Icxitepoxacoztoctepec (CQ)

Icxitepoxacoztoctepec (CQ)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph represents the place name Icxitepoxacoztoctepec ("At the Foot of the Hill of the Spongy Stone Cave"?). It shows a green hill or mountain (the -tepec part of the name). A human (right) foot (icxitl) also appears in front of the hill, providing the first two syllables of the place name. The remaining semantic elements of spongy volcanic stone (tepoxactli) and "inside the cave" (oztoc) may be represented somehow in the remaining visuals: the profile of a man's head looking to the viewer's right with his hair blowing back behind him, and, below the man, swirling symbols. The swirling symbols are reminiscent of the swirls around the natural spring (ameyalli) on this same manuscript.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This long place name has several components (broken up in the gloss) that make sense as environmental features, but there are two locatives, one on ozto- and one on tepe-. Might a translation of "at the foot (or base) of the hill with the cave of spongy stone" work? See also the translation in Spanish provided by Ofelia Cruz Morales.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

ycxi tepoxac oztoc tepec

Gloss Normalization: 

Icxitepoxacoztoctepec

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)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Body postures
Gender (less obviously marked)
Hair (human or animal)
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Colors: 
black
green (light)
pink
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bell-shaped (upright)
facing right
profile view
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
vertical, upright
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
3
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
front to back
multidirectional
Other Cultural Influences: 
Mixtec
Keywords: 

places, lugares, stones, piedras, caves, cuevas, legs, piernas, feet, pies, faces, caras

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

icxi(tl), foot, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/icxitl
tepoxac(tli), spongy stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepoxactli
ozto(tl), cave, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/oztotl
-tepec (locative suffix), at the hill/mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/te[pec

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

Icxitepoxac Oztoc Tepec “On the Hill of the Sandstone Feet in the Cave.” Matthew T. McDavitt, “Placenames in the Codex Quetzalecatzin,” unpublished essay shared 2-21-2018.

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

En la Cueva en el Cerro con un Pie Frágil

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Ofelia Cruz Morales

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: 
See Also: 

ameyalli (CQ)