Atotoniltonco (Osu36r)

Atotoniltonco (Osu36r)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the place name Atotoniltonco, perhaps "At the Little Hot Springs." It shows a green, bell-shaped hill (a visual locative, a tepetl, but also possibly a reference to an altepetl given the presence of the red and yellow horizontal lines that point to the spot for a natural spring). On top of this hill or mountain is a pottery bowl with flames underneath it and water inside it. The flames and the pottery bowl are both a tan color. The water has three splashes coming up into the air, each one with a line of current and a small circle at the top representing a droplet or a bead. The fire suggests that the water is hot. The diminutive (-tontli) part of the name is not clearly shown visually.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Perhaps the size of the hot springs is not the point, but rather this is a spin-off community that takes its name from Atotonilco, much in the way the compound suffix -tzinco can indicate that.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image: 
Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription: 

Atotoniltonco

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Date of Manuscript: 

1551–1565

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
Syntax: 
Writing Features: 
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Shapes and Perspectives: 
Parts (compounds or simplex + notation): 
Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation): 
Keywords: 

cerro, cerros, montaña, montañas, agua, hervir, cuenco, cuencos, tazón, tazones, barro, fuego, llamas, nombres de lugares, topónimos, place names

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

posiblemente, "En las Pequeñas Aguas Termales"

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Library of Congress Online Catalog and the World Digital Library, Osuna Codex, or Painting of the Governor, Mayors, and Rulers of Mexico, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_07324/. The original is located in the Biblioteca Nacional de España.

Image Source, Rights: 

"The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse." But please cite the Biblioteca Nacional de España and this Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs if you use any of these images here or refer to the content on this page, providing the URL

Historical Contextualizing Image: