San Sebastián (Osu38r)

San Sebastián (Osu38r)
Simplex Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This painted simplex Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the place name San Sebastián. It is a vertical arrow with black and white fletching and what may be an obsidian point. This arrow comes from the tradition that Sebastián was a Roman soldier who became a Christian and was therefore martyred by being shot with many arrows.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This hieroglyph, if we can call it that, borrows one hundred percent from Christian iconography. It might be considered a "loan glyph." The gloss includes a "c" at the end of San, which is an archaic or Latinate orthography. For other saints' names in this collection that have interesting iconography, see below. Many of them come from the Codex Sierra Texupa.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

Sanc Sebastiā.

Gloss/Text Normalization:

San Sebastián

Gloss/Text Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Osuna, Codex (Osu)

Date of Manuscript:

1551–1565

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

place name

Grammar & Linguistics:

noun(s)

Writing Features:

simplex or element as logogram

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Religion (Indigenous Christianity)

Stones, Rocks, Lapidary, Masonry

Weapons, Shields, Armor

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

black

gray

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

frontal view

Keywords:

nombres de lugares, topónimos, topónimo, place names, santo, santos, flecha, flechas, emplumada, emplumado

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

san (a loanword from Spanish), Saint, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/san

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

Orthography:

intrusive "c"

intrusive period

Historical Contextualizing Image: