Cuauhtemal (MH603v)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name or ethnicity, Cuauhtemal (“Rotten Wood,” "Eagle Pus," or "Person from Guatemala," attested here as a man’s name), shows a profile view of a man who is looking upward and toward the viewer's right. On the top of his head is a feathered headdress with two parts. Each one is pointed at the top, with a round feather or ball below the tip, and then a spray of long feathers.
The Cuauh- in the gloss could refer either to wood (cuahuitl) or eagles (cuauhtli) which makes the decipherment difficult. If wood is meant, the eagle feathers could be playing a phonetic role.
Stephanie Wood
Given the headdress, it would seem that Cuauhtemal might refer to his ethnicity, possibly being from Guatemala, rather than something about rotting wood. But the term for the ethnicity would end in -teca (or -tecatl, with the absolutive). That said, names can be apocopated.
Stephanie Wood
1560
Stephanie Wood
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/CuauhtemalMH603vSmplxPersNameOrEthnicity.png?itok=VPnDzpyA)
Cuauhtemallan, Guatemala, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuauhtemallan
cuahu(itl), wood or tree, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuahuitl
temal(li), pus, or something rotten, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/temalli
-lan (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/lan
Guatemalteco (?)
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 603v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=289st=image.
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