atl (Mdz51r)

atl (Mdz51r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Atenco. It is a curving stream of turquoise-blue water with a line of current and white droplets and turbinate shells splashing off the stream. The water is curving here because in the compound it curls around a face.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

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

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Semantic Categories: 
calendrics
day name
Syntax: 
noun(s)
Writing Features: 
simplex or element as logogram
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Movement
Shells
Time, Calendar, Frequency
Water
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
blue (turquoise)
white/neutral
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
curving, curvy, curved
spiraling, swirling, coiling, curling
Keywords: 

water, shells, agua, gotas, conchas, caracolillas

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

a(tl), water, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

water

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 51 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 112 of 118.

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: 

Atenco (Mdz51r)