Ecatepec (Mdz22r)

Ecatepec (Mdz22r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Ecatepec or Ehecatepec has two key elements. One is the profile of the head of the representation of the wind deity (Ehecatl), with its large red beak beak (what some sources describe as a duck bill), turquoise-blue head, and white eye. There is also some gray or purple under the red beak. This figure is shown in profile looking to the viewer's right. The head sits atop a classic hill or mountain (tepetl) with its two-tone green bell shape, its red and yellow horizontal stripes near the base, and its curly rocky outcroppings on each slope. The locative suffix (-c) (as given in the gloss) is not shown visually, but it combines with -tepe- to form -tepec, a visual locative suffix meaning "on the hill" or "on the mountain."

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Air is ecatl and wind is ehecatl (reduplicated). If the sacred force of the wind is not intended, he may be there to provide a phonetic value for ecatl. Perhaps it is a place with notable wind. Wind was also a day sign in the calendar. A great many glyphs in this collection start with Eca- when one might expect Eheca-. We are preserving the proclivity of the gloss for Eca-, while also pointing to the likelihood of an unintentional oral abbreviation of Eheca- to Eca-.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

puo. ecatepec

Gloss Normalization: 

pueblo, Ecatepec (or Ehecatepec)

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
calendrics
day name
Syntax: 
locative (visual not silent)
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Religion (Indigenous)
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
gray
green (dark)
green (light)
red
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bell-shaped (upright)
facing right
profile view
pointed (see also spiky)
Parts (of compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Keywords: 

mountains, hills, montañas, cerros, deidades, deity, wind, viento, aire

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

eca(tl), air, breath, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ecatl
eheca(tl), wind or the wind deity, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ehecatl
-tepec, on the hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepec 

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 13 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 54 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: 

Ecatl (Mdz12r)

tepetl (Mdz32r)