Xaltepec (Mdz43r)
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.
Stephanie Wood
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."
Stephanie Wood
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
mountains, hills
![](https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Xaltepec43r.jpeg?itok=TeIgF9T3)
-tepec, on the hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepec
Codex Mendoza, folio 43 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 96 of 188.
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).