Itzamatitlan (Mdz24v)

Itzamatitlan (Mdz24v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing for the compound glyph for the place name Itzamatitlan (Next to Obsidian-Paper) shows a frontal view of a vertical obsidian blade with a curve at the top (toward the reader's right). Below the black is a white, rolled piece of paper (amatl) with a cord around it. The -titlan locative suffix is not shown visually.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Obsidian knives could have sacrificial uses, and they could have strong associations with divine forces such as the Obsidian Knife Butterfly, or hunting deities, or power, omnipotence, often malevolence, feasting, and revelry. They could also adorn capes and skirts, and they could be placed in a womb if a baby died in childbirth. (See the Online Nahuatl Dictionary for the citations to this information.)

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

yzamatitlan. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Itzamatitlan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

deity name/theonym

place name

Syntax:

locative (not visual)

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Gifts, Offerings, Sacrifice

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Names (places)

Paper

Religion (Indigenous)

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

obsidian blades, flint knife, flint knives, papers, paper rool

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

itz(tli), obsidian blade, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/itztli
ama(tl), paper, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/amatl
-titlan (locative suffix), next to, in, between, below, with, in the company of, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/titlan

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 24 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 59 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).