teopantli (Mdz42r)

teopantli (Mdz42r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Teopantlan. It shows a temple (teopantli) in the shape of a stepped pyramid in profile, with the steps on the viewer's right. The steps are articulated part way down from the top. The temple is entirely white.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Like the tecpan (governing palace), which typically lacks an absolutive, the teopantli was often just called teopan. The way the framing of the steps goes straight downward and then angles forward is something like the construction of these temples at the archaeological site of Quiahuiztlan, Veracruz. Just imagine looking at those Quiahuiztlan temples in a profile view.

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

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Architecture, Construction, Buildings
Landscape Features
Religion (Indigenous)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood, Xitlali Torres

Colors: 
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
pyramidal
stepped
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

teopan(tli), temple or church, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teopan

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

temple

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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).

See Also: 

Teopantlan (Mdz42r)