Ocelotepec (Osu34r)

Ocelotepec (Osu34r)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the place name Ocelotepec ("At Jaguar Mountain" or "At Jaguar Hill"). The glyph features two elements. At the top is the head of a jaguar, shown in profile, facing the viewer's right. Its coat is brown with black spots. Its white teeth are showing. The other element is a hill or mountain (tepetl), which contributes to part of the place name and may be a relevant landscape feature. This element is a green bell shape with the customary red and yellow horizontal stripes tucked into the base of the mountain. It is from this slit that a natural spring water (atl) can emerge, as it does in a few examples in this digital collection. The hill or mountain could also double as an indicator that this place is a socio-political unit or ethnic state (altepetl, which combines water and hill).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This hieroglyph is quite close in appearance to the one for Ocelotepec found in the Codex Mendoza (below). In both cases, the head of the animal suffices. In both, the teeth are visible, which may intend ferocity.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

oçelotepec.

Gloss/Text Normalization:

Ocelotepec

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Osuna, Codex (Osu)

Date of Manuscript:

1551–1565

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Jaguars/Tecuani/Ocelots

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Teeth Protruding/Noticeable

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

bell-shaped (upright)

facing right

profile view

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

jaguares, gatos silvestres, nombres de lugares, topónimo, topónimos, place names

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

ocelo(tl), jaguar or ocelot, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ocelotl
tepe(tl), hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl
-c (locative suffix), in, on, or at, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/c

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

posiblemente, "En la Montaña del Jaguar" or "En el Cerro del Jaguar"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Library of Congress Online Catalog and the World Digital Library, Osuna Codex, or Painting of the Governor, Mayors, and Rulers of Mexico, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_07324/. The original is located in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.

Image Source, Rights:

"The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse." But please cite the Biblioteca Nacional de España and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs if you use any of these images here or refer to the content on this page, providing the URL

Orthography:

"çe" for ce

intrusive period

Historical Contextualizing Image: