Tecualoyan (Mdz34r)

Tecualoyan (Mdz34r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph for the place name Tecualoyan shows a wild ferocious animal (tecuani) devouring a human. The human is being eaten (supported by both the te- prefix and the -lo- impersonal for cua, to eat or bite, tecualo). Only the lower half of the human is visible, and it looks much like the glyph for tzintli (buttocks). But this place name does not have the -tzin in it. The -yan locative suffix is not shown visually.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The locative suffix -yan is one that attaches to verbs and indicates customary action, along with the -lo-. [Frances Karttunen, "Critique of glyph catalogue in Berdan and Anawalt edition of Codex Mendoza," unpublished manuscript.]So, it is a place where the consumption of humans by wild animals would occur regularly or be expected to occur.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

tequaloyan. puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Tecualoyan, pueblo

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: 
locative (not visual)
noun(s)
verb
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Names (places)
Textiles, Clothing, Hats, Regalia
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black
orange/terracotta
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle, circular or rounded
Keywords: 

butts, buttocks, rear end, little, lower

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

tecuani, ferocious wild animal, literally one that bites people, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecuani
cua, to eat or to bite, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cua
te-, non-specific human object prefix, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/te
-lo- (impersonal), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/lo

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 34 recto 2, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 78 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: 

Tecuantepec (Mdz13v)