Macuilxochic (Mdz44r)

Macuilxochic (Mdz44r)
Compound Glyph
Notation

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Macuilxochic (or Macuilxochic-Cuauhquechollan, with the former being a subdivision of the latter), should be read from bottom to top, with the number five (macuilli) appearing at the bottom as five ones (red circles) with concentric circles (not colored). Reading upward from there we see a flower (xochitl) in beautiful red (possibly a root and another, central part of the flower), turquoise (a circular band at the base of the flower, perhaps the ovary, with a red-colored concentric circle, perhaps the ovule), yellow (perhaps the style, stigma, and two anthers), and green (perhaps sepals).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The macuilxochitl, according to Frances Karttunen, is a marigold. But the name Macuilxochitl could refer to places and to deities. There is a town named Maculxochic in the state of Oaxaca, but this settlement of Macuilxochic was associated with Cuauhquechollan, modern Huaquechula, in the state of Puebla. Five Flower is a day sign in the calendar. It is also associated with a solar deity (or natural force), linked to Tonaleque. Macuilxochitl was also known as Xochipilli, linked to sensual pleasure, dancing, and music. It also has connections to a game of dice and therefore to gambling.

In some flowers, such as this one, the anthers are rather pronounced. The anthers are the flower parts that produce and provide the pollen which has the reproductive capacity that has been compared in Western cultures to semen.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

macuilxochic. pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Macuilxochic, pueblo (San Mateo Macuilxochitl de Artigas Carranza)

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:

calendrics

day name

numbers

place name

Syntax:

noun(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Religion (Indigenous)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Time, Calendar, Frequency

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

upward

Keywords:

five, flowers

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

macuilxochi(tl), marigold, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/macuilxochitl-0
macuil(li), five, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/macuilli
xochi(tl), flower, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xochitl
-c (locative suffix), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/c

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Marigold Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"Place of the God Macuilxochitl" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 190)

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 44 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 98 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).