Nenca (MH896v)

Nenca (MH896v)
Simplex Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Nenca (“Idle”) is attested here as a woman’s name. The glyph seemingly shows a statuette of a divine force (nenetl), which serves a phonetic indicator for Nenca (“Idle”).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Compare the simple “Nenca” glyph here with the “Nencacihuatl” glyph from this same page (MH896v); this one looks much more like a stone carving of a divine force, and the other one is either a doll or a woman. The idleness associated with nenca derives from the nemontemi (the five extra or “useless” days in the religious divinatory calendar, the tonalpohualli.) The negativity associated with uselessness and its application more to women or female divine forces than to male, may suggest a Nahua prejudice about women, according to Keiko Yoneda. See: Los Mapas de Cuauhtinchan y la historia cartográfica prehispánica (1991), 140.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

francisca . nēca - ycnocivatl

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

Francisca Nenca, icnocihuatl

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
personal name
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as phonogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Gender (female)
Markets, Commerce, Economy
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Religion (Indigenous)
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Toys
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
Keywords: 

muñecas, figurillas de fuerzas divinas, nombres de mujeres, fonetismo, women's names

Museum/Rare Book/Realia Comparisons: 
Museum/Rare Book/Realia Notes: 

This diminutive female figurine might be what Nahuas would have called a nenetl, especially given the two shapes that protrude from the top of her head, which might represent the neaxtlahualli hairstyle, but often seem more rectangular. What these shapes are is unclear. Perhaps the neaxtlahualli hairstyle is harkening back to something worn on women’s heads in ancestral times. Museo de la Zona Arqueológica Tlatelolco. Photograph by Stephanie Wood, 2 May 2025.

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

nenca, idle, without profit, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nenca
nene(tl), deity image, doll, or female genitals, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nenetl
nencihuatl, a woman born during nemontemi (five extra calendar days, a time of uselessness), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nencihuatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Osiosa

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 896v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=865&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).

Orthography: 
intrusive period
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Nenca (MH505r)

Nenca (MH608r)

Nenca (MH632v)