Tenochtitlan (TR37r)

Tenochtitlan (TR37r)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Tenochtitlan ("By the Rock Cactus" or "On the Cactus of the Stone"), the imperial capital city, shows a frontal view of a blooming, spiny, nopal cactus in multiple colors. The cactus is on a vertical stone (tetl), with its curling ends both up and down and its wavy, parallel lines of purple and terracotta cutting across the main part of the stone. The locative suffix (-titlan) is not shown visually in this compound.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The translation, "By the Rock Cactus," comes from Gordon Whittaker, Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 111. The cactus that produces the fruit (nochtli) is a nopalli, which does not figure directly in the name of the capital city. The city was often called Mexico Tenochtitlan, and this was eventually shortened to Mexico. In recent times, the use of Tenochtitlan is making something of a comeback in the capital city.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Telleriano-Remensis, Codex (TR)

Date of Manuscript:

1578

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

locative (not visual)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Imperialism (Indigenous)

Names (places)

Plants, Flora

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

curving, curvy, curved

frontal view

spiny

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

striped

vertical, upright

wavy

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

upward

Keywords:

ciudades, cities, capitals, nopales, piedras, altepetl, nombres de lugares

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

Tenochtitlan, On the Cactus of the Stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tenochtitlan
tetl, stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetl-0
nopalli, nopal, prickly pear cactus, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nopalli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"By the Rock Cactus" [Gordon Whittaker, Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 111]. "Place of the Cactus Fruit on the Stone" [Jongsoo Lee, The Allure of Nezahualcoyotl, 2008, 258.]

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

En el Tunal de la Piedra

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Frances Karttunen

Image Source:

The Codex Telleriano-Remensis is hosted on line by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8458267s/f99.item. We have taken this detail shot from the indicated folio.

Image Source, Rights:

This manuscript is not copyright protected, but please cite Gallica, the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France or cite this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities Projects, 2020–present).