Huitzotecatl (MH639v)

Huitzotecatl (MH639v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name or ethnicity, Huitzotecatl, shows a four-legged animal with a long tail. It sits in profile, facing toward the viewer's right. Its ears are small and upright. It seems to have claws. Some short lines of texturing appear on its back.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Ahuitzotl was the name of a Mexica ruler, and some humble men were named after famous rulers. The ruler may have been associated with the mythical animal, a creature that could lure people to their deaths, such as grabbing them and pulling them under the water of the lakes so that they would drown. The animal in the glyph may be an ahuitzotl. If so, perhaps the starting letter "a" has dropped away inadvertently from the gloss. The -tecatl suggests a person from a place that may have been named after the animal.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

uitzotecatl

Gloss Normalization:

Huitzotecatl (or Ahuitzotecatl?)

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.

Gender (male)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Race, Ethnicity, Identity

Religion (Indigenous)

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

dotted, granular, textured

facing right

profile view

Keywords:

animales, gobernantes

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

ahuitzo(tl), water animal, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ahuitzotl
-tecatl, affiliation with a place, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecatl

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 639v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=361st=image.

Image Source, Rights:

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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: