Quecholac (Mdz42r)

Quecholac (Mdz42r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Quecholac includes a double-feather device or erectile feather device apparently made from this particular bird's (quecholli) rich red feathers floating on a container of water (atl). The quecholli is horizontal, with at least two wing feathers and perhaps two down feathers. The water is in a trapezoidal water channel or canal, shown in a cross-sectional view. The waterway, which is actually an apantli, has a yellow liner, which gives it some structure. The water itself is painted turquoise blue, and it has wavy black lines of varying thickness--seemingly to suggest currents. Two of the lines toward the middle are especially thick. The locative suffix (-c) is not shown visually.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

We have seen a translation of quecholl) as roseate swan, spoonbill, or flamingo. It is supposed to be a bird with rich red feathers. (See our dictionary links.) The quecholli is a bird whose feathers had an important ritual role in the 20-day month of the same name. This feather device is identical to the one worn on the eagle's head in the glyph for the place name Macuilxochic Cuauhquechollan, reminding us that this bird is a cuauhquecholli (eagle hawk). It is very reminiscent of the cuauhpilolli and the aztaxelli, similar feathered devices. On the latter, see Gordon Whittaker, Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 89.

The container here looks much like the apantli, but it is just used for the "a" that comes before the locative suffix, -c. The apantli may be serving as a visual (if largely silent) locative.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

quechulac. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Quecholac, pueblo

Gloss 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

Semantic Categories:

place name

calendrics

Syntax:

locative (not visual)

locative (visual but silent)

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.

Feathers

Names (places)

Religion (Indigenous)

Time, Calendar, Frequency

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

horizontal

cross-sectioned object

trapezoidal

wavy

Parts (of compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

hawk eagles, feathers, headdresses, devices, erectile crest, plumas, tocados, águila halcón, águila gavilera, Quechulac

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"At the Quechol [Feather Device] Waters" (Whittaker, 2021, 89); "On the Water of the Feather Tuft" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, 203

Whittaker's Transliteration:

CUAUH2-QUECHOL2

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"En el Lago de las Plumas del Quechol"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 42 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 94 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).