pachtli (Mdz13v)

pachtli (Mdz13v)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for em>pachtli (mistletoe, hay, chaff or refuse of plants) has been carved from the compound place name for Mapachtepec. The hand is inadvertent here. The substance in the hand is the focus here. It appears to be a clump of short, somewhat curving grasses, left white.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The substance may have been left white to suggest that it is dry. It does have a different look from the substance on 47 recto of the Codex Mendoza, which has thinner straws.

Perhaps it is worth noting that Huei Pachtli was the name of a month of 20 days.

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

Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Plants, Flora
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

pach(tli), mistletoe, hay, chaff or refuse of plants, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pachtli
pach(tli), worn-out clothing or hay (contemporary), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pachtli-0
ma(itl), hand or arm, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/maitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el muérdago, el heno, la paja o la basura de plantas

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 47 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 37 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: 

Mapachtepec (Mdz13v)

huei pachtli (TR4r)