The Codices

T648 (or in the Macri and Vail [2009:164] New Catalogue YSA) is a frequent ‘citizen’ in the Dresden, Madrid, and Paris codices where it functions as an augural glyph. According to Thompson (1951: 268) it bodes ill fortune. It is prominent in the Moon Goddess almanac of the Dresden Codex (1975: 16-23) wherein the goddess carries (ukuch) on her back birds, gods and sometimes glyphs referring to the coming omens. The sign often appears in the Dresden Venus Table (1975: 24, 46-50); there it is found in texts associated with images of belligerent Venus deities and their speared sacrifices. In the other two codices, the pattern is similar to that of the Dresden Codex. In the Paris Codex it appears in the k’atun-wheel pages (^{1968: 2-14}) and also in the Zodiac pages (^{Paris Codex, 1968: 22-24}). In rare cases it occurs in non-augural contexts in which phonetic complements cue that the reading of the sign is different from the augural contexts (Dresden 54b and 65b; ^{Madrid, 1967: 54b and 88a}).

Due to substitutions between u-T648-ka and u-mu-ka scholars of the codices long ago determined that the augural word to which T648-ka refers is muk; however, they had not reached consensus on a firm reading of T648 itself. This confusion is aptly summarized on page 164 of the Macri and Vail New Catalogue (²⁰⁰⁸), wherein the suggestions of previous investigators include both MUK and mu; the compilers opted for the syllabic reading.

Nevertheless, it seems to us that in this context the reading of T648 should be MUK, a logogram. While the glyph usually has only a phonetic complement -ka cueing the final consonant /k/, on four occasions the augural glyph block is written as mu-MUK-ka (Dresden 72b, c and 73a, c). Because a putative syllabic sequence *mu-mu-ka (employing different mu allographs) is highly improbable, these examples prove T648 to have a logographic reading muk whose meaning is “noticia, fama” (^{Barrera Vásquez, 1980: 534}) or “news, tidings, fame”. In one case, however (Dresden 17c), it seems to function as a sign mu in the spelling u-T648-ti or u mut 'its bird, omen'; mut is a synonym of muk (^{Barrera Vásquez, 1980: 542}). We suggest this to be a scribal error amid a series of bird/omen t'ols containing the closely-related spellings u-mu-ti, u-mu-ka, u-MUK-ti (the error) and even u-mu-wa in identical environments.

Dresden 46c

Parallel texts from each of the five pages of the Dresden Venus Table from 46c to 50c repeat twice the common collocation umuk, ‘its (negative) augury’, with the final text on 50c repeating it three times (Figure 2a). In one instance, the usual Postclassic T648 has a slightly different graphic form, and we see this as an unambiguous substitution. This appears in the text of Dresden page 46c (Figure 2b). Here, above the speared K’awil, one finds this short text:

2-UH-WINIK u-T648v-ka         ma-CH’AB‘-b’u-si AJAW-wa

po-po-TZ’AM-ma u-mu-ka      ma-AK’AB’-si CH’OK-ko

cha’ uh winik umuk                    ma’ ch’ahb’is ajaw

pop tz’am umuk                         ma’ ak’ab’is ch’ok

'Two [days] plus one lunation plus twenty [days]¹ are its (negative) augury,

Mat and throne are its (negative) augury,

Without creation are the lords,

Without darkness are the youths.'²

(^{Förstemann, 1892})

Figure 2a Dresden page50c. 

(^{Förstemann, 1892})

Figure 2b Dresden page 46c. 

This example, hitherto hidden in plain sight, is the dust-laden missing link between the Postclassic T648 and the Classic T694. The common grapheme T648 has two dots in a row ending in a bigger circle, and in the upper right part there is a dark spot. But in our T648v example we have three different oblong shapes; that of the upper left resembles -but has no phonological relation to- the syllable le. The whole sign is identical to the T694 infix in the "banded bird" glyph on the Palenque K’an Tok Panel and in several examples of the El Palmar dynastic title spelled SAK-T694 (-ka). This discovery invites a rethinking of several hitherto problematic Classic contexts for T694 -known to be syllabic 'o elsewhere- to prove an additional MUK logographic reading.

Before we proceed, it behooves us to explain the Dresden examples of T648 which co-occur with affixed yo- and -la or, in one case, prefixed yo-. Since we have now identified T648 as the Postclassic version of T694, and since the latter in certain contexts has a reading of o, we will explore this value in two relevant passages.

Dresden 65b

The first example shows up in page 65b, which is one part of the Seasonal Table (Dresden, 1975: 61-69; see ^{Bricker and Bricker, 2011: 489-550}; Figure 3). In the Lower Table, the Rain God Chahk is depicted holding various objects (Dresden, 1975: 65-68). The text follows the usual pattern, opening with the verb an, ‘to be';³ the location (ta kab’ or ta b’ih and so on) follows, and finally the Rain God himself ends the clause. Next, one reads auguries such as uxwi’il, yutzil, chakhal, tz’ak or ta ajawel in sequence with different types of tamales (9 waj, sak k’uh waj, aj chij waj and so on). The clause consistently closes with the u-T1038b formula, which previous epigraphers over many years have read as either kan or sih (offering, gift or sacrifice; see ^{Macri and Vail, 2008: 114}), however we consider these readings unlikely.⁴

(^{Förstemann, 1892})

Figure 3 Dresden page 65b. 

The clause where T648 occurs begins with an and the location follows; here the first sign is o and the second sign should be me. ^{Linda Schele and Nikolai Grube (1997: 192)} suggested the whole word to be om, 'foam', which may refer to the clouds. Later, ^{Grube (2012: 156)} proposed that the location might be sand; however, he did not explain the proposition. The suggested om is followed by Chahk and yo-T648-la. The sentence finishes with aj chij waj (AJ-chi-ji-wa) and the “sacrifice/offering” formula ('deer tamales are his offering').

^{Schele and Grube (1997: 192)} suggest the sequence yo-T648-la to read yo-mu-la: yomul, 'foamy'. Nevertheless, we do not know of any augury 'foamy' in the codices. We would also expect the spelling yo-mo-la. In the first image the pattern is an ta kab’ Chah kux wi’il b’olon waj u-T1038 or 'Chahk is on the land, (it will be) abundance, his food offering will be lots of tamales'. The text associated with the third image opens with an ta b’ih Chahk yutzil or 'Chahk is on the road (it will be) goodness…'.

These examples demonstrate that in these texts the scribes listed abstract nouns as auguries with positive attributes. If instead of mu we employ the Classic Period o in the sentence in question, we will have yo-o-la: y-ohl. This was a common word for 'heart' and 'center' in the Classic Period (see Itza jool in ^{Hofling and Tesucún 1997: 492} or Yucatec óol in ^{Bricker, Poot and Dzul, 1998: 17}). We suggest that in the Dresden example the meaning of ohl is ‘heart’ in this context. Moreover, we agree with ^{Erik Velásquez García (2017: 17)} that aj chij waj is ‘male deer tamale’ (tamal de venado macho), in contrast with the previous suggestions ’deer tamale’ and ‘deerslayer bread’ (^{Schele and Grube, 1997: 192}, and ^{Bricker and Bricker, 2011: 521}, respectively). Altogether, yohl aj chij waj would be 'tamales made from the heart of the (sacrificial) male deer'.

Dresden 54b

The other example of yo-T648 appears in Dresden D54b as part of the eclipse pages from 51 to 58 in association with Picture 7, which shows the icon of a solar eclipse; the Sun glyph is flanked by black and white wings. The white wing is partially hidden by a piece of cloth, while the Sun sign floats in the black wing, pierced by two bones projecting from the corners.

According to ^{Bricker and Bricker (2011: 249)} the Eclipse Table provides a warning of all solar eclipses occurring anywhere in the world. The structure of the table shares generally the same format as the other tables in the Dresden Codex, in that the base dates and their multiples appear at the beginning (51a-52a) followed by the proper data of the eclipses (D.53a-58b).

The table begins with three entry dates separated by 15 days each, spanning an interval of one month. Using the 584285 GMT correlation constant, we propose:

These dates are understood to represent potential intervals between new moon and full moon, again returning to the next new moon, and they were likely used to adjust for the occurrence of actual eclipses and the ways in which the table may have been recycled. Indeed, the preface of the table shows repeating multiples of the 11,960-day interval of the table in association with five Tzolk'in days, including the three mentioned above: 12 Lamat, 1 Ak'bal, 3 Etz'nab, 5 Ben, and 7 Lamat.

How the initial entry dates correspond to the text remains somewhat obscure, though there is a general consensus that the captions refer to actual or potential eclipse events. The yo-T648 expression occurs in the text of Picture 7, which refers to the period January 24, 779 to February 23, 779, Gregorian. None of the entry dates lead to any visible eclipse event, though the third entry date of 3 Etz'nab would reach the date 9.17.8.3.12. 1 Eb 5 Wo, February 23, 779 (1/19 J). This would have been one day prior to an invisible solar eclipse in Pisces at Maya longitudes. Indeed, Picture 7 itself as well as the two-glyph caption prior to the caption in 54b, column D both appear to refer toa solar eclipse, with K'IN signs surrounded by half-darkened foliation.

