xihuitl (CST29)

xihuitl (CST29)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This painting of the compound glyph for the term xihuitl (year) includes the A-O sign for year in Mixtec writing plus an added green leaf (a homonym for xihuitl meaning herbs and greenish things). Thus, this compound is partly logographic and partly phonetic, with the added leaf to ensure that the reading (in Nahuatl) will be xihuitl. We have carved this glyph from its fuller expression, as the context shows, where the name of the year “Ome Tecpatl” (“Two Flint Knife”) might be discerned, although the companion text only gives the year name in Mixtec, as Cuiya Cocuxi. In this A-O sign, the A is red and the O is pink. Hanging down from the O sign is something like a skirt with a scalloped bottom edge. The stem of the leaf is attached to the left edge of the A shape, and it curves away from there, with its veins very visible.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

In The Mixtec Pictorial Manuscripts Jansen and Pérez Jiménez (2011, 27) also recognized the leaf to have a reading of xihuitl, with its additional (crucial) meaning of year. John Pohl has suggested that the A-O sign may be a royal crown, and another scholar suggested it is a diadem that has a “bound ray of sunlight.”. For more on the Codex Sierra, see Kevin Terraciano’s study (2021), especially pp. 118 and 153, for his transcription and translation of the companion text to this image.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Source Manuscript: 
Sierra/Texupan, Codex (CST)
Date of Manuscript: 

1550–1564

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Santa Catalina Texupan, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Plants, Flora
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
green (light)
pink
red
Shapes and Perspectives: 
curving, curvy, curved
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
right to left
Other Cultural Influences: 
Mixtec
Keywords: 

verde, rosa, rojo, hojas, plantas, fechas, calendarios, años

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

xihui(tl), year, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xihuitl
xihui(tl), herbs and greenish things, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xihuitl-0

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el año (Dos-Pedernal o 2-Pedernal)

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Códice Sierra-Texupan, plate 29, page dated 1560. Origin: Santa Catalina Texupan, Mixteca Alta, State of Oaxaca. Kevin Terraciano has published an outstanding study of this manuscript (Codex Sierra, 2021), and in his book he refers to alphabetic and “pictorial” writing, not hieroglyphic writing. We are still counting some of the imagery from this source as hieroglyphic writing, but we are also including examples of “iconography” where the images verge on European style illustrations or scenes showing activities. We have this iconography category so that such images can be fruitfully compared with hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphic writing was evolving as a result of the influence of European illustrations, and even alphabetic writing impacted it.
https://bidilaf.buap.mx/objeto.xql?id=48281&busqueda=Texupan&action=search

Image Source, Rights: 

The Biblioteca Digital Lafragua of the Biblioteca Histórica José María Lafragua in Puebla, Mexico, publishes this Códice Sierra-Texupan, 1550–1564 (62pp., 30.7 x 21.8 cm.), referring to it as being in the “Public Domain.” This image is published here under a Creative Commons license, asking that you cite the Biblioteca Digital Lafragua and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

xihuitl (CQ)