tlacotl (Mdz10r)

tlacotl (Mdz10r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element of osier twigs (tlacotl)] with flowers has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Tlacotepec. It includes three stems painted a terracotta color, green leaves, and flowers of turquoise, white, red, and yellow.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

It seems that osier twigs were sometimes used by priests associated with Tlazolteotl to do penance. The twigs (or the arrows that were made from them) were used for piercing the tongue and ears in a blood-letting ritual act. (See Peter DeRoo, History of America before Columbus, 1900, 489, and Hartley Burr Alexander, Latin American, The Mythology of All Races, Vol 11, 1920, 78.)

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
tripartite
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

tlaco(tl), osier twig, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlacotl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

ramita de mimbre

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 10 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 30 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: 

Tlacotepec (Mdz10r)