Teteotlan (Mdz46r)
This compound glyph for the place name Teteotlan has two component parts. One is a white rectangle with a horizontal band across the top and five pairs of small vertical markings along the bottom edge. Below the white rectangular shape is a pair of two, upper, front teeth with red gums.
Stephanie Wood
The white rectangular element of the compound glyph represents a consecrated piece of ritual paper (tetehuitl). It is reminiscent of the ritual cloths or papers that make up the quemitl) and what may be a special paper hanging from the pole of the digging stick (huitzoctli). The gloss for Teteotlan suggests a reduplication of teotl (divine forces), but perhaps the gloss should have read Teteuhtlan? In another glyph in this collection (for Teteuhtepec, below) he tetehuitl appears to have what Danièle Dehouve (2018) describes as a design made from liquid rubber. The locative suffix "tlan" is provided phonetically by the glyph of the teeth (tlantli) that appear below the rectangle.
Stephanie Wood
tetevtlan.puo
Teteotlan, pueblo
Stephanie Wood
c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest
Stephanie Wood
paper, papel, vestimenta ritual, dioses, deidades, fuerzas sagradas, divinidades, hule, rubber
tetehui(tl), ritual paper, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tetehuitl
teo(tl), divine or sacred force(s), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teotl
teteo, deities, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/teteo
tlan(tli), tooth/teeth, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlantli
-tlan (locative suffix), by, near, among, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tlan
Codex Mendoza, folio 46 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 102 of 188.
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).