Huitzcolotepec (CQ)

Huitzcolotepec (CQ)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Huitzcolotepec ("On Spiny Hill"), features two main elements. One is a plant that apparently characterized by its spines (huitzcolotl). Behind that is a hill or mountain (tepetl). The locative -c is not shown visually, but it is incorporated with -tepec-, which provides a location, "on the hill" or "on the mountain." The hill has a bell shape, but is devoid of many of the earlier details of the tepetl glyph (as seen, below, in an example from the Codex Mendoza). The spiny plant has three main stems, covered with thorns, and it is painted a dark green. The hill or mountain behind it is a more mottled, green-brown.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This spiny plant is something of a compound itself. The Huitz- apparently refers to the thorn (huitztli). The -colo- may point to a scorpion, which is a stinging arachnid. The tepetl glyph is somewhat simplified, possibly evolving away from hieroglyphic writing and toward landscape painting.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

Vitzcolo
tepec

Gloss Normalization:

Huitzcolotepec

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Quetzalecatzin, Codex (CQ)

Date of Manuscript:

covers ruling men and women of Tecamachalco through 1593

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

southern Puebla state

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Religion (Indigenous)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Xitlali Torres and Stephanie Wood

Colors:

brown

green (dark)

Shapes and Perspectives:

bell-shaped (upright)

frontal view

tripartite

vertical, upright

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

front to back

Other Cultural Influences:

Mixtec

Spanish/European

Keywords:

plants, plantas, espinas, hills, mountains, cerros, montañas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

huitzcolo(tl), spine, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huitzcolotl
huitz(lti), thorn, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huitztli
colo(tl), scorpion, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/colotl
tepe(tl), hill/mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl
-c (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/c
huit(tli), thorn, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huitztli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

P[ueblo] Huitzcolotepec “On the Hill of the Thorny Plants.” Matthew T. McDavitt, “Placenames in the Codex Quetzalecatzin,” unpublished essay shared 2-21-2018.

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

En el Cerro de Espinas

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

The Codex Quetzalecatzin, aka Mapa de Ecatepec-Huitziltepec, Codex Ehecatepec-Huitziltepec, or Charles Ratton Codex. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017590521/

Image Source, Rights:

The Library of Congress, current custodian of this pictorial Mexican manuscript, hosts a digital version online. It is not copyright protected.

Historical Contextualizing Image: