Tepoztitlan (Mdz40r)

Tepoztitlan (Mdz40r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph for the place name Tepoztitlan shows an upright hatchet with a probable wooden handle and an imbedded copper (tepoztli) blade. The wood and the blade are painted the same terracotta color. The wooden handle is thicker at the site of the blade and tapers down to the part that would be hend in the hand. The top of it is rounded. The blade protrudes out the back of the handle, coming to a point. The useable part of the blade is curved. The locative suffix is not shown visibly.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Neither the ti ligature, or the tlan locative, are shown visually. Often the -titlan locative suffix is shown with a full set of teeth, in the shape of a mouth, as Gordon Whittaker has pointed out in Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs (2021), 102.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

tepoztitlā. pu(sup>o

Gloss Normalization: 

Tepoztitlan, 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: 
locative (not visual)
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Metals, Minerals, Mining
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Technology (all types), plus Tools
Wood, wooden things
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
orange/terracotta
Shapes and Perspectives: 
vertical, upright
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

tepoz(tli), metal or a metal tool, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepoztli
-ti- (ligature), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ti
-tlan (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 40 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 90 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).