tetl (Mdz51r)

tetl (Mdz51r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element stands for a stone (tetl). It has been carved from the compound place name Teciuhtlan. It is a circle, because it was meant to represent the stone-like water droplets that are hail. The circle is filled with alternating orange and purple wavy lines, which are emblematic of stones in Nahuatl hieroglyphs.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The only thing missing from this tetl is the curly ends, but the coloring and shapes of the wavy, alternating stripes are enough to provide the phonetic Te- start to the place name and clarify that this "droplet" is a hard like a stone.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as phonogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
orange/terracotta
purple
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle, circular or rounded
wavy
Keywords: 

stones, rocks, piedras, granizo

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

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

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 51 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 112 of 118.

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: 

Teciuhtlan (Mdz51r)

tetl (Mdz48r)