tetenamitl (Osu7r)

tetenamitl (Osu7r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This painting of a simplex glyph (or perhaps just an example of iconography) shows a bray-brown curving stone (tetl) wall (tenamitl) in a lagoon. The water is painted a light turquoise blue, and it has swirling lines (movement) all through it. The stones are irregular shapes, perhaps volcanic.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This wall is called an albarrada in Spanish. Some sources give albarradón. Both terms appear to have an Arabic origin. The wall was constructed with Indigenous labor that was demanded by the colonizers, and their work went unpaid, which they protested.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Osuna, Codex (Osu)

Date of Manuscript:

1551–1565

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Syntax:

noun(s)

visible movement

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Architecture, Construction, Buildings

Labor Issues

Landscape Features

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

Tributes, Taxation, Service

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

blue (turquoise)

brown

gray

Shapes and Perspectives:

curving, curvy, curved

frontal view

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

agua, lagunas, piedras, paredes, albarradas, albarradones, trabajo forzado

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

te(tl), stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetl
tenami(tl), wall, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tenamitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

la albarrada o el albarradón

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Library of Congress Online Catalog and the World Digital Library, Osuna Codex, or Painting of the Governor, Mayors, and Rulers of Mexico (Pintura del Gobernador, Alcaldes y Regidores de México), https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_07324/. The original is located in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.

Image Source, Rights:

"The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse." But please cite the Biblioteca Nacional de España and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs if you use any of these images here or refer to the content on this page, providing the URL.

Historical Contextualizing Image: