huehuetl (MH508r)
This black-line drawing of a simplex glyph for the noun "drum" (huehuetl)] coincides with the glyph for the personal name Huehuetzintli, which has the added reverential (or possibly a diminutive) suffix. A hand above the drum suggests that someone is playing the drum. Fairly small, given the size of the hand above it, this upright, standing drum has intricately carved, cut-out legs with a step design. A horizontal line near the top of the drum may hint at the edge of the skin covering.
Stephanie Wood
This drum was one of the key percussive instruments in the Nahua repertoire for singing and dancing. It was also a personal name in various regions and was a name held by a famous person in early Tollan. See our Online Nahuatl Dictionary for examples of its use in early Nahuatl sources.
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
drums, tambores, música, instrumentos de percusión, vertical, huehuetes, atabal, atabales
huehue(tl), drum, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huehuetl
El Tambor Vertical
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 508r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=95&st=image
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).
