Mazatlan (Mdz13v)

Mazatlan (Mdz13v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Mazatlan shows a the head of a deer (mazatl) with antlers, looking to our left, and, below the deer's head, two upper front teeth (tlantli) in a frontal view. The latter provide the phonetic value for the locative suffix, -tlan. The deer's coat is textured and painted brown, with some white fur on the jaw and around the mouth.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The turquoise-colored antlers are owing to the fact that the deer is metaphorically called "acaxoch," or reed flower, according to Gordon Whittaker (Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 96).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

maçatlan. puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Mazatlan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
locative (visual not silent)
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Names (places)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
brown
red
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing left
profile view
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Keywords: 

deer, antlers, las astas, la cornamenta, venado

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

maza(tl), deer, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mazatl
tlan(tli), tooth/teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
-tlan (locative suffix), by, near, among, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"Deer Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"By the Deer" (Whittaker, 2021, 69); "Place of Many Deer" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 190)

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 13 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 37 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: 

mazatl (Mdz13v)

tlantli (Mdz38r)

Mazatlan (Mdz47r)

Mazatlan (Mdz12r)

tlantli (Mdz13v)