Cuauhtli (BMapI47)

Cuauhtli (BMapI47)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This painted black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Cuauhtli (“Eagle”) is attested here as a man’s name. It shows the head of an eagle in profile, facing left toward the head of the man whose name this is. The eagle has a large open eye, spiky feathers coming off its head, and dark tips on its open beak.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Eagles are typically shown with their beaks open and spiky feathers on their heads. Sometimes the beaks are painted yellow, apparently when paint was available. Cuauhtli is a day name in the 260-day religious divinatory calendar.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

This glyph is not glossed; the decipherment of the glyph comes from Gordon Whittaker’s contribution to the study by Mary E. Miller and Barbara E. Mundy (2012).

Source Manuscript:

Beinecke Map (BMap)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1565

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City or the Valley of Mexico

Semantic Categories:

calendrics

day name

personal name

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Religion (Indigenous)

Time, Calendar, Frequency

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing left

profile view

Keywords:

áquilas, picos, plumas, calendarios, tonalpohualli, nombres de días, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cuauh(tli), eagle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuauhtli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Águila

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Beinecke Map/Codex Reese, section 8, no. 47 in the Whittaker study (published in the Miller/Mundy book, 2012), and see the original at: https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3600017

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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: