Tetzcoco (Osu34r)

Tetzcoco (Osu34r)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the Acolhua region, and it is glossed for the city of Tetzcoco. The Codex Mendoza puts this glyph (as Acolhuacan, “Place of the Acolhua”) together with one for the city, which has small mountains (tetzcotl). This compound here has an arm that is severed at the shoulder (acolli), providing the phonetic disyllabogram, -acol-, for the start of the regional name. The upper part of the arm has multiple horizontal stripes in red, gold, and black. The top edge has short black lines running the other direction, seemingly indicating cuts. Water (atl) provides the complementary phonetic syllable -a- for the start of the place A-. The elbow is bent, and it is resting at the top of a green, bell-shaped mountain. This mountain has horizontal red and pink slits at its base, and water emerges from that site. The water consists of six short streams with lines of current and white water droplets or beads at the tips of the streams.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The water that emerges from the arm and the mountain suggest and emergence from interiors, both bodily and earthly. See the essay on the left navigation bar about red and yellow as colors separating interiors from exteriors, both on humans and in the landscape. A mountain with the horizontal slits but no water emerging (the case with most mountains) does never the less imply the possibility of a natural spring, and atl plus tepetl are the roots of altepetl (a town or city-state). See below for other examples of water emerging from these slits.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

tetzcuco

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

Tetzcoco

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Osuna, Codex (Osu)
Date of Manuscript: 

1551–1565

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully phonographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
green (light)
red
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bell-shaped (upright)
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
3
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
downward
Keywords: 

acolhuas, hombro, hombros, agua, cerro, montaña, nombres de lugares, topónimo, topónimos

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

acol(li), shoulder, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/acolli
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Lugar de los Acolhua

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Library of Congress Online Catalog and the World Digital Library, Osuna Codex, or Painting of the Governor, Mayors, and Rulers of Mexico, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_07324/. The original is located in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.

Image Source, Rights: 

"The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse." But please cite the Biblioteca Nacional de España and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs if you use any of these images here or refer to the content on this page, providing the URL.

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Tetzcoco (Mdz3v)

Tlacopan (Mdz5v)

Ixicayan (Mdz40r)

Colhuacan (ColRG)

Tlacopan (Osu34v)