Tlachinol (MH649v)

Tlachinol (MH649v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the personal name Tlachinol seems to represent the longer expression atl tlachinolli, a metaphor for war. It shows two green horizontal streams of water and, between them, a segmented agricultural field in red and yellow. The red parts appear to have small flames, and the yellow part suggests cultivation (with seeds?).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The noun tlachinolli is often paired with atl (water) or teoatl (divine flood), in a diphrase and metaphor for flood and burned land, or, in other words, disaster. Janice Lynn Robertson (2017, 189) suggests this diphrase refers to "sacred warfare." The use of a green color for the water is not typical, but green and blue were not as strongly differentiated in Nahua art than they are in Western art.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Syntax:

diphrasis (visual)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Fire, Tobacco, Incense, Smoke

Gender (male)

Metaphors, Proverbs, Riddles

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Religion (Indigenous)

War or Conflict

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

green (light)

red

yellow or golden

Shapes and Perspectives:

segmented

horizontal

Keywords:

fuego, flamas, tierras, agua, guerra, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tlachinol(li), something burning, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlachinolli
atl, water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
tlachinolli, battle or war, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl-tlachinolli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

James Lockhart (The Nahuas, 1992, 120) refers to the name Yaotlachinol, witnessed in a census from the Cuernavaca region (1535–45), calling it as "The Scorching of War."

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Algo Quemado, o Guerra

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 649v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=381&st=image

Image Source, Rights:

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: