Totoltepec (TK205r)

Totoltepec (TK205r)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the place name Totoltepec (“On Turkey Hill” or “On Turkey Mountain”), a settlement of larger Tepetlaoztoc (spelled Tepetlaoxtoc today), in the region of Tetzcoco (spelled Texcoco today). The glyph features a hill or mountain that is a green bell shape with a horizontal red line near the base. This hill is actually a feature of the landscape, not just an implied locative. Two turkey heads poke up from the top of the mountain, with their beaks tipped upward. Near their beaks they have an added protrusion, possibly the snood, which sets their appearance apart from many other birds.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The presence of two turkey heads creates a visual reduplication that seems to correspond to the textual reduplication suggested by the start of the name, Totol-. Another visual reduplication may be found in the iconographic example of Totolnacatl, below.

Side Note: The folio numbers are not always clear in the copy published online by the British Museum. Marc Thouvenot gives this page the number K03_A in his TLACHIA digital collection, https://tlachia.iib.unam.mx/tepetlaoztoc/K03_A.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

totoltepec

Gloss/Text Normalization:

Totoltepec

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Tepetlaoztoc, Codex (aka Kingsborough) (TK)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1556

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Tepetlaoztoc, East of Lake Tetzcoco

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

reduplication (in gloss/text)

reduplication (visual)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals: Birds

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

brown

green (light)

red

Shapes and Perspectives:

frontal view

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

pavo, pavos, guajolote, guajolotes, ave, aves, topónimo, topónimos, nombres de lugares

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

totol(in), turkey, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/totolin
tepe(tl), hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl
-tepec, on the hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepec

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

posiblemente, En el Cerro de los Pavos, o En la Montaña de los Pavos

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

The Codex Kingsborough, also known as the Códice de Tepetlaoztoc, and the Memorial de los indios de Tepetlaoztoc, is not on display. It was transferred from the British Library and is now held by the British Museum. It is shared on line at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am2006-Drg-13964

Image Source, Rights:

©The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. Please also cite the <em>Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphsem>, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities Projects, 2020-present) and this URL.

Historical Contextualizing Image: