octli (Mdz44r)

octli (Mdz44r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Octlan. The mildly alcoholic beverage called (octli) (pulque in Spanish) appears in what is probably a ceramic or gourd bowl, painted a terracotta color here. In this digitally carved glyph, there might have been more mounds of foam where we cut out the visual for the -tlan locative suffix.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The foam bubbles up above the level of the top of the vessel. Foam was (and still is) a prized aspect of various beverages in Mesoamerican cultures. Yacametztli is the name for the symbol on the side of the vessel. This marking regularly appears on containers of pulque, as attested in our iconographic support from the Codex Mendoza.

Added 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

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Beverages
Ceramics, Pottery
Food, Eating, Cooking
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
foamy, frothy, bubbly
Keywords: 

alcoholic beverages, cups, bowls, alcohol, pulque, bebidas

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

oc(tli), pulque in Spanish, an alcoholic beverage, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/octli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

pulque, an alcoholic beverage

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el pulque

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 44 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 98 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).

See Also: 

Octlan (Mdz44r)

Ocpayocan (Mdz23r)

yacametztli (Mdz65r)