Huitztepec (TR27r)

Huitztepec (TR27r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Huitztepec shows a group of sharp points meant to symbolize thorns or spines (huitztli). These appear on the front of a hill or mountain (tepetl). This upright, bell-shaped mountain is painted green, has curly rocky outcroppings on its slope, and has a horizontal white band at its base.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Thorns or spines were used for self-sacrificial blood-letting from the ears and lower lip of human beings. Some were decorated for ritual use, such as the chalchihuitztli (see below). In the Codex Mendoza, spines have a turquoise blue color, suggesting preciosity, and what appears to be blood also coats the sharp edge, calling to mind the blood-letting (tlacoquixtia).

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

viztepetl

Gloss Normalization:

Huitztepetl (or better, Huitztepec)

Source Manuscript:

Telleriano-Remensis, Codex (TR)

Date of Manuscript:

ca. 1550–1563

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Blood (human/animal/plant)

Gifts, Offerings, Sacrifice

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Religion (Indigenous)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

green (light)

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

bell-shaped (upright)

frontal view

pointed (see also spiky)

spiky

spiny

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

Keywords:

spines, espinas, thorns

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

huitz, to come, or come back, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/huitz
-tepec, on the hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepec

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

La Montaña de Espinas

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Telleriano-Remensis Codex, folio 27 recto, MS Mexicain 385, Gallica digital collection, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8458267s/f79.item.zoom

Image Source, Rights:

The non-commercial reuse of images from the Bibliothèque nationale de France is free as long as the user is in compliance with the legislation in force and provides the citation: “Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France” or “Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.”

Historical Contextualizing Image: