Tzopilotl (MH579r)

Tzopilotl (MH579r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Tzopilotl (“Turkey Vulture,” attested here as a man’s name) shows a bird's head in profile, looking toward the viewer's right. Its visible eye and its beak are both open. At the base of its head the feathers are rather spiky.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The zopilote (Hispanized version of the Nahuatl) was a day sign in the calendar. This personal name, therefore, may have once had a numerical companion to the vulture, and perhaps this number dropped away over time--either inadvertently, or it was dropped to put distance between the name and the pre-contact era beliefs about the meaning of that day sign.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

luys.tzopillotl.

Gloss Normalization: 

Luis Tzopilotl

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)
Date of Manuscript: 

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
day name
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.
Feathers
Gender (male)
Mouth/Beak Open
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
profile view
spiky
Keywords: 

vultures, zopilotes, birds, pájaros, feathers, plumas

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

tzopilo(tl), turkey vulture, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzopilotl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

El Zopilote

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 579r, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=237&st=image

Image Source, Rights: 

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: