Atonal (MH625v)

Atonal (MH625v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Atonal (“Water" the day sign, or Dzawindanda in Mixtec) shows a swirling stream of water (atl) with three offshoots, each one with a droplet at the end. Water is a day sign in the 260-divinatory calendar (the tonalpohualli). On top of the water and along its sides is a series of short lines that suggest rays of sunlight (tonalli), which refers to the sun, a day, and a solar animating force.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The rays of sunshine suggest a vibrance or a brilliance with the effect of movement. For other examples of glyphs with these same kinds of lines, see below. Additional Atonal glyphs, with various iconographic forms, also appear below.

This is likely a case where a relatively average citizen was given an illustrious calendrical name. The famous Atonal was a Mixtec ruler. According to Wikipedia, Atonaltzin (in the reverential form of the name in Nahuatl) was also called Dzawindanda by the Mixtecs. He ruled the Mixtec kingdom of Coixtlahuaca. After the first Motecuhzoma took power over Coixtlahuaca, sometime in the second half of the fifteenth century, the Nahuas executed Atonal apparently in revenge for the deaths of a large number of long distance merchants. Maarten Jansen and ‎Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez (Time and the Ancestors, 2017, 337) suggest the following meaning for Atonal: "Atonal refers to a person with a calendar name that contained the day sign Water."

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

Diego
atonal

Gloss Normalization: 

Diego Atonal

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: 
calendrics
personal name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
visible movement
Writing Features: 
compound fully logographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Celestial Phenomena
Gender (male)
Movement
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Religion (Indigenous)
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Water
Weather, Climate
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
frontal view
shimmer, vibrance, shine with warmth & movement
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
upward
Other Cultural Influences: 
Mixtec
Keywords: 

nombres de hombres, nombres de personas famosas, gobernadores, Mixtecos, calendarios, días, agua, sol, canales, tonales, fuerzas animadoras, religión indígena, tonalpohualli, vitalidad, brillo

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

atl, water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl
tonal(li), day, sun, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tonalli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

(un nombre famoso, tomado por un macehual)

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 625v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=333st=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: 
See Also: 

Atonal (Mdz7v)

Atonal (MH487v)

Atonal (MH554v)

Atonal (MH607r)

Atonal (MH785r)

Atonal (MH665r)