caxtolpohualli (Osu1v)

caxtolpohualli (Osu1v)
Simplex Glyph
Notation

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This notation from the Codex Osuna, folio 1 verso (Image 5), shows 15 upright flags or banners, in a horizontal row, flying toward the viewer’s right. The posts for the flags are painted a light brown or tan color, probably with watercolor, and the posts are probably made of wood. A red line beneath each group of five flags connects them. Each flag has a value of 20, so five of these flags would have a value of 100. The three groups of 100 provide a total value is 300.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

One could teach this notation as a variety of math lessons, 5 + 5 + 5 = 15, 3 x 5 = 15, 5 x 20 = 100, 3 x 100 = 300, and 15 x 20 = 300. Note that cempohualli is another way to say 20, and it has the same -pohualli suffix plus the number one (ce) at the front, resulting in 1 x 20. Before the letter “p,” cen-, the combining form of ce, finds its “n” changing to cem. With caxtolpohualli, the final -li of caxtolli drops away before the -pohualli. A flag (pamitl) used to be held up by a labor boss who was in charge of gathering and supervising 20 (or groups of 20) men. This may be how it came to be equated with the number twenty. See the macuiltecpanpixqui, below, who held up five flags (5 x 20).

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Source Manuscript:

Osuna, Codex (Osu)

Date of Manuscript:

1551–1565

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

numbers

Syntax:

line connecting elements

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Flags, banners

Numbers, Math

Wood, wooden things

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

red

tan

Shapes and Perspectives:

horizontal

Keywords:

números, quince, veinte, trescientos, matemáticas, notación, banderas

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

caxtol(li), fifteen, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/caxtolli
pohual(li), twenty, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pohualli
cempohual(li), twenty, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cempohualli
cen, the combining form for the number one, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cen-0
pam(itl), flag or banner, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pamitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

quince por veinte, o 300

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Library of Congress Online Catalog and the World Digital Library, Osuna Codex, or Painting of the Governor, Mayors, and Rulers of Mexico (Pintura del Gobernador, Alcaldes y Regidores de México), https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_07324/. The original is located in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.

Image Source, Rights:

"The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse." But please cite the Biblioteca Nacional de España and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs if you use any of these images here or refer to the content on this page, providing the URL.

Historical Contextualizing Image: