tecpantli (T1871:1)

tecpantli (T1871:1)
Simplex Glyph
Notation

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This notation that is also a simplex glyph represents the number twenty (tecpantli). It consists of a red flag (panitl) or (cempohualli). It refers to a measurement for a parcel. The flag is on a (possibly blue or turquoise) post, with the fabric or paper flying to the viewer's right.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The more abbreviated term pantli can refer to an agricultural furrow, and furrows were counted and expressed almost as a type of measurement for an agricultural parcel. Flags representing a count of twenty were originally perfect rectangles in shape, but this one shows some European influence, with the curve indenting the right margin--almost a burgee or guidon in the Western tradition, yet still retaining something of the vertical pre-Columbian banner shape. Some flag shapes and their names can be found here.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
AGN Tierras 1871, exp. 1
Date of Manuscript: 

1558

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Cuauhtla, Morelos

Semantic Categories: 
numbers
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Flags, banners
Measurements, Quantities
Numbers, Math
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
red
Shapes and Perspectives: 
vertical, upright
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

numbers, números, veinte, flags, banderas, twenty, 20, 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: 

veinte

Image Source: 

Single-page codex, Archivo General de la Nación, México, Ramo de Tierras, vol. 1871, exp. 1, fol. 28r.

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.