Motecuhzoma (Mdz15v)

Motecuhzoma (Mdz15v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the personal name Motecuhzoma (apparently Motecuhzoma the Younger, here) features a diadem in profile, facing toward the viewer's right. This turquoise-colored diadem (the xiuhhuitzolli) is a glyph for lord (tecuhtli). The hair, tzontli, which appears under the diadem, may provide a phonetic indicator for zomalli (anger), which some interpretations suggest as the root of the final part of the name. The Mo- at the start of the name is likely the second person possessive pronoun ("Your"), resulting in the overall translation of "Your Fierce Lord." The small turquoise-colored elements--one floating in the air and one attached to the hair--have yet to be analyzed, but one may be a lip plug and the other an ear plug.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The museum comparison, below, also includes the diadem and hair--along with perhaps the lip plug and ear plug. Speech scrolls on this stone carving may point to the fact that Motecuhzoma was a huei tlahtoani (great ruler), given that speech scrolls can stand for the verb tlatoa, to speak.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

motecçuma

Gloss Normalization:

Motecuhzoma

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

phonetic dimensions

Syntax:

possessive pronoun

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Leather, hides

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Politics, Power, Governance

Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

tied, bound, or bundled

profile view

facing right

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Number of Parts, Other / Comment:

The four elements counted here include the diadem, hair, lip plug, and ear plug, which all seem to be diagnostic for Motecuhzoma.

Keywords:

emperors, empires, rulers, gobernantes, emperadores, imperios, diademas, Montezuma, Moteuczoma, labrets, enchufes, tapones, labios, bezotes, adornos labiales, jewelry, jollas, lip plugs, lip-plugs, teuctli, nombres de hombres, personas famosas

Museum & Rare Book Comparisons:

Museum/Rare Book Notes:

Motecuhtzoma. A bas relief stone carving on the underside of the lid of the so-called "Caja de Moctezuma Xocoyotzin," Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Salón Mexica. The Museo describes the headdress as a xiuhitzolli [xiuhhuitzolli], which is the turquoise diadem. The museum signage also refers to it as the "imperial headdress." Photograph by Robert Haskett, 14 February 2023.

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

mo-, possessive pronoun, your (singular), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mo
tecuh(tli), lord, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecuhtli
zoma, to frown in anger, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/zoma
tzon(tli), hair, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzontli
tlatoa, or tlahtoa with the glottal stop, to speak, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlatoa

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 15 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 41 of 188.

Image Source, Rights:

Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)