Ehecatepec (Azca15)

Ehecatepec (Azca15)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This painted black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the place name Ehecatepec (“Divine Wind Mountain,” Ecatepec today) shows a stepped pyramid with a small building on top, probably representing a teocalli. The building has a golden roof, likely thatched. At the entrance to the building is the head of what appears to be a hummingbird (huitzilin). The head of the bird is light brown, and its beak is golden or yellow. Below the temple is a smooth hill or mountain (tepetl). This element is more of a landscape drawing than a hieroglyphic representation of a tepetl. The locative suffix (-c) could be implied in the mountain.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Given the gloss indicating the name of this place (Ehecatepec), one might expect to find the bird-like divine force, Ehecatl, with his device for blowing wind around, on top of this temple. Instead, the divine force seems to be Huitzilopochtli. The contemporary place name is Ecatepec. In so many other places where the divine force of the wind seems implicated in local lore, Ehecatl typically becomes Ecatl, without the reduplication. Other glyphs for Ecatepec appear below, all glossed without the textual reduplication of the first syllable.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

Eecatepecmotlallitoinmexica

Gloss Normalization:

Ehecatepec omotlalito in Mexica

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Azcatitlan, Codex (Azca)

Date of Manuscript:

post-1550, possibly from the early seventeenth century.

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

perhaps Tlatelolco, Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

deity name/theonym

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

reduplication (in gloss/text)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Birds

Architecture, Construction, Buildings

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

tan

white/neutral

yellow or golden

Shapes and Perspectives:

thatched roof

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

colibríes, fuerzas divinas, viento, templos, pirámides, pueblos, topónimos, nombres de lugares

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

eca(tl), air, breath, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ecatl
eheca(tl), wind or divine force of wind, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ehecatl
tepe(tl), hill, mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl
-c, in, at, on, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/c

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

posiblemente, Montaña del Viento Divino

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

The Codex Azcatitlan is also known as the Histoire mexicaine, [Manuscrit] Mexicain 59–64. It is housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and hosted on line by the World Digital Library and the Library of Congress, which is “unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection.”
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15280/?sp=15&st=image

Image Source, Rights:

The Library of Congress is “unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection.” But please cite Bibliothèque Nationale de France and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.

Orthography:

"ll" for l

dropped "h"

dropped "o"

Historical Contextualizing Image: