Tetl Mani (CmpRG)

Tetl Mani (CmpRG)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This is a compound glyph naming what appears to be a natural feature called Tetl Mani. It is found in the 1580 Relación Geográfica de Cempoala (originally Cempohuallan, and now Zempoala, Hidalgo). The glyph consists of a pair of two elongated, flat-bottomed rock/stone (tetl) and a verb that means, among other things, “to be, to be spread out" (mani). The rocks, which may be vertical or shown in a bird's eye view, are outlined in black and filled with brown pigment. Each has a typical, curling, three-lobed element that is a diagnostic for rocks and stones. The pairing of two rocks may be a semantic indicator that there are more than one such natural feature at this place.

Description, Credit: 

Robert Haskett

Added Analysis: 

The two, parallel rock elements of Tetl Mani appear on one edge of the map. This place may be a boundary marker for Cempohuallan’s territory made up of several distinctive rock formations. The compound glyph appears between two trees, but is not associated with the drawing of a church, a semantic element that would indicate an inhabited place (see the historical contextualizing image). For more information about the RG map, see Biblioteca Digital Mexicana, A.C., http://bdmx.mx/documento/mapas-relaciones-geograficas-cempoala-epazoyuca... Mundy, Barbara E., “Mapping Babel: A Sixteenth-Century Indigenous Map from Mexico,” The Appendix, 1:4 (October 2013), Mundy (1996), and Ballesteros García (2005), 75.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Robert Haskett

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

tetlmani

Gloss Normalization: 

Tetl Mani

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Robert Haskett

Source Manuscript: 
Cempohuallan, RG Map of (CmpRG)
Date of Manuscript: 

1580

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Zempoala, Hidalgo

Semantic Categories: 
place name
semantic indicator
Syntax: 
locative (visual not silent)
noun(s)
verb
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Robert Haskett

Colors: 
black
brown
Shapes and Perspectives: 
curving, curvy, curved
scalloped edges
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
vertical, upright
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
inherent/internal/merged
Keywords: 

rocks, stones, piedras

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

te(tl), rock, stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetl
mani, to be spread out, to be elongated, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/mani

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

las piedras se extienden (o, son alargadas)

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood and Robert Haskett

Image Source: 

Relación de Cempoala - University of Texas Libraries Collections. 1580-11-01. https://collections.lib.utexas.edu/catalog/utblac:f87917e2-e3c9-4eb2-a83...

Image Source, Rights: 

Materials that are in the public domain (such as most of the maps in the PCL Map Collection) are not copyrighted, and no permission is needed to copy them. You may download them and use them as you wish. The image appears here courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin. If you do publish anything from this database, please cite the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

tetl (Mdz21v)