chicuetecpantli (Osu2v)

chicuetecpantli (Osu2v)
Simplex Glyph
Notation

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This simplex glyph and notation for the number 160 (chicuetecpantli) comes from the Codex Osuna folio 2 verso (image 7). It consists of two groups of four flags, connected at their bases by a horizontal line, for a total of eight (chicuei). The flags (pamitl, whose root, -pan- is part of the -tecpantli) represents the number twenty. The flags are flying toward the viewer’s right. The flag posts are painted tan, suggestive of wood, while the flags (paper or fabric?) are left white.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The mathematical equation here is 8 x 20 = 160. A flag (pamitl) used to be held up by a labor boss who was in charge of gathering and supervising 20 men (or groups of 20). This may be how it came to be equated with the number twenty, which is the base of the vigesimal numbering system of the Nahuas. See two examples of the macuiltecpanpixqui labor boss, below, who held up five flags (5 x 20) that called for 100 laborers.

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:

tan

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

horizontal

vertical, upright

Keywords:

notación, números, doscientos, banderas, ciento, sesenta, veinte, ocho

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

chicuei, eight, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/chicuei
tecpantli, twenty, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecpantli
pam(itl), flag, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/pamitl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

ciento sesenta

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: