maxactli (Mdz39r)

maxactli (Mdz39r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph for maxactli (crotch or bifurcation) doubles as the compound glyph for place name Amaxac, which has two main visual elements, a pair of open human legs referring to the crotch, maxactli) and a flow of water coming down between the legs. The water (atl), or ātl), showing vowel length] is a standard representation of flows of water painted turquoise, with black wavy lines to show some currents and white water droplets/beads and white turbinate shells at the tips of the flows or splashes. The knees are bent and the feet are bare.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The term maxactli also has the meaning of bifurcation, and other glyphs for Amaxac (as shown in the Gran Diccionario del Náhuatl) show an upside-down Y that is purely water, with no human legs.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

amaxac.puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Amaxac, pueblo

Gloss 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

Semantic Categories: 
place name
graphic syllepsis
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Names (places)
Shells
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black
blue (turquoise)
orange/terracotta
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bent
bifurcated
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
Keywords: 

rivers, ríos, piernas, entrepierna, surcursales de ríos, bifurcaciones de ríos

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

a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
maxac(tli), crotch, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/maxactli
maxtla(tl), loincloth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/maxtlatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"Una Bifurcación del Río"

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 39 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 88 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)

See Also: 

atl (Mdz32r)