Iztacalco (Mdz17v)

Iztacalco (Mdz17v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex glyph for the place name Iztacalco primarily features a building (calli) where salt (iztatl) is being made. The -co locative suffix is not shown visually, but perhaps the building provides a semantic locative. Unlike many images for calli, the entryway to this one faces the viewer. One can see into the entrance, where orange water drops into an orange bowl. The building has a hole in the roof, where smoke or steam emerges. Small dots in the region of the hole seem to refer to the resulting salt (iztatl).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The implication is that this is a location where salt is extracted from lake water through a heating/evaporation process. Berdan and Anawalt (Codex Mendoza, 1992, p. 231) refer to a similar interpretation by Clark (1938 2:22). Berdan and Anawalt also note that Iztacalco was a settlement on an island in Lake Tetzcoco (which was a saline lake). It may be that salt is only used here to produce the sound "izta," and the intention may really be white (iztac) house. If that is the case, then we should spell the place name Iztaccalco, which is the preference of Miguel León-Portilla..

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

yztacalco. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Iztacalco [or Iztaccalco], 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, but represented semantically)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Architecture, Construction, Buildings

Color names

Food, Eating, Cooking

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Wood, wooden things

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

orange/terracotta

purple

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

inherent/internal/merged

Keywords:

buildings, houses, salt extraction, saline lakes, architecture, casas, edificios, arquitectura, sal, lago salino, Yztacalco

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

izta(tl), salt, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/iztatl
iztac, white, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/iztac
cal(li), house, building, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/calli
-co (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/co

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"In the Salt House" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 231)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Iztāc-calco = "En la casa blanca"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Miguel León-Portilla, "Los nombres de lugar en náhuatl," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 15 (1982), 43.

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 17 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 45 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).