Pantli (MH667r)

Besides this name Pantli, there are at least two more in this collection, from folio 616 recto. Panitl and pamitl are more accurate than the oft-cited pantli for glyphs with flags or banners, according to Gordon Whittaker (personal communication). Apparently, panitl was more common in "Mexico, the Tepanec heartland, and perhaps Colhuacan and Chalco", and pamitl in "northern and eastern flanks of the Valley of Mexico" [see: Jorge Klor de Alva, The Work of Bernardino de Sahagún: Pioneer Ethnographer of Sixteenth-century Aztec Mexico (Albany, NY: Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, the University at Albany, State University of New York, 1988), 323]. These subtle distinctions can be important in decipherment work, and therefore it is important that we are careful to record relevant evidence. Because place names and personal names rarely end with an absolutive, the origin of the element "pan" can be difficult to know. Pantli (which can also translate as row or wall) and tecpantli (ditto, but also the number 20), both of which can appear visually as flags (serving as phonetic indicators), confuse efforts to keep all these terms straight.