maitl (Mdz37r)

maitl (Mdz37r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for hand/arm (maitl) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Alahuiztlan. This is a left hand and arm reaching into the frame from the viewer's left. It is colored terracotta, with the exception of the fingernails, which are white. The arm is bent at the elbow.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

According to Gordon Whittaker, we should pay attention to the upright hand without an arm attached versus the more horizontal or diagonal arm, which can have readings other than maitl, such as the ma of capture, ana of grab, or poloa of destroy (see: Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 104). Here, in the original compound hieroglyph, the hand and arm could be reaching to take something, but the analysis of the compound is not clear.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Colors: 
orange/terracotta
white/neutral
Keywords: 

hands, arms

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

ma(itl), hand or arm, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/maitl
ma(tl), hand or arm or measurement, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/matl

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

hand or arm

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 37 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 84 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: 

Alahuiztlan (Mdz37r)