Tepecuacuilco (Mdz37r)

Tepecuacuilco (Mdz37r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Tepecuacuilco consists of a hill or mountain (tepetl) and, on top of the hill, the head of a priest (cuacuilli). The locative suffix (-co) is not shown visually, but the local landscape shown in the compound may serve as a semantic locative. The priest's head is shown in profile, facing to the viewer's right. His long hair is bound with a white string or leather thong that also goes around his forehead and sticks up above his ear. An additional (red) element appears on his ear. The tepetl has the classic two-tone green, bell shape with curling, rocky outcroppings on the slopes and horizontal red and yellow lines at the base.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

tepequacuilco. puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Tepecuacuilco, 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: 
cuil (tracking)
locative (not visual, but represented semantically)
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Gender (less obviously marked)
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Religion (Indigenous)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
gray
green (dark)
green (light)
purple (light)/lavender
red
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bell-shaped (upright)
profile view
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
upward
Keywords: 

mountains, hills

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

tepe(tl), hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl
cua(itl), head, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuaitl

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 37 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 84 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).