tecpatl (MH486v)

tecpatl (MH486v)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element of a flint knife [tecpatl has been carved from the compound glyph of the personal name, Tecpanecat. It is a leaf or marquise shape, upright, with two colors. The top color is red, divided from the white color below by a diagonal line. The tecpatl was both a day name and a year sign, and therefore of great significance in the divinatory and ritual calendars.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The Matrícula de Huexotzinco normally gives only black-line drawings for glyphs, so the red colorant applied to this knife is significant. But this coloring is normal for many codices, as other examples, below, demonstrate. The red color may be meant to evoke blood, given that the tecpatl could be a ceremonial knife used for cutting into people.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
day name
year name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Religion (Indigenous)
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
red
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
diagonal or angled
leaf, marquise, pointed oval
Keywords: 

xiuhpohualli, año

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

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

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el pedernal, el cuchillo

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 486v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=52&st=image.

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Ome Tecpatl (CQ)

tecpatl (Mdz13r)