ichcatl (Mdz40r)

ichcatl (Mdz40r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph standing for the place name Ichcatlan also doubles as the glyph for a white cotton flower (or cotton boll), ichcatl. The boll (as it is called by Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 2, 159) has three fluffy tufts, a green base, and a green stem.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The cotton boll has u-shaped markings that are reminiscent of the u-shapes in the cotton fillet (as Berdan and Anawalt call it) that has been prepared for spinning. It is worth investigating whether the u-shapes could be seeds (which the dots surely are). Such markings run through tlalli and milli, agricultural fields, too. This may be iconography for agriculture.

Spinning and weaving cotton were the domain of women. Cloth was like a currency, and both cloth and bales of cotton were some of the tribute items collected in kind, as pointed out by Berdan and Anawalt, Codex Mendoza, vol. 2, 159.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Flowers
Plants, Flora
Textiles, Clothing, Hats, Regalia
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
green (dark)
green (light)
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
dotted, granular, textured
tripartite
U-shapes (any direction)
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

ichca(tl), cotton, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ichcatl

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

cotton boll

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 40 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 90 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).

See Also: 

malacatl (Mdz37r)

tlalli (Mdz32r)