Ahuatepec (T2782:15:17r)

This compound place glyph for Ahuatepec, a subject community under the authority of the cabecera (head town) of Otompan (also spelled Otumba), appears on a pictorial manuscript dating from around 1590. The manuscript is included among the records of an investigation of the possible alienation of land in the region administered by the Nahua town council of Otumba (see historical contextualizing image). The property in question was located near Ahuatepec as well as two other dependent pueblos, Axoloapan and Calpollalpan (also spelled Calpullalpan). These towns were potentially affected by a pending grant of a sitio de estancia de ganado menor (ranch for small livestock) and two caballerías of land requested by the Spaniard Antón de Loza Moreno. It is interesting to note that this late sixteenth-century place glyph, heavily influenced by Spanish culture while still retaining some basic Indigenous elements, not only includes the new element of a Catholic church--with its arched entrance and cross on the tower--but also shows the tepetl as being wooded, apparently another artistic innovation, where the mechanics of creating a glyph is evolving into a landscape painting with shading (which gives it a three-dimensionality, too). While the oak tree resembles examples found in the Codex Mendoza, it lacks the water (atl) elements found emerging form the foliage, as seen in that earlier manuscript (see comparative image, below). For some concise information about ahuatl trees, see https://es.wiktionary.org/wiki/ahuatl.