Tlatelolco (Mdz6r)

Tlatelolco (Mdz6r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This glyph for the place name Tlatelolco consists of a half-circle, purple mound on a short and wide, white rectangular base. The mound is dotted. This is a tlatelli, also spelled tlatilli.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The locative suffix -co is not shown. The internal element, -ol- has not yet been analyzed; if it is not represented visually, we may need to reclassify this glyph as a compound. The presence of the sand (xalli) that makes up the hillock may substantiate Rémi Siméon's suggestion that Xaltilolco was the original name for the city. See: Tetlacuilolli. Interestingly, the glyph for Tlatelolco in the Codex Telleriano-Rememsis, folio 33 verso, takes the shape of a tepetl), but it is also colored purple. The texturing here, in lieu of dots for sand, are "U" shapes that are reminiscent of the texturing of tlalli. See: Gordon Whittaker, Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs (2021), 25, figure 1.8.b.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

tlatilulco. puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Tlatelolco, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle, circular or rounded
circle (half)
dotted, granular, textured
Keywords: 

hillocks, mounds, mogotes, cerros, pyramids, montículos, pirámides

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

tlatel(li), large mound, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlatelli
tlatil(li), large mound, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlatilli
-co (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/co

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 6 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 22, 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).