Tepozcac (MH813r)

Tepozcac (MH813r)
Simplex Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Tepozcac (“Horseshoe” or “Metal Shoe”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a crescent-shaped horseshoe with the opening upward and five or six nail holes.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Juan José Batalla points out how this coin is a visual loanword. [See: "Análisis de elementos gráficos de contenido occidental en los glifos de los códices coloniales del Centro de México: el caso de los antropónimos nahuas," in El arte de escribir. El Centro de México: del Posclásico al siglo XVII, eds. Juan José Batalla Rosado and Miguel Ángel Ruz Barrio (Zinacantepec, Estado de México: El Colegio Mexiquense, A. C., 2018), 88.]

See the horseshoe or hoof prints on the road (below). Nahuas quickly sought to acquire horses, which were a European introduction, even as they were also the bane of some Nahuas existence if the colonizers demanded bundles of grass be picked by Nahuas for the feeding of the horse, or when horses were pastured freely and trampled cornfields.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Metals, Minerals, Mining
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Technology (all types), plus Tools
Textiles, Clothing, Hats, Shoes, Regalia
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
curving, curvy, curved
dotted, granular, textured
frontal view
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

herraduras, caballos, zapatos, nombres de hombres

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

tepoz(tli), metal, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepoztli
cac(tli), shoe, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cactli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Herradura

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 813r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=700&st=image.

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

otli (T2737:13:8r)

caballo (Osu30v)