Cuetlach (MH527v)

Cuetlach (MH527v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Cuetlach (here, attested as a man’s name) shows the head of a wolf (cuetlachtli) in profile, looking toward the viewer's right. His coat is mottled with a dark gray, and it has curls around the base of the neck.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The Mexican Wolf is threatened with extinction, but it has had a notable presence in Nahua culture since the autonomous era, even though glyphs for cuetlachtli are somewhat rarer than other animals in this collection (see some comparisons, below), but many animal names come from the tonalpohualli, divinatory calendar of 260 days. See our Online Nahuatl Dictionary for more information about wolves, such as the wolf skin seat, a wolf skin cape, and a priest ("Old Wolf") who wore a wolf skin when taking a prisoner to the sacrificial stone, "weeping and howling" during this activity.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

filipe cuetlach.

Gloss Normalization: 

Felipe Cuetlach

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Daniel Chayet

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
spotted or mottled
Keywords: 

wolves, lobos, animales, silvestres

Museum & Rare Book Comparisons: 
Museum/Rare Book Notes: 

cuetlach. This wolf is on display at the Museo del Templo Mayor. Photograph by Stephanie Wood, 15 February 2023; photo edited by Robert Haskett.

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

cuetlach(tli), wolf, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuetlachtli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

El Lobo

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 527v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=134&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: 

Cuetlach (MH493r)

Cuetlach (MH639v)