Cillan (Mdz12r)

Cillan (Mdz12r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the place name Cilln is a cluster of six turbinate shells (cilin) turned this way and that. They each have small, concentric circles at the large end of the shell.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

These shells are somewhat turbinate, but they differ from the cuechtli, which looks a bit more like the shell that comes off currents of water (atl). From Sahagún (in our Online Nahuatl Dictionary), we learn that the small white seashells called cilin were strung together for a man's breast ornament.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

çilan, puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Cillan, pueblo

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)
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Jewelry, Crowns, or other Adornment
Names (places)
Shells
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
Keywords: 

shells, conchas, caracoles

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

cil(in), small white shells, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cilin
cuech(tli), turbinate shell (for comparison), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuechtli
-tlan (locative suffix), place, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"Shell Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"Where There Are Many Small Shells" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. )

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 12 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 34 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: 

Tlalcuechahuayan (Mdz44r)

Cilin (MH843r)

cilin (Mdz12r)