tecpantli (HJleg208exp2)

tecpantli (HJleg208exp2)
Notation

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This example of notation is a black line drawing of banner or flag, upright and facing to the viewer's right. It represents the number twenty (tecpantli). The banner is rectangular with the (probably) paper part about two and a half times as tall as it is wide. It appears to be attached to a wooden pole.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The banner represents the number twenty, which is indicated by the word cempohualli (twenty), found in the short companion text (not actually a gloss). See the historical context image for a better understanding of how this flag was used as a counter, but briefly, the tlacuilo (Nahua writer/painter) was counting 5,820 maize stalks that were consumed by oxen who invaded his cornfield. Robert Haskett contributed to this analysis.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Robert Haskett and Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

çenpohuali

Gloss Normalization:

cempohualli

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

AGN Hospital de Jesús, leg. 208, exp. 2

Date of Manuscript:

1583

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Cuernavaca (modern state of Morelos)

Semantic Categories:

numbers

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

rectangular

vertical, upright

facing right

Keywords:

banners, flags, twenty, veinte, banderas, 20, numbers, números, cempohualli

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tecpan(tli), twenty, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecpantli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la bandera

Image Source:

Single-page codex, Archivo General de la Nación, México, Ramo de Hospital de Jesús, legajo 208, expediente 2. Robert Haskett kindly captured the images from the manuscript and shared them with this project.

Image Source, Rights:

The Archivo General de la Nación (AGN), México, holds the original manuscript. This image is published here under a Creative Commons license, asking that you cite the AGN and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.

Historical Contextualizing Image: