Cuauhpilollan (Mdz13v)

Cuauhpilollan (Mdz13v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph stands in for the full place name, Cuauhpilollan. It shows a cuauhpilolli, eagle feather pendant, with a red thong for tying the device behind the wearer's head. The pendant appears to have at least two long brown eagle feathers, tied at the top and perhaps covered with some smaller down feathers where the tail or wing feathers are attached to the red leather thong. The locative suffix, -tlan (which, when blended with a stem with a final -l, becomes -lan), is not represented visually in this case.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The interpretations by Karttunen and Berdan/Anawalt did not take into account the vocabulary word cuauhpilolli, but rather took a stab at translating the place name by breaking down the word into its component parts. Once again, the -tlan (or -lan) locative suffix here does not literally speak of abundance (the way -tla, or -tlah does), but the place was possibly known for making these pendants.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

quauhpilolā. puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Cuauhpilollan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
Shapes and Perspectives: 
Keywords: 

pendants, necklaces, jewelry, adornment, eagle feathers, leather thongs, plumas, colgantes, collares, tangas de cuero, Cuauhpilolan, Quauhpilolan

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

"Where Eagles are Suspended" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"Where Many Eagle Feathers Hang Down" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, 201)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"El Lugar de los Colgantes de Plumas de Águila"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 13 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 37 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).