Yaotl (Verg11r)

Yaotl (Verg11r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Yaotl ("The Combatant") shows a round war shield with a vertical macuahuitl behind it. The shield may have a very simplified cuexyo design, but it may well suggest a European heraldic influence. The use of a face, often a smiling face on a shield is worth investigating further. Two other examples come from the Codex Vergara (11r and 12v). The Codex Azcatitlan (Library of Congress, Image #30) shows Pedro de Alvarado (“Tonatiuh”) carrying a shield with a face in profile. In the latter, the face of the sun may be implied, given the use of suns as a heraldic charge in medieval and Renaissance art. See, for example, the fifteenth-century Book of Hours in France. Faces on European shields can also represent Christ or saints.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

A scene from the Aztec imperial expansion, showing a defeat (tepehualiztli), has two men holding shields (chimalli) and obsidian blade-studded wooden clubs (macuahuitl).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

franco . yaotl

Gloss Normalization: 

Francisco Yaotl

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Vergara, Codex (Verg)
Date of Manuscript: 

1539

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Tepetlaoztoc, near Tetzcoco

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Gender (male)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
War or Conflict
Weapons, Shields, Armor
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle, circular or rounded
frontal view
pointed (see also spiky)
vertical, upright
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
front to back
Keywords: 

escudos, rodelas, macanas, combatientes, guerra, conflictos

Museum & Rare Book Comparisons: 
Museum/Rare Book Notes: 

This frontal view of faces (under the beams framing the entrances to the twin temples of Templo Mayor) was published by fray Diego Durán in 1579, about two decades later than the Matrícula de Huexotzico. Further research would be require to determine whether the faces on war shields have been influenced by the colonial clergy. (SW)

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

yao(tl), combatant, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/yaotl
macuahui(tl), obsidian-studded blade, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/macuahuitl
chimal(li), war shield, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chimalli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

El Combatiente

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Vergara, folio 11r, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84528032/f29.item.zoom

Image Source, Rights: 

The non-commercial reuse of images from the Bibliothèque nationale de France is free as long as the user is in compliance with the legislation in force and provides the citation: “Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France” or “Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.” We would also appreciate a citation to the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, https://aztecglyphs.wired-humanities.org/.

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Chimal (MH490r)

cuexyo (Mdz49r)

Yaotlan (Mdz46r)

macuahuitl (FCbk9f5v)