Itztepec (Mdz23r)

Itztepec (Mdz23r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Itztepec comprises an obsidian blade (itztli)] on top of a hill or mountain (tepetl). In one other example of the itztli blade on the hill, it is a leaf shape (oval with pointed ends), black in the middle and white along the edges. But here it is a black curved blade, point to the right. The locative suffix (-c) (as given in the gloss) is not shown visually, but it combines with -tepe- to form -tepec, a visual locative suffix meaning "on the hill" or "on the mountain."

Added Analysis: 

As attested in our Online Nahuatl Dictionary, obsidian blades were pervasive in Aztec culture and had myriad uses, as knives, razors, lancets, arrowheads, and surgical tools. There was also a deity associated with the name Itztli.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

yztepec. puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Itztepec, 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: 
place name
Syntax: 
locative (visual not silent)
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Religion (Indigenous)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black
green (dark)
green (light)
red
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bell-shaped (upright)
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Keywords: 

knives, blades, flint, mountains, hills

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

itz(tli), obsidian blade or knife, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/itztli
tepe(tl), hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl
-c (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/c
-tepec, on the hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepec 

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 23 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 56 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: 

tepetl (Mdz32r)

tepetl (Mdz23r)

itztli (Mdz23r)