Xelhuan (MH617r)

Xelhuan (MH617r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph represents the personal name Xelhuan (also spelled Xelhua). This person was probably named after a famous Nonoalca-Chichimec leader. This glyph seems to show a forehead band with a feathered headdress coming out of the top. It may have been recognizable as feathers that a person of the Chichimec ethnicity would wear.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Xelhua or Xelhuan was the name of a a figure in Nahua origin stories who has been interpreted as a mythical giant, prince, or "deity," the son of Ilancueitl, and someone active in the Tehuacan Valley. [See Emily Umberger, "Aztec Presence and Material Remains in the Outer Provinces," in Aztec Imperial Strategies, ed. Frances Berdan (1996, 170).] He may have climbed Mount Tlaloc to escape a flood, and some attribute him with organizing the construction of the huge pyramid in Cholula. Our Online Nahuatl Dictionary also reports that Xelhuan was the name of: "a Nonoalca Chichimeca who settled in Tula with three other Nonoalcas and four Tolteca Chichimecas, according to the Historia Tolteca Chichimeca or Anales de Cuauhtinchan." A feathered headdress would align with memories of the Chichimeca people that were held by sedentary central Mexicans.

This unusual spelling for the name Xelhua, beginning with "G-," shows the orthographic challenge of a starting "X-" faced by some writers. For another example, xihuitl is a word that some tlacuilos started with "S-."

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

atonio gelva

Gloss Normalization: 

Antonio Xelhuan

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Feathers
Gender (male)
Jewelry, Crowns, or other Adornment
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Plants, Flora
Race, Ethnicity, Identity
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
spiky
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

nombres de ancestros, plantas, plumas, feathers, Xelhua, nombres de hombres

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

Xelhuan, a personal name and a Chichimec lord, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xelhuan

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el nombre de un ancestro Chichimeca

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 617r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=316st=image.

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Orthography: 
"g" for c, q, or x
dropped "n"
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Xelhuan (MH536r)

Xelhuan (MH536r)