itztli (Mdz30r)

itztli (Mdz30r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for an obsidian blade (itztli) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Tzinhuitzquilocan. It is an upright leaf shape, an oval pointed at both ends, much like a flint knife (tecpatl). It is black with four white teeth running vertically up the left side. The teeth are surrounded by a curving red line that suggests gums.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Offerings from graves found in the Templo Mayor (see below) show how these types of blades could be decorated with faces. Also, John Montgomery has reproduced drawings of flint knives in Nahua and Mixtec manuscripts. The ones on the left and right are from the Codex Mendoza, and the one in the middle is from the Mixtec manuscript that was formerly called the Vienna.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Museum & Rare Book Comparisons: 
Museum/Rare Book Notes: 

Photo, by Robert Haskett, of Offering 125, taken 2/25/2023.

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

itz(tli), a sharp-bladed instrument of obsidian, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/itztli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

obsidian knife

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 30 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 70 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: 

Tzinhuitzquilocan (Mdz30r)

Itzcahua (MH627r)