The text associated with Picture 7 on pg. 54b reads (Figure 4):

YAJ? CHAN-na YAJ?-KAB’

u-KAB’-ji-ya CHUM-IXIK-UH

NAH-CHAN yo-o

ta-CHAN-YAL-la HA’?-CH’EN-na

yaj? chan yaj? kab’

ukab’jiy chum Ixik Uh

nah chan yo’

ta(j) yal chan ha’? ch’en⁵

'Misfortune to the heavens, misfortune to the land

because of the seating of the Moon Goddess,

Nah Chan is over the (Lord) who throws a torch/dart at (One) Sky, [it will be] flood in the cave.'

(^{Förstemann, 1892})

Figure 4 Dresden page 54b. 

While this is a relatively short text, it requires considerable explanation due to poorly understood astronomical references, which we will be exploring in a future publication. Nevertheless, we propose that the text describes the position of an invisible solar eclipse in Pisces on February 24-25, 779 AD (February 20-21 Julian). Here, the yo-T648, which we read as yo’ 'above, upon' (yóoɁ in ^{Bricker, Poot and Dzul,1998: 317}) specifically states that Nah Chan⁶ is ’over’ Taj Yal Chan.⁷ Reading Nah Chan as the eclipse node and the devouring mouth of the sky serpent, and Taj Yal Chan as representative of one of the five sidereal positions in which Venus rises heliacally, we find that the solar eclipse associated with this date occurred in the position of Pisces, which was indeed one of the five sidereal constellations in which the heliacal rise of Venus took place in the era of the Lunar Table.

It is perhaps significant that the text in the caption associated with Picture 7 mentions the 'seating of the Moon Goddess' as CHUM-IX-UH. The only other reference to this name of the Moon Goddess in the Dresden Codex occurs in the Venus Table, where she appears as the fourth of five Venus Regents on page 49. ^{Dennis Tedlock (2010: 211)} proposes that these five Regents correspond to five constellations in which Venus repeatedly rises as morning star; we will explore how these Regents relate to the Taj Yal Chan title in a future publication. Meanwhile, if we may simply draw a parallel between the seating of the lunar month and the more commonly referenced seating of Haab winals as the beginning of these periods, the reference to the seating of the Moon Goddess as CHUM-IX-UH in the caption on pg. 54b would correspond with the new moon during this month. Therefore, the reference here would appear to conform to the proposed invisible solar eclipse, with the new moon in Pisces on February 24-25, 779 (February 20-21 Julian), in keeping with the solar eclipse imagery in the associated image.

Copan Temple 11: the Panels

Copan Structure 11 is the last building at the northern end of the Acropolis. On its platform stands the magnificent Temple 11 with eight panels (^{Riese and Riese, 1991}). The reading order of the panels is ambiguous and nonlinear, and there are at least two solutions proposed by ^{Becquelin and Baudez (1982: 884-888)}, and ^{Schele, Stuart, and Grube (1989)}, respectively. The dates are generally more precise, with the exception of one Calendar Round, although the content in some places is not well understood. As is common in long inscriptions, the Maya connected astronomical events to mundane episodes in the lives of the rulers, while they also narrated the past achievements of the ancestors. In the Copan Structure 11 panels Yax Pasaj Chan Yopat (763-822) spoke about his accession to the throne, the dedication of the bench inside of the temple, and the building itself. He also referenced the dedications of two past rulers, Waxaklajun Ub’ah K’awil (695-738) and K’ahk’ Yipyaj Chan K’awil (749-763).

Prior to the accession of Yax Pasaj Chan Yopat on 9.16.12.5.17, there are two earlier dates mentioned in the text. One narrates the dedication of the ballcourt by Waxaklajun Ub’ah K’awil on 9.14.15.0.0 in Panels 2-3, and the other is an astronomical event on Panel 5 (East Door, North Panel). Following the date of his inauguration, the inscription details several dedications culminating in the last dedication date of 9.17.5.0.0 on Panel 7, when Yax Pasaj Chan Yopat animated the bench in the temple.

