place name, but it might have been inadvertently omitted because the visual of the teeth suggest the locative suffix -tlan (place).

As Gordon Whittaker points out, with these protruding teeth we do not see the red gums, and the lower set of teeth are imbedded in a "fleshless mandible." [See: Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 101.]

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

quauhteco
matla.pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Cuauhtecomatla, 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:

phonetic dimensions

place name

Syntax:

full set of teeth (but not -ti-)

locative (visual not silent)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Containers, Dishes, Eating Utensils

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

orange/terracotta

white/neutral

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

left to right

Keywords:

cups, vessels, teeth, dientes, copas, vasos, tazas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cuahui(tl), tree or wood, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuahuitl
tecoma(tl), vessel or cup, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecomatl
cuauhtecoma(tl), a gourd or tree that produces the gourd, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuauhtecomatl
tlan(tli), tooth/teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
-tla (locative suffix) place of abundance of a thing, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan
-tlan (locative suffix), by, near, among, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Gourd Tree Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"By the Wooden Goblets" (Whittaker, 2021, 101); "Where There Are Many Gourd Trees" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 202)

Whittaker's Transliteration:

CUAUHTECOMA-tlan2

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"Cerca de los Tecomates de Madera" o "Lugar de los Arboles con Tecomates"

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 40 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 90 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).