cuahuitl (CST13)

cuahuitl (CST13)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This painting of the simplex glyph for the term cuahuitl (wood), shows a frontal view of a horizontal pile of five beams, stacked in a stair-step fashion.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The usual glyph for cuahuitl is a tree, but the term also refers to wood. One example of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis shows a pile of logs for cuahuitl. Another glyph shows a tree with the branches that have been cut off but are still protruding from the trunk. Cuahuitl as firewood appears in the Codex Osuna. Huapalli (plank, board, beam) more closely fits what we are seeing here, but this term is rare in this digital collection. For more on the Codex Sierra, see Kevin Terraciano’s study (2021).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Source Manuscript: 
Sierra/Texupan, Codex (CST)
Date of Manuscript: 

1550–1564

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Santa Catalina Texupan, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Architecture, Construction, Buildings
Wood, wooden things
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors: 
brown
red
Shapes and Perspectives: 
rectangular
frontal view
horizontal
Other Cultural Influences: 
Mixtec
Keywords: 

maderas, maderos, vigas, construcción, Tlaxiaco

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

cuahui(tl), wood, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuahuitl-1

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

madera

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Códice Sierra-Texupan, plate 13, page dated 1554. Origin: Santa Catalina Texupan, Mixteca Alta, State of Oaxaca. Kevin Terraciano has published an outstanding study of this manuscript (Codex Sierra, 2021), and in his book he refers to alphabetic and “pictorial” writing, not hieroglyphic writing. We are still counting some of the imagery from this source as hieroglyphic writing, but we are also including examples of “iconography” where the images verge on European style illustrations or scenes showing activities. We have this iconography category so that such images can be fruitfully compared with hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphic writing was evolving as a result of the influence of European illustrations, and even alphabetic writing impacted it.
https://bidilaf.buap.mx/objeto.xql?id=48281&busqueda=Texupan&action=sear...

Image Source, Rights: 

The Biblioteca Digital Lafragua of the Biblioteca Histórica José María Lafragua in Puebla, Mexico, publishes this Códice Sierra-Texupan, 1550–1564 (62pp., 30.7 x 21.8 cm.), referring to it as being in the “Public Domain.” This image is published here under a Creative Commons license, asking that you cite the Biblioteca Digital Lafragua and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs.

Historical Contextualizing Image: 
See Also: 

cuahuitl (Mdz17v)

cuahuitl (Mdz32r)

cuahuitl (Mdz32r)

cuahuitl (Mdz32r)

cuahuitl (TR28r)

Cuahuitl (MH513r)

cuahuitl (MH487r)

cuahuitl (Osu13r)

huapalli (Mdz28r)

Tlahuilan (MH513r)