Pahuacan (MH661v)

Pahuacan (MH661v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the place name Pahuacan ("Where There Is Fruit") shows a mountain (semantic for the altepetl or the locative suffix -can, where) linked to a flag (panitl, providing the phonetic “Pa” start to the name). The flag is vertical, rectangular, attached to a staff, and it has two curving banners flying off from the top of the staff.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

This flag seems to be one that is typically associated with the festival devoted to Huitzilopochtli and the fifteenth month, Panquetzaliztli, in the xiuhpohualli calendar. The gloss has a missing “n” that should be on the start of the place name (“Pan-”).

The profile of a man's head inside the mountain does not seem to contribute to the reading. It may be that the tlacuilo originally just had the flag serving as the glyph, attached to the head of the tribute payer. Then, the tlacuilo had a later thought and added the mountain, as a semantic locative.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
month name
phonetic dimensions
place name
Syntax: 
line connecting elements
locative (visual but silent)
noun(s)
pa/pan/pal syllable from panitl
possessive pronoun
Writing Features: 
compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Flags, banners
Food, Eating, Cooking
Gender (male)
Landscape Features
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
black & white drawing (no color)
Shapes and Perspectives: 
curving, curvy, curved
facing right
frontal view
profile view
rectangular
striped
vertical, upright
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
right to left
Keywords: 

banderas, lugares, frutas, montañas, cerros, nombres de lugares, barrios

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

This public domain image of the Panquetzaliztli, 15th month fiesta, shows a man holding a large flag associated with the events. This page from the Tovar Codex was digitized by the John Brown Carter Library.

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

pami(tl), flag, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pamitl
-hua (suffix indicating possession, singular), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/hua
pahua(tl), fruit, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pahuatl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

Donde Tienen Banderas (o tal vez, donde celebran Panquetzaliztli?)

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 661v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=403.

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: 

panitl (TR25v)

panquetzaliztli (TR5r)

panitl (TR5r)