tepetl (Mdz6r)
This element for hill or mountain (tepetl) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Xiuhtepec. We removed a xihuitl glyph from the top of the mountain. What remains is the two-tone green bell shape, with curling, rocky outcroppings on the left and right slopes, and the horizontal red and yellow lines near the base. The red line wraps around the yellow line at each end, following the curve of the bottom of the bell shape.
Stephanie Wood
The locative suffix (-tepec), "on the hill" or "on the mountain," is provided by the tepetl glyph, which can also be interpreted as altepetl (town). The rocky outcroppings on the left and right slopes provide a phonetic clue ("te") that this glyph is meant to be read "tepetl." Of course, mountains also typically have rocks. Regarding the yellow and red horizontal stripes, please see the article on Interiors.
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
mountains, hills, montañas, cerros, altepetl, stones, piedras, rocks, rocas
tepe(tl), hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl
te(tl), rock or stone, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetl
el cerro o la montaña
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 6 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 22, 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).
