Huexolotlan (Mdz16r)

Huexolotlan (Mdz16r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph for the place name Huexolotlan also doubles as the glyph for the turkey (huexolotl). The whole bird is shown, standing, facing to the viewer's left, with lavender and white feathers on most of its body, except the head. The head is largely turquoise, with red bumps along the crest and sides of the head. Its neck is red. Above the beak is a fleshy, turquoise and red-striped protrusion. The beak is closed. The locative suffix (-tlan) is not shown visually.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The huexolotl) was a tribute item. The bird also had associations with Tetzcatlipoca and other divinities. The turkey hen could be called totolin or cihuatotolin. Alexander von Humboldt wrote: "New Spain has supplied Europe with the largest and most useful of domestic gallinaceous birds, the turkey (totolin or huexolotl) which was formerly found wild on the back of the Cordilleras, from the Isthmus of Panama to New England" (Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, vol. 3, p. 55, of 1811).

Compare the red and turquoise details of the head of this turkey cock with this open-source photograph. When one thinks about how these colors were valued in Aztec culture, one can understand the attraction to this bird, not to mention for its food value.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

/ huexolotlan_puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Huexolotlan, 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: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Food, Eating, Cooking
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black
blue (turquoise)
purple
red
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
dotted, granular, textured
facing left
profile view
striped
Keywords: 

huehxolotl, vesulotl, uexolotl, turkeys, turkey cock, turkey cocks, gallipavo, aves de corral, birds, guajolotes, fowl, feathers, plumas

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

huexolo(tl), a male turkey, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huexolotl
-tlan (locative suffix), place, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"Turkey Cock Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"Where There Are Many Turkeys" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 188)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"El Lugar del Guajolote"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 16 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 42 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).