Miquiz (MH624r)

Miquiz (MH624r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Miquiz ("Death," attested here as a man's name), shows a shrouded corpse. The name Death is a day name in the 260-day divinatory calendar called the tonalpohualli. Calendrics were an important part of Nahuas' religious views of the cosmos. This death sign differs from some others from the Matrícula de Huexotzinco that appear in this collection. See below.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

A day sign like Miquiz would normally have a companion number from 1 to 13 with it. By 1560, these numbers were sometimes not provided. It is unclear whether the use of the numbers was being forgotten or whether they were perhaps suppressed, given their association with the autonomous-era calendar and beliefs.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

Juan
miquiz

Gloss Normalization: 

Juan Miquiz

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: 
calendrics
day name
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Death, decay, decomposition
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Religion (Indigenous)
Textiles, Clothing, Hats, Regalia
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
checked, cross-hatched, or mesh
curving, curvy, curved
facing right
profile view
Keywords: 

muerte, envolturas, sudarios, días, days, calendars, calendarios, dates fechas

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

miquiz(tli), death, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/miquiztli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

La Muerte

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 624r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=330st=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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Miquiz (MH518r)

Miquiz (MH520r)

miquiztli (TR8r)

micqui (Mdz43r)