Tecamachalco (Mdz42r)

Tecamachalco (Mdz42r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Tecamachalco includes a stone (tetl) and, inside the stone, a set of white teeth (three uppers and three bottom teeth), meaning to point to a jaw (camachalli). The jaw is merged with the stone. The stone is the typical two-tone terracotta orange and purple color, with alternating wavy lines (here, almost vertical). The stone has curling outcroppings on the top, back, and bottom. The face of the stone is in profile, looking to the viewer's right.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

tecamachalco.pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Tecamachalco, 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

Syntax:

locative (not visual)

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Names (places)

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

orange/terracotta

purple

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle, circular or rounded

facing right

profile view

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

wavy

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

inherent/internal/merged

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

te(tl), stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetl
camachal(li), jaw or jawbone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/camachalli
-co (locative suffix), in or at, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/co

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio1 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).