tenamitl (Mdz2r)

tenamitl (Mdz2r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Tenayocan. It includes a horizontal bar with four pairs of concentric circles and three stepped, rectangular ramparts (tenamitl), all outlined in black and painted turquoise.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The circular symbols below the ramparts or crenellations suggest power, authority, and prestige. They are the symbols that would often appear at the top of a tecpan or teccalli (royal palaces). While this glyph is only painted turquoise, some are both turquoise and red, colors of significance.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Architecture, Construction, Buildings
Politics, Power, Governance
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
crenelated
horizontal
stepped
Keywords: 

parapets, ramparts, walls, crenelation, muros, cercas, tenantli, merlons, almenas

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

tenami(tl), wall, fortification, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/tenamitl

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

parapet, rampart, or wall

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

la muralla, la pared, las almenas

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 2 recto, https://codicemendoza.inah.gob.mx/inicio.php?lang=english

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: 

Atenanco (Mdz37r)

Tenayocan (Mdz2r)