Pochtlan (MH648r)

Pochtlan (MH648r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This colorful simplex glyph represents a place name. It is a circle with a quincunx pattern in the middle. This central element includes a small circle in the center with a concentric circle inside. Another four tiny circles appear evenly spaced around the main feature, separated by two black lines between one and the next. Another concentric circle surrounds this main central area. The perimeter has twenty-plus small white subdivisions, forming a border.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Pochtlan was a place famous for its long-distance merchants, the Pochteca. Thus, the place name and the ethnic affiliation came to be equated with the occupation of long-distance merchant (pochtecatl). In Nahua culture, the word tianquiztli was the word frequently used for the marketplace. This term also applied to a constellation, which may have been owing to some coincidence of shape between the standard marketplace and the arrangement of the stars (citlalin) that made up the constellation.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

pochtlan barrio

Gloss Normalization: 

Pochtlan, barrio

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Celestial Phenomena
Markets, Commerce, Economy
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
green (light)
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle, circular or rounded
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
quincunx or quatrefoil
segmented
Keywords: 

tianguis, mercados, círculo, vendedores, lugares, topónimos

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

pochtlan, a place with a market, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pochtlan ;
pochteca(tl), a long-distance merchant, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pochtecatl ;
tianquiz(tli), market, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tianquiztli
-tlan, near, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Cerca del Mercado

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 648r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=378&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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Pochtlan (MH525r)