tetl (Mdz48r)

tetl (Mdz48r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for tetl) (stone, rock) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Itzteyocan. It is a classic rendition of an oval stone resting horizontally. It has curling ends and orange and purple wavy lines that alternate.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
orange/terracotta
purple
Shapes and Perspectives: 
oval (see also leaf shaped)
wavy
Keywords: 

stones, rocks, piedras

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

This three-dimensional sculpture of a stone (tetl) shows the classical wavy diagonal lines across the middle, the darker end and light ends of the stone, and the curling at the ends. What is different from the hieroglyph above are the curling top and bottom, and a sizable round ball where an “eye” might be if this stone were anthropomorphic. Museo del Templo Mayor. Photograph by Stephanie Wood, 18 January 2026.

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

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

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

stone or rock

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 48 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 106 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: 

Itzteyocan (Mdz48r)