Tlacoyocan (TK204v)

Tlacoyocan (TK204v)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound Nahuatl hieroglyph for the place name Tlacoyocan (perhaps, “Where There Are Many Sticks”) includes three elements. The first one, at the bottom, is a pair of front teeth (tlantli) with a bit of red gums. This provides the phonetic syllable -tla- to start the place name. Above the teeth is a pottery jug (comitl), which provides the phonetic syllable -co- for the middle of the name. Finally, at the top are two horizontal sticks or wooden rods (tlacotl), a logogram apparently making a semantic contribution to the place name.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This is the first hieroglyph for Tlacoyocan to enter this digital collection (as of April 2026), but glyphs for tlacotl (typically meaning sticks or twigs) are known. See two examples below. Furthermore, glyphs for the term tlacotli (enslaved person) often involve a neck yoke attached to two sticks. These may well be osier twigs or other kinds of wooden rods.

Side Note: The folio numbers are not always clear in the copy published online by the British Museum. Marc Thouvenot gives this page the number K02_B in his TLACHIA digital collection, https://tlachia.iib.unam.mx/tepetlaoztoc/K02_B.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

tlacoyoca

Gloss/Text Normalization:

Tlacoyocan

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Tepetlaoztoc, Codex (aka Kingsborough) (TK)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1556

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Tepetlaoztoc, East of Lake Tetzcoco

Semantic Categories:

phonetic dimensions

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

syllable: tla/tlan/tlal (from tlantli)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Names (places)

Pottery, Earthenware

Wood, wooden things

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

brown

red

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

frontal view

Keywords:

madera, palo, rama, olla, jarra, dientes, topónimo, topónimos, nombres de lugares, fonetismo

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tlaco(tl), a stick, a rod, osier twig, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlacotl
-yocan, where the preceding noun is abundant, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yocan

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

posiblemente, Donde Hay Muchos Palos o Ramitas

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

The Codex Kingsborough, also known as the Códice de Tepetlaoztoc, and the Memorial de los indios de Tepetlaoztoc, is not on display. It was transferred from the British Library and is now held by the British Museum. It is shared on line at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am2006-Drg-13964

Image Source, Rights:

©The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. Please also cite the <em>Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphsem>, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities Projects, 2020-present) and this URL.

Orthography:

dropped "n"

Historical Contextualizing Image: