Totolapan (Mdz7v)

Totolapan (Mdz7v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Totolapan consists of two main elements, the head of a turkey hen (totolin) almost submerged in a canal (apantli). The bird's head is turquoise with red balls on top of it, red and turquoise stripes across the part above the beak, and a red area below the beak. The beak is white with purple edges. The head is in profile, looking to the viewer's left. The apantli contains turquoise-colored water with black horizontal, wavy stripes, the one in the middle being especially thick. The water has a turbinate shell and a droplet splashing off the top, on either side of the turkey head. The outline of the canal, which gives it some structure, is yellow. The canal is shown in a cross-section.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The head of the turkey hen in question looks much like the huexolotl (turkey) in another glyph (see below, right). Whether it is a female or a male, is open to question. This image of a "turkey red head" captures the turquoise and red color and the bumps, whereas the Wiktionary has a photo of a totolin that is less elaborate and colored somewhat differently from the glyphic one.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

totolapa. puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Totolapan, 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)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Names (places)
Shells
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black
blue (turquoise)
purple
red
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing left
cross-sectioned object
profile view
trapezoidal
wavy
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
front to back
Keywords: 

huehxolotl, vesulotl, uexolotl, turkeys, hens, turkey cocks, gallipavo, aves de corral, birds, guajolotes, fowl, water channels, waterways, ditches, canales

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

totol(in), a turkey hen, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/totolin
apan(tli), water channel/canal, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apantli
pan(tli), furrow, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pantli
-apan (locative suffix), on the water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apan-0
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
-pan (locative suffix), on, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pan

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"On the Turkey Waters" [Gordon Whittaker, Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 104]

Whittaker's Transliteration: 

TOTOL•apan

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Sobre las Aguas del Pavo (o de la Pava)

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 7 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 25, 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).

See Also: 

apantli (Mdz7v)

totolin (Mdz7v)