Axayacatl (Mdz19r)

Axayacatl (Mdz19r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This compound glyph stands for the personal name Axayacatl. It consists of a stream of water [atl and a face [xayacatl. The face is that of a male, with terracotta-color skin and black hair. He is simply a head, shown in profile, facing to the viewer's right. We know that he is male because of his haircut (with bangs and the rest just below the ears). The water starts flowing at the top of the man's forehead and streams down his face. Two droplets/beads (white) and one turbinate shell (also white) come off the water, and the water is painted a turquoise blue. It has black lines showing currents.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Axayacatl (or Axayacatzin, in the reverential form) was a late fifteenth-century ruler of Mexico-Tenochtitlan who expanded the empire considerably. His father was Huehue Tezozomoctli. He bore two sons, Moteuczoma Xocoyotl and Macuilmalinaltzin. See the Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 2, 96–97.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

axayacaçi

Gloss Normalization: 

Axayacatzin, or Axayacatl

Gloss 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

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Gender (male)
Movement
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Politics, Power, Governance
Shells
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
black
blue (turquoise)
brown
orange/terracotta
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
profile view
facing right
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
right to left
Keywords: 

water, agua, faces, caras, rulers, leaders, líderes, gobernantes, nombres de hombres

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

a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
xayaca(tl), face, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xayacatl

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 19 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 48 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).

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Axayacatl (Mdz10r)