Miquiz (MH642v)

Miquiz (MH642v)
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 skull in a 3/4 perspective, looking slightly toward the viewer's left.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Miquiztli was a day name of the tonalpohualli, 260-day divinatory calendar. It had been more customary to have a number associated with this day name, but that practice was evolving in the colonial environment, as scribes either forgot the original system, voluntarily suppressed it, or were encouraged to change it by the ecclesiastics on the scene. Even the name alone, "Death," might have struck the ecclesiastics as odd, so any suppression was not very far-reaching and Nahuas continued to use calendrical names, even as they evolved. They played a role in their religious views of the cosmos.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

marcos miq~z

Gloss Normalization: 

Marcos Miquiz

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
day name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Death, decay, decomposition
Gender (male)
Religion (Indigenous)
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing left
3/4 view
Keywords: 

muerte, muertos, cuerpos, calaveras

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

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

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Muerte

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 642v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=367&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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Miquiz (MH518r)

Miquiz (MH520r)

Miquiz (MH624r)