Zozollan (Mdz15v)

Zozollan (Mdz15v)
Simplex Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This simplex glyph for the place name Zozollan (perhaps "By the Sewing" or "By the Piercing") includes a square piece of fabric being pierced by a needle (at an angle) seemingly made of bone. The fabric has rows of "u" shapes, and these have some added light purple coloring. Otherwise the bone and the cloth are all white. The -tlan locative suffix (which changes to -lan following another "l") is not expressed visually.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The piece of cloth (zotl) with a bone through it, may suggest the act of sewing or the piercing of fabric by a bone-shaped needle. Some sources explain that the verb zozo refers to the piercing and stringing of things together, such as beads, flowers, or peppers. Something pierced is also called a tlazotl, and some tribute cloths shown in the Codex Mendoza (folio 35 recto) have a bone piercing the fabric. The fabric here appears to have a texture, perhaps feathers, possibly quail (zolin) feathers. Another interpretation, from Orozco y Berra, is that the marks on the fabric suggest it is used or worn out (zozoltic).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image: 
Gloss Diplomatic Transcription: 

çoçolan, puo

Gloss Normalization: 

Zozollan, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
place name
Syntax: 
locative (not visual)
noun(s)
reduplication (in gloss/text)
verb
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Names (places)
Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods
Textiles, Clothing, Hats, Regalia
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
purple (light)/lavender
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
diagonal or angled
dotted, granular, textured
pointed (see also spiky)
rectangular
U-shapes (any direction)
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

zo(tl), a piece of cloth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/zotl
zozo, piercing with a needle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/zozo
zol(in), quail, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/zolin
tlazo(tl), something pierced or perforated, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlazotl
zozoltic, used or worn out, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/zozoltic
-lan (locative), by or among, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/lan
-tlan (locative), by or among, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan

Karttunen’s Interpretation: 

"Where Piercing Goes on Here and There" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

"Where Much is Old and Worn" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. )

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

"Donde el Piercing Continúa Aquí y Allá"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 15 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 41 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).

See Also: 

Zozollan (Mdz17v)

Tlazoxiuhco (Mdz20v)