On Panel 5 (East Door, North Panel), the text describes two events, but it is unclear how they may relate to one another (Figure 5):

11-9-WINIK-ji-ya 1-HAB’-ya ALAY?-ya b’i-hi ti-9-CHIKCHAN 13-CHAK-AT-ta AJ-na ti-b’i-TE’-SAK xa-ya tu-pa-CHAN-ni-ma? u-TZ’AK-AJ 5-KIB’-10-K’AN-JAL-b’u K’AL-wa-ni-yi AJAW-wa-CHAK-EK’ u-MUK-ka-1-AJAW-WINIK-ki

(Drawing by ^{Berthold Riese, 1991})

Figure 5 Copan Panel 5, East Door, North Panel. 

The inscription begins with a distance number of 1.9.11 to reach the date of 9.17.1.3.5 9 Chikchan 13 Zip, on March 24, 772 (March 20 J). This date is immediately followed by another Calendar Round date with a uniquely rare Classic Period Venus event that is unconnected to any other dates by way of a distance number. Several authors suggest that this unanchored Calendar Round of 5 Kib 10 Pop associates with the Long Count of 9.15.15.12.16 or February 15, 747 (Feb. 11 J), during the life of Ruler 14, K’ahk’ Joplaj Chan K’awil (^{Lounsbury, 1982}; ^{Schele, Stuart, and Grube, 1989}; ^{Riese and Riese, 1991: 231}; ^{Plank, 2004}; ^{Aldana, 2011}). Indeed, this clearly stated Venus event is precisely 15 cycles of 584 days, or 3 Venus-Haab cycles prior to the last date given in the inscription on Panel 8 (West door, South panel), 9.17.0.0.16, 3 Kib 9 Pop, February 7, 771 (Feb. 3 J), and both events correspond with the first evening visibility of Venus in the west (^{Lounsbury, 1982}).

The Calendar Round date of 5 Kib 10 Pop is a non-traditional date, with the Haab position advanced by one, as is common in other inscriptions associated with Yax Pasaj Chan Yopat. Following this date, we find a sentence that closely resembles a clause that occurs in the Dresden Venus Table (^{Lounsbury, 1982}; ^{Aldana, 2001, 2014}):

K’AL-wa-ni-yi AJAW-waCHAK-EK’ u-MUK-ka1-AJAW-WINIK-ki

k’alwaniy ajaw chak ek’ umuk jun ajaw winik

“It took its position [above the horizon], the Lord Big Star; this is the omen to Jun Ajaw Winik”

On page 48 of the Dresden, in the middle section, we find the sentence (Figure 6):

K’AL-ja la-K’IN-ni ta-wi-si-ka-la CHAK-EK’ AJAN u-JUL u-mu-ka la-K’IN-ni tu-KAB’-b’a tu-CH’EN-na u MUK-ka NAL-??-WINIK

k'ahlaj lak’in tawiskal chak ek’ ajan ujul umuk lak’in tu kab’ tu ch’en umuknal ?? winik

“It is held in position in the east, Tawiskal the Big Star, the Maize God is its spearing, this is the omen to the east of the earth, of the well [i.e. the eastern region or cities], this is the omen to the maize people?”

(^{Förstemann, 1892})

Figure 6 Dresden page 48. 

Given the parallel with the Venus Table, ^{Gerardo Aldana (2014: 83)} first speculated that the inscription in Copán Temple 11 likewise includes umuk, though he did not explore this further. Although the Copan example is shorter than that in the Dresden, we believe we can reconstruct the meaning using the codical example. In Temple 11, the text begins with the positional verb k'alwaniy. In this context and in the Dresden Venus Table, we read the verb root k’al as ‘to hold in position’ relating to the consistent appearance of Venus in a position just above the horizon in each case.⁸ While it leaves out the cardinal direction, the subject of the verb in the Copan example is Ajaw Chak Ek’, and this refers to the god who impersonates Venus (k’alwaniy ajaw chak ek’ = k’ahlaj … tawiskal chak ek’). In addition, the Copan example lacks the “spearer” clause and the omen follows directly. As in the Dresden case, the omen (muk) in the Temple 11 case associates with a god, Jun Ajaw Winik. He is recognizable as one of the hero twins, popular both in the Classic and the Postclassic Periods and closely associated with the planet Venus in the Dresden Codex Venus Table.⁹ As in the Dresden example, it is conceivable that the omen is negative for the god mentioned.

The Banded Bird Title

The Banded Bird Title (BBT) makes frequent appearances in the inscriptions, especially in the texts of the western region such as Palenque and Yaxchilan. There are many varieties of the title, both in spellings and in composing elements, which has led to the unfortunate situation of its not having yet been deciphered. ^{Bernal Romero (2009: 89-94)} has suggested a reading NAB’ (nahb’) for the main sign (T694 plus the signature headscarf, which he thought to be a water lily plant representing the act of anointing [*nahb-at: 'one who anoints']), but this has found little support. Proceeding from the foregoing discussion, we have an alternative proposal. ^{Stuart (2005: 133-136)} has assembled all the known forms of the title, though he has not suggested a reading. ^{Polyukhovych (2008)} has proposed the reading of NAAT, but he has not accounted for every known spelling; therefore his solution has not been accepted widely by epigraphers.

