Luis Vaca (TK217v)

Luis Vaca (TK217v)
Compound Hieroglyph
Spanish Loanword

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the full name of a Spaniard, Luis Vaca. The compound has three elements, and it is read in a downward fashion. The first element is a de-grained corn cob (olotl), which provides a phonetic syllable -lo- to start the first name. It is important to know that “u” and “o” are often interchangeable in early texts, so the -lo- syllable actually provides the Lu- of Luis. Next is an eye (ixtli), with the “starry eye” design. This eye can appear in some glyphs in the sky as a star looking down upon the world. Below the eye is a sandal (cactli). This supplies the -ca- syllable at the end of the surname, Vaca. The Ba- part of the surname is not shown visually.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Vaca was a vicious man from the point of view of the people of Tepetlaoztoc, who were protesting his treatment of noble Nahua men and the excessive tribute demands made upon the town. See some comparable elements below.

Side Note: The folio numbers are not always clear in the copy published online by the British Museum. Marc Thouvenot gives this page the number K15_B in his TLACHIA digital collection, https://tlachia.iib.unam.mx/tepetlaoztoc/K15_B.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

luys baca

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

Luis Vaca

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Tepetlaoztoc, Codex (aka Kingsborough) (TK)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1556

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Tepetlaoztoc, East of Lake Tetzcoco

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
noun(s)
syllable: ca/cac (from cactli, sandal)
syllable: ix/is/iz/itz (from ixtli, itztli, or iztitl)
syllable: lo (from olotl, corncob)
Writing Features: 
compound fully phonographic
phonetic Spanish names
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Food, Eating, Cooking
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Race, Ethnicity, Identity, Othering
Textiles, Clothing, Hats, Shoes, Regalia
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
profile view
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
3
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Keywords: 

olote, maíz, huaraches, cactle, cactles, ojo, ojos, estrellas, nombres de hombres, men’s names, fonetismo

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

olo(tl), dry corn cob without kernels, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/olotl
ix(tli), eye, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ixtli
cac(tli), sandal or shoe, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cactli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

Glifo K15_B_05 = “oloixcactli,” pointing to centli, ixtelolotli, and cactli. [Marc Thouvenot, TLACHIA, https://tlachia.iib.unam.mx/tepetlaoztoc/K15_B.]

Image Source: 

The Codex Kingsborough, also known as the Códice de Tepetlaoztoc, and the Memorial de los indios de Tepetlaoztoc, is not on display. It was transferred from the British Library and is now held by the British Museum. It is shared on line at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am2006-Drg-13964

Image Source, Rights: 

©The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. Please also cite the <em>Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphsem>, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities Projects, 2020-present) and this URL.

Orthography: 
"y" for i
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Cemolotl (MH651v)

ixtli (Mdz51r)

ixtli (Mdz63r)

cactli (MH699r)