Tezcatepec (Mdz27r)

Tezcatepec (Mdz27r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Tetzcatepec involves a mirror (tezcatl) and a hill or mountain (tepetl). The mirror is a red circle with a large black area in its center. Around the red perimeter are four evenly placed down feather balls (probably tlachcayotl), which echo the shimmer circles that often encircle mirrors, but in this case seem to point to the ihuiteteyo war shield design associated with Tenochtitlan. The hill or mountain is the usual two-tone green bell shape, with curling rocky outcroppings on the slopes and horizontal red and yellow lines at the base. The locative suffix (-c) (as given in the gloss) is not shown visually, but it combines with -tepe- to form -tepec, a visual locative suffix meaning "on the hill" or "on the mountain."

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Some mirrors have circles (not down feathers) around the perimeter, possibly suggesting a shimmer, shine, or vibrance. It remains to be investigated why this mirror has feathers. Suggestions are welcomed.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss 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:

place name

Syntax:

locative (visual not silent)

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Feathers

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

bell-shaped (upright)

circle, circular or rounded

horizontal

quincunx or quatrefoil

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

mountains, hills, espejos, montañas, cerros, nombres de lugares

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tezca(tl), mirror, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetzcatl
tepe(tl), hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl
-tepec, on the hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepec
-c (locative suffix), at or on, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/c

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 27 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 64 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).