Techimalli (CmpRG)

Techimalli (CmpRG)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex glyph from the Mapa de Cempohuallan (Zempoala, Cempoala) represents the word techimalli, a circular shield has a yellow or gold background with a turquoise-colored rim around it, and, in the center, a design of interwoven, neutral-colored stones (tetl). Hanging down from the shield are yellow or gold, sky blue, and red feathers.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

In trying to refine a translation for techimalli, it would appear that it could be either a shield made of stone (which would be heavy to carry in war, although it could have ceremonial uses) or an in-situ stone carving of a shield. Two other glyphs for techimalli appear in TLACHIA, the online digital collection. One is said to look like a "rosetón de papel" (paper rosete) and the other an "adorno en forma de escudo" (an adornment in the shape of a shield).

The gloss for this glyph makes it clear that it is a techimalli, although the paper is folded over the "te" part in the gloss image. Victor M. Ballesteros (La pintura de la Relación de Zempoala de 1580, 2005) has suggested this was a Nahua name for a place called San Cristóbal north of Pachuca, Hidalgo, today. The person who provided the gloss on the manuscript map may have inadvertently left off the locative suffix. It could have been Techimalpan or Techimallan, or the like. A similar three-ended tetl appears in a small circle filled with blue near the lower right edge of the Cempohuallan place glyph (see below).

Finally, the glyph for Tehuehuel (see below), which is less fancy but does recall this glyph, may have associations with pregnancy and childbirth.

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

[..]chimalli

Gloss Normalization:

techimalli

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Cempohuallan, RG Map of (CmpRG)

Date of Manuscript:

1580

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Zempoala, Hidalgo (Cempoala, Cempohuallan)

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Feathers

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

War or Conflict

Weapons, Shields, Armor

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle, circular or rounded

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

inherent/internal/merged

Reading Order, Notes:

One could say that the stone is in front of the shield, but the fact that it is not purple and orange, and not brought into the foregrown, but made a part of the design of the shield, is the reason for calling it "merged" here.

Keywords:

stones, shields, escudos, rodelas, feathers, plumas

Glyph or Iconographic Image: