Mizquic (Mdz2v)

Mizquic (Mdz2v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph for the place name Mizquic derives from the plant or tree, mizquitl). The tree has a red and white vertically striped trunk, red roots, red thorns on the trunk, a leader and two branches with two-toned green foliage and, protruding from the foliage, red and yellow seed pods. The trees red, curling roots are visible.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The word mizquitl entered Mexican Spanish as mesquite, which came into English from the Spanish. It is a small leguminous tree from the genus Prosopis, and it has straight, robust spines. The red color of the spines here may suggest that they were used for bloodletting in auto-sacrifice.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

mizquic. puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Mizquic, 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: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Flowers
Gifts, Offerings, Sacrifice
Names (places)
Plants, Flora
Religion (Indigenous)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
green (dark)
green (light)
red
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
roots are visible
tripartite
vertical, upright
Keywords: 

trees, shrubs, árboles, arbustos, thorns, espinas

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

mizqui(tl), mesquite, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mizquitl
-c (locative suffix), in or at, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/c

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"Mesquite Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"On the Mesquite" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 193)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"El Lugar del Mesquite"

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 2 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 15 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: 

mizquitl (Mdz13v)

mizquitl (Mdz20v)

mizquitl (Mdz27r)

mizquitl (Mdz2v)