molli (Mdz43r)

molli (Mdz43r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Cuauhxolmolco. A sauce (molli) bowl, apparently flared and round, with three legs, contains a substance that appears as a rounded pile of dots.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

In the original compound, the "mol" component of the place name derives from molli (sauce), which is actually indicated by the molcaxitl (sauce bowl), and yet it is not meant literally there. It played a phonetic role. Given the dots above the rim of the bowl, perhaps what is in the bowl is a relatively dry sauce, such as what is called pico de gallo in Spanish.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Ceramics, Pottery
Food, Eating, Cooking
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
dotted, granular, textured
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

mol(li), sauce, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/molli
molcaxi(tl), sauce bowl, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/molcaxitl

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

grinding bowl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

mole

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 43 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 96 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: 

Cuauhxomolco (Mdz43r)

Cuauhxomolco (Mdz41r)