Tecpan (Mdz32r)

Tecpan (Mdz32r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph stands for the place name, Tecpan. It can double as a glyph for the building, which has the same name. This building is shown in profile, facing to our right. It is basically a cal(li), but it has an important decoration along the top, just under the roof ledge. This decoration consists of four white circles on a black background. Each one also has a concentric black center. Terracotta-colored beams in the shape of a "T" hold up the roof overhang.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The town of this name (Tecpan) must have been the site of an important ruling palace (tecpan). A ruling palace in the state of Oaxaca that retains a circular pattern along its roof line is today called the Casa de la Cacica. Here is a detail of one of the circles.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
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)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Architecture, Construction, Buildings
Names (places)
Politics, Power, Governance
Social Hierarchy, Commoners, Elites
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Wood, wooden things
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black
orange/terracotta
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
facing right
profile view
rectangular
right angle(s)
T-shapes
Keywords: 

palaces, palacios

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

tecpan, royal palace, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecpan
tecpancal(li), royal palace, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecpancalli

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 32 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 74 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).