Tetepon (MH616v)

Tetepon (MH616v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Tetepon is attested here as a man's name. While the noun tetepontli typically refers to the knee or lower leg of an animal, this glyph emphasizes an animal claw with sharp nails.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

juā tetepo

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

Juan Tetepon

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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)
reduplication (in gloss/text)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Animals: Misc.
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black
gray
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
curving, curvy, curved
facing right
pointed (see also spiky)
profile view
Keywords: 

animales, garras, uñas, piernas, pies, nombres de hombres

Museum/Rare Book/Realia Comparisons: 
Museum/Rare Book/Realia Notes: 

Among the hieroglyphic Aztec images of claws, eagle feet seem most popular. This modeled clay Mixtec claw is approximately contemporaneous with the Aztec interest in claws. Various vases with (feline?) claws found in Oaxaca suggest divinatory rituals and functioned as funerary offerings, according to the museum signage. Museum of Cultures, Santo Domingo, in Oaxaca city. Photograph by Stephanie Wood, 24 January 2026.

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

tetepon(tli), knee or lower leg (often of an animal), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetepontli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

la garra de un animal

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 616v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=315&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: 

choloa (Mdz42r)

chapolicxitl (Mdz8r)

iztihuihuiyac (FCbk6f28r)

tlacatecolotl (FCbk8f34v)

mapilxochitl (FCbk11f190v)