Huitzamollan (Mdz39r)

Huitzamollan (Mdz39r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Huitzamolla includes a thorn (huitztli) and what appears to be a root of a plant (amolli) that produces a soapy substance. The locative suffix (-tlan), which becomes -lan before a stem ending in the letter l, such as amol-, is not shown visually, but the gloss supports its reading. The multi-colored huitztli is upright, with the sharp point down. It is painted red and turquoise blue, and has a jagged edge. The root of the amolli is horizontal and rounded, with the exception of the end on the viewer’s right being spiky, something like the top of a pineapple.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The huitztli probably comes from the tip of a maguey leaf. It looks much like other spines or thorns in the Codex Mendoza. Because these spines were used for self-sacrificial blood-letting, the red color may suggest blood.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

huitzamola.pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Huitzamollan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Blood (human/animal/plant)

Dirt, Sand, Soil

Gifts, Offerings, Sacrifice

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Religion (Indigenous)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

blue (turquoise)

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Other / Comments

Number of Parts, Other / Comment:

There could be sand added to the plant root, which would make a third element.

Keywords:

blood, sacrifice, offerings, thorns, spines, soap plants, espinas, sangre, ofrendas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

huitz(tli), thorn or spine, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huitztli
amol(li), soap plant, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/amolli
-tla (locative suffix), place of abundance of item, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tla-a

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

“Place of Thorny Amolli Roots” (she notes that the locative does not include the final “n,” so it may be a place of abundance of these roots if the missing “n” was not inadvertent; she also sees the dots on the roots as suggesting a sandy soil in which it grows. [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

“Where Huitzamolli Abounds” (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 189)

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 39 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 88 of 188.

Image Source, Rights:

Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)