Tzonteconapan (LTlax303r)

Tzonteconapan (LTlax303r)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This is a black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the place name, Tzonteconapan ("In The Skull Canal").

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Source Manuscript: 
Tlaxcala, Lienzo de (LTlax)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1580s

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Death, decay, decomposition
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bird's eye view
frontal view
rectangular
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
front to back
Keywords: 

cráneos, la muerte, agua, tzontecomatl, nombres de lugares

Museum/Rare Book/Realia Comparisons: 
Museum/Rare Book/Realia Notes: 

These are masks from various caches of offerings. They were created from the front part of the human cranium, which was then encrusted with disks of shell and painted inside the ocular orifices, according to the museum signage. Nasal and oral openings sometimes have flint knives inserted in them. Small holes at the forehead locations suggest that human hair (or something approximating it) was inserted there. This supposition comes from the knowledge that divine forces of death and the underworld have an association with curly hair. Photograph by Stephanie Wood, Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico City, 15 February 2023.

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

tzontecoma(tl), skull, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzontecomatl
apan(tli), canal or waterway, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apantli
tzon(tli), head, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/apantli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

En el Canal del Cráneo

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

"Reconstrucción histórica digital del Lienzo de Tlaxcala," UNAM. [New web address pending]

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript can be reproduced for non-profit purposes, as long as the images are not mutilated, and with full citation and link to the source. Please also cite this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs (see splash page for recommended citation format)..

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Miquiz (MH518r)

Miquiz (MH520r)