Cuetlaxtlan (Mdz8r)

Cuetlaxtlan (Mdz8r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph standing for the place name Cuetlaxtlan consists of a tied bundle of tanned leather strips in the shape of a bow. The leather (cuetlaxtli) is dyed red. It is horizontal here. The -tlan (locative suffix) is not represented visually.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

From attestations of the term cuetlaxtli in our online Nahuatl Dictionary, we learn that this word could refer to leather wine skins, to leather wrapped around people's head (with the added tzon- element), wrapped around drums, and it can refer to skin from a deceased person that was worn by other people. There were probably many uses for leather. The example here, dyed red, appears to be in the form of strips, which could be used to tie or wrap things. See the element in this collection for tzontli, below (right).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

cuetlaxtlan. puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Cuetlaxtlan, 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: 
place name
Syntax: 
locative (not visual)
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Leather, hides
Names (places)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
red
Shapes and Perspectives: 
horizontal
tied, bound, or bundled
Keywords: 

leather strips thong thongs

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

cuetlax(tli), tanned leather, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuetlaxtli
-tlan (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"Leather Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"Where The Dressed Leather Knots Abound" (Berdan and Anwalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. )

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 8 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 26, 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).

See Also: 

Cuetlaxtlan (Mdz10v)