Tecacalanco (MH514v)
This simplex glyph for the place name Tecacalanco shows a large, jumbled group of stones (tetl), with their curly ends and their diagonal lines. They are colored red (somewhat purple), gray, white, and black. The tecalli (vaulted stone house, building) element in this place name is not shown visually. The reduplication of the "cal" may be referenced by the large number of stones, if stone houses are a part of the meaning. The locative suffix (-co) is not shown visually.
Stephanie Wood
A reference to a Tecacalango in the state of Puebla today includes translation as the place of the "Epopeya de las Piedras," the Epic of the Stones. This may suggest a legend that was well known, for there are a number of place names of this sort (with various spellings) in Mexico, including a subdivision of Xochimilco, for instance.
Stephanie Wood
tecacallāco
Tecacalaco
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
stones, piedras, verbos, entrar, entrando
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Tecacalanco_MH514v_SimplexPlaceName.png?itok=mtTxBilM)
te(tl), stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetl-0
cal(li), house-building, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/calli
tecal(li), vaulted stone house, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecalli
tecacalaquini, someone who enters other people's homes (see the Gran Diccionario Náhuatl), https://gdn.iib.unam.mx/diccionario/tecacalaquini/61498
Epopeya de las Piedras
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 514v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=108&st=image
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).
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/Tecacalanco_MH514v_Context.png)