Tlacochin (MH498v)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Tlacochin (here, attested as a man's name) shows two projectiles (perhaps spears or javelins, tlacochtli,) crossed in the form of an X. Perhaps this structure points to an enclosure (tlacochinamitl), reinforcing the phonetics of tlacochin and leading the reader away from a reading of mitl (arrow). These spears have segmentation that suggests they are made from some time of cane, such as bamboo or carrizo. With one spear on top of the other, the effect is somewhat three-dimensional.
Stephanie Wood
The absence of fletching is unusual here. However, the omission of a carved point is not so unusual in tlacochtli (or tlacochin) glyphs, and this is even true sometimes of other arrows or darts. 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/Tlachoin 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
Juan
tlacochin
Juan Tlacochin
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
arrows, spears, javelins, flechas, lanzas, jabalinas, nombres de hombres
tlacoch(tli), a projectile, such as a spear or javelin, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlacochtli
tlacochinami(tl), an enclosure, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlacochinamitl
Tlacochin, famous person's name, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlacochin
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 498v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=76&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).
