Xocotitlan (Mdz10v)

Xocotitlan (Mdz10v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Xocotitlan includes a human head (with face paint and an elaborate headdress) atop a hill or mountain (tepetl). The face/head consists of black line adornments (face paint or tattoos), one at the level of the eye and one just higher than the mouth. The face and head have no color added, in contrast with the other glyph for Xocotitlan in the Codex Mendoza. The face has two horizontal black lines that might represent face paint. The hair is short, to just above the shoulders. There appears to be a cap on top of the head. Coming out of the cap are what appear to be two flowers. The head is shown in profile, with the person's face looking to the viewer's left. The hill is a standard, two-tone green bell shape, with rocky outcroppings on the slopes and horizontal stripes, one red and one yellow, near the base. The hill is a silent locative, apparently standing in for -titlan locative suffix.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

Presumably, the human head in some way represents the stem (Xoco-) in the place name. The analysis has yet to be completed. But there is another glyph for Xocotitlan from the Codex Mendoza (see below, right), which would be important to compare.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

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

Semantic Categories:

place name

Syntax:

locative (not visual, but represented semantically)

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Anatomy, human body parts

Face Paint or Tattoos

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing left

profile view

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

faces, caras, mountains, hills, montañas, cerros

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

-tlan (locative suffix), place, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 10 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 31 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).