tecpatl (Mdz24v)

tecpatl (Mdz24v)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Tecpatzinco. It is a frontal view of an upright flint knife, red at the top and white at the bottom. These colors are separated by a diagonal line that leans to the left.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The flint knife was both a day sign and a year sign in the calendars, which testifies to its religious significance. Here it is very basic, but sometimes it is decorated and even anthropomorphized. See some other tecpatl examples below.

Added 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: 
calendrics
day name
year name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Religion (Indigenous)
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Technology (all types), plus Tools
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Weapons, Shields, Armor
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Xitlali Torres

Colors: 
red
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
diagonal or angled
leaf, marquise, pointed oval
pointed (see also spiky)
vertical, upright
Keywords: 

knives, blades, cuchillos, navajas, calendarios, xiuhpohualli, año, xihuitl

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

tecpa(tl), flint knife, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecpatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Pedernal

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 24 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 59 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).

See Also: 

Tecpatzinco (Mdz24v)

Tecpatzinco (Mdz8r)

Tecpatepec (Mdz13r)

Tecpatepec (Mdz27r)

Chicuace Tecpatl (Mdz2r)