Contlan (Mdz21v)
This compound glyph for the place name Contlan includes two prominent features, an apparently ceramic container, a pot (comitl) and two, white, front teeth (tlantli) with red gums, which provide the phonetic value for the locative suffix -tlan (place of). The pot shown here has a large, round body, with a narrowing at the neck, a widening at the top, and two tiny, half-circular handles. It appears to be ceramic, given the terracotta color.
Stephanie Wood
This is a place probably known for its ceramic pots, jugs, or pitchers. The locative suffix -tla (or -tlah, if we include the glottal stop) would suggest an abundance of pots, but the gloss includes a final "n" for -tlan (near) as the locative suffix. So, while it might not be a place of "many pots," it seems to be a place known for its pots, which amounts to about the same thing. Another example a town of a similar name in the area of Huexotzinco today is "Contla." It is not unusual for a final "n" to disappear.
Stephanie Wood
contlan. puo
Contla, pueblo
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
pots, ollas, pitchers, vessels, dientes
comi(tl), ceramic vessel for liquids, pot(s), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/comitl
tlan(tli), tooth/teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
-tlan (locative suffix), by, near, among, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan
"Where There Are Many Pots" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 181)
"El Lugar de las Ollas"
Stephanie Wood
Codex Mendoza, folio 21 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 53 of 188.
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).
