Tzompan (MH627r)

Tzompan (MH627r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Tzompan ("Skull Rack" or "Tree") represents the name phonetically, using human hair (tzontli), tied in the middle and draped over a flag (panitl). Bundles of hair, blades of grass, sticks, etc., that were paid in tributes were typically tied in the middle such as this hair. Also, such things typically represented the number 400 (another reading for tzontli).

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

In the Spanish colonial context, artists may have been reluctant to draw skull racks for fear of reprisals from the clergy. But this is only conjecture. Another personal name Tzompan also avoids drawing a skull rack (tzompantli), putting instead a tree (which is another translation for tzompantli). See below. Regardless, the name was still Tzompan in both cases.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

peDro
tzōpa

Gloss Normalization: 

Pedro Tzompan

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
phonetic dimensions
Syntax: 
noun(s)
pa/pan/pal syllable from panitl
tzo, tzon, or tzom syllable
Writing Features: 
compound fully phonographic
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Death, decay, decomposition
Flags, banners
Gender (male)
Hair (human or animal)
Names (personal and/or theonym)
Religion (Indigenous Christianity)
Religion (Indigenous)
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
facing right
frontal view
vertical, upright
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
inherent/internal/merged
Keywords: 

flags, banners, banderas, sticks, palos, hair, pelos, skull racks, estantes de cráneos, tzompantli

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

tzon(tli), human hair, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzontli
pan(itl), flag, banner, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/panitl
tzompan(tli), skull rack or tree, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tzompantli

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Estante de Cráneos

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 627r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=336&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: 
See Also: 

tzompantli (Mdz17v)

tzompantli (TR26r)

Tzompan (MH639v)

Tzompan (MH652v)

Tzompan (MH873v)

Tzompan (MH784r)