tlaahuililli (Mdz27r)

tlaahuililli (Mdz27r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for Tlaahuililpan doubles as a glyph for the noun tlaahuililli, an irrigated garden or agricultural plot. The pitcher pouring water on a parcel (probably a tlalli or milli), suggests that the land is being irrigated. The same glyph can also read tlaahuililia, to water something. The jug appears to be a terracotta-colored ceramic jug. The water is the typical turquoise-blue with white turbinate shells and white water droplets/beads coming off of it. The horizontal parcel has the typical segmentation of alternating terracotta and purple plots and texturing that suggests agriculture.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
tlaahuilil(li), an irrigated garden or agricultural plot, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlaahuililli

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: 

Original manuscript is held by the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1; used here with the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)