Cuetzpaltepetonco (CQ)
This compound glyph for the place name Cuetzpaltepetonco ("On Little Lizard Hill") has three notable elements. One is a lizard (cuetzpalin) painted turquoise blue-green, shown in profile, facing to the viewer's left. Below the lizard there is a short, three-tiered pyramid (possibly a tetelli or a tzacualli). This construction does not enter into the place name in a phonetic way, so it is probably a semantic indicator. At the bottom of the compound is a green, bell-shaped hill or mountain (tepetl). There is a short, horizontal bar at the base of the hill or mountain. The diminutive (-ton-) and the locative (-co) are not shown visually, but perhaps the landscape provides a semantic locative.
Stephanie Wood
The cuetzpalin is a calendrical day sign as well as an animal that appears in the landscape. It may be that the hill has a stepped pyramid on top.
Stephanie Wood
cuetzpaltepetōco
Cuetzpaltepetonco
Stephanie Wood
covers ruling men and women of Tecamachalco through 1593
Stephanie Wood
places, lugares, lizards, lagartos, iguanas,
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Cuetzpaltepetonco_CQ_CmpndPlaceName.png?itok=nSGxe68Z)
cuetzpal(in), lizard, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuetzpalin
tepe(tl), hill/mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl
-ton- (diminutive), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ton
-co (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/co
P[ueblo] Cuetzpaltepetoco “Little Hill of the Lizard.” Matthew T. McDavitt, “Placenames in the Codex Quetzalecatzin,” unpublished essay shared 2-21-2018.
el lagarto en la cima del cerro
Ofelia Cruz Morales
The Codex Quetzalecatzin, aka Mapa de Ecatepec-Huitziltepec, Codex Ehecatepec-Huitziltepec, or Charles Ratton Codex. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017590521/
The Library of Congress, current custodian of this pictorial Mexican manuscript, hosts a digital version online. It is not copyright protected.
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/Cuetzpaltepetonco_CQ_Context.png)