Nahui Acatl (Mdz2r)

Nahui Acatl (Mdz2r)
Simplex Glyph
Notation

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

A boxed-in date with a simplex glyph and a notation refers to a year. The turquoise wash over the date is a visual reminder that these are dates, given that green and blue-green (xihuitl) is a homophone with the word for year (xihuitl). This compound glyph for a solar year (xihuitl) date, Four Reed, has the notation (four ones) on the right and the reed (acatl) on the left. This representation of the acatl is much like the arrow or the dart, short, upright and decorated with feathers. At its base is a small, stylized apantli (waterway or canal). The ones in the notation are small circles with a dot in the middle. While the image here does not show it, the date is enclosed in a square black-line drawing on the manuscript. The entire date (including the background) is painted a turquoise color.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The nature of notational ones can vary across dates in this codex, sometimes having dots in the center, sometimes having smaller concentric circles, and sometimes being empty (except for paint). More often, too, the placement of a small number of ones tends to be at the top, above the year glyph.

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:

calendrics

day name

year name

homophony, rebus

numbers

phonetic dimensions

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Feathers

Numbers, Math

Plants, Flora

Time, Calendar, Frequency

Water

Weapons, Shields, Armor

Cultural Content, Credit:

Xitlali Torres

Shapes and Perspectives:

vertical, upright

circle, circular or rounded

boxed in

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

right to left

Keywords:

dates, fechas, ones, numbers, números, years, años, reeds, cañas, plumas, feathers, canales, xiuhpohualli, turquesa, xihuitl

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

nahui, four, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nahui
aca(tl), calendrical marker, reed or cane, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Cuatro Caña

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 02 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 14 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).