Tochtli (ATno6-1)

Tochtli (ATno6-1)
Simplex Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex Nahuatl hieroglyph of the rabbit year sign (Tochtli) appears in association with the European calendar year 1526 as "8 Tochtli xihuitl." Each rabbit year sign in this manuscript is somewhat unique. This one, shown in profile and facing the viewer's right, has its ears back and is front legs straight and angling forward. It has a large round stomach. Its visible eye is open. Hatching appears all around the edges of the rabbit, perhaps to give it a three-dimensional effect.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

In the Nahua calendrical system, the rabbit had the dual role as a day sign and a year sign. The four year signs were house (calli), rabbit (tochtli), reed (acatl), and flint-knife (tecpatl). There were twenty day names, and their companion numbers, which rotated, ran from 1 to 13. The first entry with a significant text in this alphabetic Nahuatl annals manuscript is 1519, the year of the Spanish landing in what would become Veracruz. The use of hieroglyphs for year signs in the annals of the Tlaxcala-Puebla region continued for a very long time alongside the use of the Roman alphabet by Nahua tlacuilos.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

8 Tochtli xihuitli

Gloss/Text Normalization: 

8 Tochtli xihuitl

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Anales de Tlaxcala, No. 6 (ATno6)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1720, at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Tlaxcallan (Tlaxcala today)

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals: Rabbits
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
shading and parallel line hatching
three-dimensionality
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

Frances Krug, conejos, signo de año, signos de años, nombre de año, nombres de años, glifo, glifos, jeroglífico, jeroglíficos, fecha, fechas, calendario, calendarios, anales, xiuhpohualli

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

toch(tli), rabbit, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tochtli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el conejo

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Anales de Tlaxcala, 1519–1720. From a photocopy provided to Frances Krug by the Archivo Histórico del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Currently in the Krug collection.

Image Source, Rights: 

Creative Commons. Permission to publish here was given by BNAH Director Baltazar Brito.

Orthography: 
intrusive "i"
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Cetoch (MH719r)

Cetoch (MH506r)