yaotl (Mdz46r)

yaotl (Mdz46r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph of a simple shield with a club behind it represented combatants or enemies, and in this case, it stood for the place name Yaotlan. The shield is outlined in black and has another concentric circle very close to the outer one. The shield is therefore mostly white. The club has a tan-orange color, perhaps the color of wood.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This glyph is very much simplified and stylized compared to drawings of elaborate shields in the reporting of tributes. The club might be what was called a macquahuitl, club, or macana (the latter, in Spanish) today. If so, it would have had obsidian blades imbedded in the wood, but nothing like that is visible in this particular sign. The club only has a round ball-like shape at the end, presumably so that the user's grip would not slip off the end. For comparison, see another em>yaotl glyph from the Codex Mendoza (from folio 51 recto), which has a more detailed shield and the club has obsidian blades.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
War or Conflict
Weapons, Shields, Armor
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

SVG of Glyph: 
SVG Image, Credit: 

Crystal Boulton-Scott made the SVG.

Keywords: 

shields, clubs, weapons,

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

yao(tl), enemy or combatant, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yaotl

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

combatant, enemy, war

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el combatiente, el enemigo, la guerra

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 46 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 102 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).

See Also: 

Yaonahuac (Mdz51r)