Tenexcalatl (MH782r)

Tenexcalatl (MH782r)
Simplex Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the simplex glyph for the personal name Tenexcalatl (“Lime Kiln Water”) is attested here as a man’s name. The glyph shows a frontal view of a lime kiln (tenexcalli) made from adobe bricks or cut stone, with a dark oval opening at the top, which is wider than the base. At the bottom of the kiln is a dark arching door. Coming out of the front of the kiln are two small streams of water (atl), each one with a line of current down the middle and a droplet at the end.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This is a curious name, given that the water coming out of a lime kiln might be considered waste water. Perhaps the meaning is not literal. The kiln looks much like several glyphs featuring such constructions, which produced the material that was used to stucco buildings.

Juan José Batalla points out how the arched doorway, sometimes called tecololli in Nahuatl (and notes how perhaps tolcalli would be more appropriate), is a European architectural introduction. See: "Análisis de elementos gráficos de contenido occidental en los glifos de los códices coloniales del Centro de México: el caso de los antropónimos nahuas," in El arte de escribir. El Centro de México: del Posclásico al siglo XVII, eds. Juan José Batalla Rosado and Miguel Ángel Ruz Barrio (Zinacantepec, Estado de México: El Colegio Mexiquense, A. C., 2018), 84.]

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

doribio . tenescalatl

Gloss/Text Normalization:

Toribio Tenexcalatl

Gloss/Text 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

Syntax:

noun(s)

visual movement

Writing Features:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Architecture, Construction, Buildings

Fire, Tobacco, Incense, Smoke

Movement

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

circle(s) (small, often concentric)

frontal view

Other Cultural Influences:

Spanish/European

Keywords:

estuco, cal, edificios, arquitectura, agua, nombres de hombres

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tenexcal(li), lime kiln, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tenexcalli
a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Agua del Horno de Cal

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 782r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=638&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).

Orthography:

"d" for t

"s" for x

intrusive period

Historical Contextualizing Image: