Tlacoch (MH554r)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Tlacoch (from tlacochtli, “Arrow” or "Spear") attested here as a man’s name) shows the tops of two arrows without their points. The arrows each have a wing and a down feather decorating them up toward the top, but not at the very tip. Below the down feather is a red horizontal line. Otherwise, the shafts have been left unpainted or white.
Stephanie Wood
The omission of the point is not unusual in tlacochtli (or tlacochin) glyphs, and this is even true sometimes of other arrows or darts. The feather decorations are, however, similar to the acatl and mitl arrows. One wonders whether the spear or javelin without the point was a staff that was held by the Tlacochcalcatl. It may be relevant to explore possible connections between the names Tlacoch/Tlacochin and the title of the high judge or general, the Tlacochcalcatl.
A man named Tlacochintzin (with the reverential suffix) was a principal merchant in the time of Moquiuixtzin in Tlatelolco (central Mexico, sixteenth century).
Stephanie Wood
angusti tlacoch
Agustín Tlacoch
Stephanie Wood
1560
dardas, saetas, arrows, flechas, feathers, plumas, reeds, cañas, jabalinas, lanzas
tlacoch(tli), arrow, dart, spear, etc., https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlacochtli
Flecha, o Darda
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 554r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=187&st=image.
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).
