Xaltepec (Mdz13r)

Xaltepec (Mdz13r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph for the place name Xaltepec shows the shape of a mountain or hill (tepetl) and, instead of being painted green, it contains black dots intended to convey the word for sand (xalli). But the mountain shape is typical, with curling rocky outcroppings on the slopes and the horizontal red and yellow stripes at the base.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The locative suffix (-c) (as given in the gloss) is not shown visually, but it combines with -tepe- to form -tepec, a visual locative suffix meaning "on the hill" or "on the mountain."

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
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: 
locative (visual not silent)
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Dirt, Sand, Soil
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
red
white/neutral
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
bell-shaped (upright)
dotted, granular, textured
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
inherent/internal/merged
Keywords: 

mountains, hills

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

-tepec, on the hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepec

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 13 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 36 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).