Tlachco (Mdz31r)

Tlachco (Mdz31r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph of a ball court (tlachtli) doubles as the place name Tlachco (today, Taxco). The -co (locative suffix) is not represented visually. It is shaped like a capital letter "i," with a yellow border and a quadripartite division into four distinctly colored sections; if one begins in the upper right corner and proceed clockwise, the colors are yellow, green, red, and turquoise blue. This ball court does have rings, one on each side, in the middle of the court.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

While the four colors remain the same, the location of these colors does vary across several examples we have for Tlachco/tlachtli in this database. That said, there are also some purple ball courts and one that is dark gray. The colors of the rings do vary somewhat, and not all the courts have rings in the middle (through which the ball would pass). For more on the Mesoamerican ball game, please see the Mexicolore articles on the topic.

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: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Sports, Games, Leisure
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
green (dark)
red
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
half circle
quincunx or quatrefoil
rectangular
Keywords: 

ballcourt, ball game, ballgame, capital letter I shape, balls, courts, pelotas, canchas, games juegos

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

tlach(tli), ball court, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlachtli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Tlach-co = "En el sitio del juego de pelota"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Miguel León-Portilla, "Los nombres de lugar en náhuatl," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 15 (1982), 42.

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 31 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 72 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: 

Tlachco (Mdz8r)

Tlachco (Mdz36r)