Tecpatepec (Osu36r)

Tecpatepec (Osu36r)
Compound Hieroglyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This painted compound Nahuatl hieroglyph represents the place name Tecpatepec. It features a vertical flint knife in white with diagonal black and white stripes. On each side, just above the lower end of the knife, there is a short curl or volute. It stands on a mountain or a hill, a green bell shape with the standard red and yellow horizontal stripes (like lips) tucked into the base of the mountain. This is where water (atl) emerges in some cases. This hill or mountain contributes to the name of this place, -tepec, at the hill. The way this glyph is drawn, it could have a second value, that of pointing to this as a socio-politic unit or ethnic state (altepetl).

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

In the flint knives below, one can see the diagonal theme is prevalent. One knife also has a small curl or volute, too. Others have a straight piece just below the handle. Is this similar in purpose to the guard that a sword can have to protect the hand that holds it?

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss or Text Image:

Gloss/Text Diplomatic Transcription:

tecpatepec

Gloss/Text Normalization:

Tecpatepec

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:

compound fully logographic

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Landscape Features

Names (places)

Technology (all types), plus Tools

Weapons, Shields, Armor

Cultural Content, Credit:

Jeff Haskett-Wood

Colors:

Shapes and Perspectives:

bell-shaped (upright)

diagonal or angled

frontal view

leaf, marquise, pointed oval

spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

downward

Keywords:

cuchillo, cuchillos, pedernal, obsidiana, cerro, cerros, montaña, montañas, nombres de lugares, place names, topónimo, topónimos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

tecpa(tl), flint knife, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tecpatl
tepe(tl), hill or mountain, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tepetl

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

posiblemente, "En la Montaña de los Pedernales"

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: