nextli (Mdz20v)

nextli (Mdz20v)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for nextli (cinder, ash) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Nextitlan. We have removed the teeth that were imbedded in the middle of the compound glyph. To capture the glyph for nextli, we now have just the circle painted dark gray, with black dots evenly distributed throughout the interior of the circle.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This glyph may be showing more than ashes or cinder, but may be referring to a type of black volcanic soil that contains small stones. A point of comparison is the patch of land at Tlalnexpan, near Pachuca, Hidalgo. It would appear to be a type of soil, too. It does not have the black dots of this one, but the way the magueyes were growing around the gray patch suggest that the ash occupies part of the town's landscape or is a feature of its soil.

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)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Fire, Tobacco, Incense, Smoke
Landscape Features
Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry
Colors: 
gray
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle, circular or rounded
dotted, granular, textured
bird's eye view
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

nex(tli), cinder, ash, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nextli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

ashes

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

la ceniza

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 20 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 51 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: 

Nextitlan (Mdz20v)