Quiyauhteopan (Mdz40r)

Quiyauhteopan (Mdz40r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Quiyauhteopan has two main elements, three drops of rain (quiyahuitl) coming down from the sky, reaching to the top of a stepped pyramid-temple (teopantli). The teopantli is shown in profile with the main steps to the entrance on the viewer's right. It is left white or natural. The rain has three, white, water droplets/beads (small concentric circles) chased by streams of turquoise-blue water.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Frances Karttunen recognizes the possible dual reading for quiyahuitl (rain) or quiyahuac (at the entrance) in combination with temple (teopan). Berdan and Anawalt also lean toward the reading of quiyahuac, which they translate as "outside."

The pyramid steps are articulated, starting at the top going almost straight down, and then shifting to descend at more of an angle. There is a special stone at the point of the shift. The tetelli does not have this articulation as it appears in the Codex Mendoza, but the teopantli consistently does. See below and throughout the collection.

Gordon Whittaker (2021, 207) notes that the generally-accepted meaning of "Rain-Temple Precinct" is incorrect, but invites the reader to look closely to see what is missing. The -pan that appears to be a locative suffix for the toponym is actually part of the word teopan, temple. So, that is missing, which could lend support for Karttunen's suggestion for "At the Temple Entrance" or "Outside the Temple." In this reading, the rain plays a phonetic role.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

quiauhteopan. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Quiauhteopan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Architecture, Construction, Buildings

Celestial Phenomena

Names (places)

Religion (Indigenous)

Water

Weather, Climate

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

blue (sky blue)

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

Parts (of compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

temples, templos, rain, lluvia, entradas, afuera

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

quiyahui(tl), heavy rain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quiyahuitl
-quiyahuic, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quiya, at the entryway, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/quiyahuic
teopantli, temple, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teopantli
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Rain Temple" or "Entrance Temple"

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Outside the Temple" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, 204)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"Afuera del Templo" o "En la Entrada del Templo"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 40 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 90 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).