Necuhtli (MH554r)

Necuhtli (MH554r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Necuhtli (“Nectar,” attested here as a man’s name) shows a rounded ceramic pot (comitl) with three handles, one at the front and one each on the sides. The pot has some contents that are visible as small round things or bubbles coming up out of the top. Judging from the gloss, the pot is full of nectar (necuhtli).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The pot could have a complementary phonetic value "co" (or, in this case "cu," given that "o" and "u" are nearly interchangeable sounds). This may help the reader understand what is in the pot. Necuhtli can be a term for variety thick, sweet substances, including honey. The nectar from the maguey plant comes from cooking the branches (pencas, in Spanish) and the heart (piña, in Spanish), and it is used to make alcoholic beverages.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
phonetic possibilities
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Beverages
Ceramics, Pottery
Food, Eating, Cooking
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
foamy, frothy, bubbly
vertical, upright
Keywords: 

néctar, nectar

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

necuh(tli), nectar, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/necuhtli
co(mitl), pot, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/comitl

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 554r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=187&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: