Xelhuan (MH617r)

Xelhuan (MH617r)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Xelhuan (named after a Chichimec lord) seems to show a forehead band with a feathered headdress coming out of the top. It may have been recognizable as feathers that a person of the Chichimec ethnicity would wear.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Xelhua or Xelhuan was the name of a a figure who has been interpreted as a mythical giant, prince, or "deity," the son of Ilancueitl, and someone active in the Tehuacan Valley. [See Emily Umberger, "Aztec Presence and Material Remains in the Outer Provinces," in Aztec Imperial Strategies, ed. Frances Berdan (1996, 170).] Our Online Nahuatl Dictionary also reports that Xelhuan was the name of: "a Nonoalca Chichimeca who settled in Tula with three other Nonoalcas and four Tolteca Chichimecas, according to the Historia Tolteca Chichimeca or Anales de Cuauhtinchan."

This unusual spelling for the name Xelhua, beginning with "G-," shows the orthographic challenge of a starting "X-" faced by some writers. For another example, xihuitl is a word that some tlacuilos started with "S-."

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

atonio gelva

Gloss Normalization: 

Antonio Xelhuan

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Feathers
Gender (male)
Jewelry, Crowns, or other Adornment
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Plants, Flora
Race, Ethnicity, Identity
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
frontal view
spiky
Other Cultural Influences: 
Spanish/European
Keywords: 

nombres de ancestros, plantas, plumas

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

Xelhuan, a personal name and a Chichimec lord, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xelhuan

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

el nombre de un ancestro Chichimeca

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 617r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=316st=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).

Orthography: 
"g" for c, q, or x
dropped "n"
Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

Xelhuan (MH536r)

Xelhuan (MH536r)