Teopantlan (Mdz42r)

Teopantlan (Mdz42r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Teopantlan has two principal components, the sign for teotl (divine or sacred force or forces) and the sign for teopan or teopantli (temple), a stepped pyramid. The teotl sign is a half sun, with multiple colors, points, and concentric circles. It sits atop the stepped pyramid, which is left white/neutral. The locative suffix -tlan is not shown visually, unless it is implied in the presence of a building, signifying a place.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The phonetic value "teo" comes from both teotl) and the first part of teopantli. The teotl serves as what Whittaker calls a "semantic indicator," with the first "teo" clarifying that this is a teopan and not another type of building, such as a tetelli. It would not, however, clarify that this is not a teocalli. Still, the teocalli glyph shows a calli on top of the teopantli. [See below, right.]

Like the tecpan (governing palace), which typically lacks an absolutive, the teopantli was often just called teopan.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

teopantlan. pu^o/

Gloss Normalization:

Teopantlan, pueblo

Gloss 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:

phonetic dimensions

place name

semantic indicator

Syntax:

locative (not visual, but represented semantically)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Architecture, Construction, Buildings

Celestial Phenomena

Names (places)

Religion (Indigenous)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

palaces, pyramids, solar disks, suns

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

teo(tl), divine force(s), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teotl
teopan(tli), temple or church, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teopantli
teopan, temple or church, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/teopan
--tlan (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"By the Temple" (Whittaker, 2021, 79)

Whittaker's Transliteration:

^TEOTEOPAN

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 42 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 94 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).