Tlapaltecatl (MH835v)
This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Tlapaltecatl (perhaps “Someone from Tlapallan”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a nopalli cactus with red (tlapalli) dots all over it. It also has roots showing.
Stephanie Wood
In this case, tlapalli likely means dye, given the use of the nopalli (prickly pear cactus), from which a red dye is extracted in the form of parasites that grow on the branches. When squished, these parasites produce a red color, something like blood. This dye is called nocheztli, the blood of the nochtli (fruit of the prickly pear cactus). See below for other examples of names or ethnicities of people from a variety of places, such as Cempohuallan, Cholollan, Coatlan, and Itzcotlan. Also below are examples of objects that are red.
Stephanie Wood
juā tlapaltecatl
Juan Tlapaltecatl
Stephanie Wood
1560
Jeff Haskett-Wood
tintes, rojo, etnicidad, nombres de hombres
Like the hieroglyph above, this Post-Classic stone carving of a nopalli includes the plant’s roots. The inclusion of visible roots is something this collection is tracking, as it seems to have been a prevalent Nahua practice. Roots are often where the medicinal value of a plant is located. This was an architectural feature carved from tezontli. Museo Nacional de Antropología. Photograph by Stephaie Wood, 18 January 2026.
Persona de Tlapallan
Stephanie Wood
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 835v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=745&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).
