tetl (Mdz42r)

tetl (Mdz42r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for stone [te(tl)] has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Tetenanco. What we see are two horizontal stones, both with the alternating orange and purple, wavy lines. Curls appear at the middle along the bottom of each stone.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

There are two stones here to represent the reduplication ("Tete") in the start of the place name, Tetenanco. The non-reduplicated word, tenantli (wall, rampart), is at the heart of the compound glyph and the place name. Tenantli includes a tetl) element at the start, which is not surprising, given that walls and ramparts were typically built of stone.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

Syntax: 
noun(s)
reduplication (in gloss/text)
reduplication (visual)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
orange/terracotta
purple (light)/lavender
Shapes and Perspectives: 
horizontal
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
striped
wavy
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

te(tl), stone or rock, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetl

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

stone or rock

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

la piedra, la roca

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 42 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 94 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).

See Also: 

Tetenanco (Mdz42r)