Mazahuacan (TK204v)

Mazahuacan (TK204v)
Simplex Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the place name Mazahuacan (perhaps “Place With Deer”). It shows the head of a deer (mazatl) in profile facing right. Its coat is mottled, and its antler is greenish. Two ears with white edging are visible, and the edge of its neck is scalloped. The -hua- possessor and the -can locative suffix are not shown visually. The contextualizing image shows that this community had 100 houses and residents. The noble featured in the details, the man who wears a cloak (likely a tilmatli), would appear to be a farmer or the leader of a farming community, given that he has what we might call a huictli (agricultural tool, digging stick) behind him. A. C. Breton [“Some Mexican Picture-Names,” Man, 64 (August 1919), 119] suggests a different reading, saying “it should be a paddle.”

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This is the first place name glyph for Mazahuacan to enter this digital collection (as of April 2026). The collection does contain glyphs for deer. Mazatl was a calendrical day name, so it will sometimes appear with a companion number, and it occurs as a personal name. Many personal names derive from calendar dates. See below.

Side Note: The folio numbers are not always clear in the copy published on line by the British Museum. Marc Thouvenot gives this page the number K02_B in his TLACHIA digital collection, https://tlachia.iib.unam.mx/tepetlaoztoc/K02_B.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

mazahuacan

Gloss/Text Normalization:

Mazahuacan

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:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Deer

Names (places)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

brown

green (light)

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

spotted or mottled

Keywords:

animales, nombres de lugares, topónimo, topónimos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

maza(tl), deer, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mazatl
-hua, singular possessive, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/hua
-can, locative suffix, where, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/can-2

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Donde Tienen Venado

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

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.

Historical Contextualizing Image: