maitl (Mdz37r)

maitl (Mdz37r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for hand (maitl) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Oztoman. This is an upright left hand without an attached arm. It is colored terracotta. The paint even covers the fingernails, which are sometimes white in other examples.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

According to Gordon Whittaker, we should pay attention to the upright hand without an arm attached versus the more horizontal or diagonal arm, which can have readings other than maitl, such as the ma of capture, ana of grab, or poloa of destroy (see: Deciphering Aztec Hieroglyphs, 2021, 104). This particular example fits the upright hand of his analysis. It is not reaching to take, grab, or destroy anything. It just sits atop the head of the earth monster in the original compound hieroglyph (see below, right).

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)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Colors: 
orange/terracotta
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

ma(itl), hand or arm, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/maitl

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 37 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 84 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: 

Oztoman (Mdz37r)