Tollan (CholRG)
This painting of the compound glyph for the place name Tollan shows three clusters of reeds (tolin) with cattails. Water (atl) appears in the foreground, swirling and flowing. This may provide the -a- sound in the end of the place name.
Stephanie Wood
The gloss clarifies that this Tollan (modern: Tula) is actually the one at Cholollan (modern: Cholula). The elements of Cholollan are not included in the visuals. Other examples of tolin appear below. One example, for Mexico City, also suggests it was a Tollan (lots of tules in the glyph).
Stephanie Wood
TOLLAN.CHOLVLĀ
TOLLAN CHOLOLLAN
Stephanie Wood
1581
Jeff Haskett-Wood
tules, cañas, agua
tol(in), tule reeds, rushes, sedge, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tolin-1
Cerca de los Tules
Stephanie Wood
https://collections.lib.utexas.edu/catalog/utblac:bfe9df59-d0c1-46a6-8c4...
This map (original: 31 x 44 cm.) of Cholollan (modern spelling: Cholula), from 1581 and housed in the Benson Library at the University of Texas, Austin, which considers it to be in the public domain. It is an indigenous-authored map that was made in response to questionnaires from the Spanish crown about its colonial possessions. Responses to the questionnaires were called Relaciones Geográficas (RG). The map’s glosses are in Nahuatl and Spanish, and the style is mixed indigenous-European. This is an urban plan of the heart of Cholula, emphasizing a grid pattern, which was of special interest to the colonizers. Several altepetl (Nahua socio-political units) are encompassed by the map, although they are called “cabezeras” (cabeceras, Spanish for head town) on the map. San Gabriel is the principal church of the many churches shown. The market square, “tianquizco,” holds a prominent, central place. A fountain occupies this space.
The Benson Library has determined that this pictorial manuscript is in the public domain and is shared through Creative Commons. The library kindly provided this image for inclusion in the Mapas Project, a digital collection of indigenous-authored pictorial manuscripts (soon to be archived) once at the University of Oregon. Student assistant Ellen Heenan processed the images using PhotoShop in 2015, and Stephanie Wood has repurposed these images for use in the Visual Lexicon in 2024.
