Minas (MH839r)

Minas (MH839r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Minas (perhaps “Mines”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows an architectural structure with probably wooden posts and what may be a thatched roof. Inside the structure is a man’s head in profile, looking toward the viewer’s left.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

There is a Nahuatl term mina, which means to shoot, stab, or poke someone, but nothing in this hieroglyph suggests this meaning here. The presence of the head of a man is unclear. The glyph could be a compound if there is a reading for the head inside the structure. There are currently (January 2025) no other glyphs relating to mining, but there are many relating to metal objects in the culture, some pre-contact and some introduced during the Spanish colonial period. Here is a search result for metals.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

bartasal minas

Gloss Normalization: 

Baltazar Minas

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Architecture, Construction, Buildings
Gender (male)
Metals, Minerals, Mining
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Wood, wooden things
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing left
profile view
thatched roof
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

minas, metales, nombres de hombres

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

minas, a Spanish word meaning mines that entered Nahuatl, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/minas

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Minas

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 839r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=752&st=image.

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Orthography: 
"l" for r
"r" for l
"s" for z
Historical Contextualizing Image: