Tepoztlan (Mdz41r)

Tepoztlan (Mdz41r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph, which stands for the place name Tepoztlan, has two main visual elements, a a hatchet or ax (tepoztli)] and a hill or mountain (tepetl). The lcoative suffix -c is not shown visually. The mountain has the classic bell shape, the two-tone green, and the yellow and red horizontal stripes at the bottom. The hatchet has a curved handle that is terracotta-colored, suggesting wood, and a blade of the same color (suggesting copper). The locative suffix (-tlan) is not represented visually in a specific way, but the local landscape shown in the compound may serve as a semantic locative.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
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: 
place name
Syntax: 
locative (not visual, but represented semantically)
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Technology (all types), plus Tools
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bell-shaped (upright)
curving, curvy, curved
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
front to back
multidirectional
Keywords: 

hills, mountains, hatchets, axes, copper, cerros, montañas, hachas, cobre

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

-tlan (locative suffix), place, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 41 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 92 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).