Tzompan (MH873v)

Tzompan (MH873v)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Tzompan ("Skull Rack," attested here as a man's name) shows an upright, white flag (panitl) facing toward the viewer's right. On the right margin of the flag is a border with hair (tzontli) blowing out horizontally from it. A similar margin for the hair (perhaps a headband?) appears on the Tzompan glyph from folio 652 verso of the Matrícula de Huexotzinco. These two phonetic indicators combine to produce the name Tzompan (from tzompantli, skull rack).

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.

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

martin tzōpā

Gloss Normalization: 

Martín 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
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
profile view
rectangular
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
2
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
right to left
Keywords: 

flags, banners, banderas, sticks, palos, nombres de hombres

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

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 873v, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=819&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: 

Tzompan (MH627r)

Tzompan (MH652v)

Tzompan (MH639v)

tzompantli (Mdz17v)

Tzompan (MH784r)