Nahua Glyphic Toponymy and Its Graphic Reminiscences in the Native and Indo-Spanish Maps of the Meridional Acolhuacan, ca. 1579-1613

Abstract

This article aims to highlight the vitality of the native cartographic tradition and the use of glyphic toponymy in one of the codex maps from the region of Tezcoco, northeast of Mexico City. Additionally, it seeks to shed light on the process by which certain glyphic toponyms in other land maps from the same region ceased to be painted and written in the traditional manner, undergoing a form of graphic fossilization through the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The visual evidence contained in the cartographic creations mentioned here suggests that, although native forms of place-naming—including maps, indigenous plans, painters, bodies of knowledge, and theoretical-practical expertise—remained in use even in relatively late periods following the European-Mesoamerican contact, within a short span of time, glyphic toponyms in land maps ceased to be painted as signs of a logosyllabic writing system. This study proposes that the fossilization of some traditional toponymic graphic forms corresponds to the disappearance of the last cartographers trained in native map-making and the emergence of a fully colonial New Spanish cartography.