Itztonatiuh (MH709r)

Itztonatiuh (MH709r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Itztonatiuh (“Obsidian-Sun”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a frontal view of the sun with a human face. The sun is a circle with a yellow border with hash-marks. Six yellow sunshine rays emanate out from this circular border, alternating with six squared-off black obsidian blades.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Some Nahua men had the name Tonitiuh (Sun), but this name was also given to a Spanish colonizer, Pedro de Alvarado, whose glyph appears below. Older glyphs for the sun look more like the sun stone in the National Museum of Anthropology than these suns with faces, which suggest European stylistic influence.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Celestial Phenomena

Gender (male)

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black

white/neutral

yellow or golden

Shapes and Perspectives:

spiky

circle, circular or rounded

frontal view

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

hojas de obsidiana, rayos del sol, caras, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

itz(tli), obsidian blade, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/itztli
tonatiuh, the sun or a day, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tonatiuh

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Obsidiana-Sol

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 709r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=496&st=image.

Image Source, Rights:

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Orthography:

"y" for i

dropped "n"

Historical Contextualizing Image: