xihuitl (TK224v)

xihuitl (TK224v)
Simplex Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This painted simplex Nahuatl hieroglyph is a year (xihuitl) sign. It is a square tipped so that one corner is down, almost like a diamond shape. The square has a golden border, and inside the border is a mosaic of tesserae of what may be different shades of turquoise: yellow, blue, and green. Turquoise (also xihuitl) is a homonym for year.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Many year signs do have a square shape with a border, but they can also be round.

Side Note: The folio numbers are not always clear in the copy published online by the British Museum. Marc Thouvenot gives this page the number K22_B in his TLACHIA digital collection, https://tlachia.iib.unam.mx/tepetlaoztoc/K22_B

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

año

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Tepetlaoztoc, Codex (aka Kingsborough) (TK)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1556

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Tepetlaoztoc, East of Lake Tetzcoco

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Tributes, Taxation, Service
Turquoise or Jadeite/Nephrite
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
green (light)
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
border (red, plain, or patterned)
rectangular
Keywords: 

años, tiempo, calendario, mosaico, cuadrado, teselas, tributo, tributos, turquesa, piedra preciosa verde

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

xihui(tl), year (in this case), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xihuitl
xihu(itl), turquoise, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xihuitl-0

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el año

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

The Codex Kingsborough, also known as the Códice de Tepetlaoztoc, and the Memorial de los indios de Tepetlaoztoc, is not on display. It was transferred from the British Library and is now held by the British Museum. It is shared on line at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am2006-Drg-13964

Image Source, Rights: 

©The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. Please also cite the <em>Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphsem>, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities Projects, 2020-present) and this URL.

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

xihuitl (TK211v)

cempohualli xihuitl (Mxnus19)