The simple form of the BBT is a bird head with a special headscarf. This allograph usually has a suffixed phonetic complement ta (occasionally ti), although at Tortuguero the headscarf alone appears with ta. The latter examples are crucial, showing that the headscarf and the bird-with-headscarf substitute for each other. One tiny fragment from the Palenque Temple XVI stucco ensemble has the spelling AJ-AJAW-BIRD.HEADSCARF (^{Stuart, 2005: 135}), which is substituted for by a spelling AJAW-wa-HEADSCARF-T694-wa-li; the latteroccurs several times in the text of the K’an Tok Panel from Temple XVI of Palenque. Also at Palenque, on a censer from Temple XIV, the spelling IX-HEADSCARF-ta-wa is seen (^{Schele and Mathews, 1979: 70}.¹⁰ In three instances at Palenque and Yaxchilan, the expression is possessed by the third singular ergative pronoun u; thus the collocation’s initial phoneme must be a consonant.

We may identify the spelling patterns of the BBT as follows (Figure 7):

(All drawings by Péter Bíró)

Figure 7 Banded Bird Title. a, Palenque, Tablet of the Foliated Cross, M1; b, Tortuguero, Wooden Box; c, K’an Tok Panel, C9-D9; d, K’an Tok Panel, H6-G7; e, Palenque, Temple of the Foliated Cross, censer; f, Palenque, Temple XVI, stucco fragment. 

From these examples, we can provisionally reconstruct the expression as either *CVta-w(a) or *CVC-ta-w(a) or *CVC-(V)ta-w(a)with a -li suffix on the K'an Tok panel.

Given our identification of T694 as MUK and o, we have four options to consider. For the complex form HEADSCARF-T694-wa-li these are:

But if T694 is fused with the HEADSCARF into a single logogram(which is our analysis), then

Option (4) is impossible because the third singular ergative u¹¹ already obligates an initial consonant. Option (1) is also unlikely because of the phonemic regularities of the Mayan languages, which would not allow a spelling *CVCCVCCVC (or *CVCmuktaw) representing a single noun. Option (2) does not match any other lexemes in Maya. Therefore we have provisionally chosen the third option, namely that T694 replaces the BIRD logograph, which leads to a spelling MUK-ta-wa-li or muktawil. We understand the morphological elements of the expression to be muk-Vt-ta-aw-il in which -Vt derives a noun from a transitive root; -ta retransitivizes the stem; -aw derives a nominalized antipassive, and -il is an abstract nominal suffix.¹²

The underlying root is muk, whose antecedents are the proto-Mayan transitive *muq 'to bury it, to hide it' (^{Kaufman and Justeson, 2003: 173}) and proto-Ch'olan transitive *muk (^{Kaufman and Norman, 1984: 126}). Nevertheless, we have only found the form *muk-ut in Colonial Yucatec as 'to wait for' (^{Bolles, 1997}) or 'to give order(s), to plan or design' (^{Barrera Vásquez, 1980: 535}).¹³

We believe that muktaw(< *mukut-ta-aw) may be analyzed as a nominalized antipassive meaning 'the act of (at)tending (to)' as well as 'the act of planning or designing'. Muktawil would be 'attendantship' or '(the office of) designer, planner, or administrator'.

As ^{David Stuart (2005: 115, 133-136)} and ^{Karen-Bassie (n.d.)} have argued, nobles with the BBT were caretakers of ritual objects and implements. On the Temple XXI tablet at Palenque, the two Banded-Bird attendants hold or transfer a bundle of feathers and textile bands tied with three knots. This object appears identical to a feather manta seen on K1440. On that vase, one of two gods holds the textile band, while the second one grasps a container and a prismatic blade (^{González and Bernal, 2012: 103}). A similar container might be the box presumed to be from Tortuguero possessed by Aj K’ax B’ahlam muktaw.¹⁴

On two occasions at Palenque, several attendants with the Banded Bird title officiate at the king’s accession. Janab’ Ajaw, who had been installed many years earlier as umuktawil ch'ok on the K'an Tok Tablet (discussed below), is portrayed on the Temple XIX Tablet giving the white headband to K’inich Ahkul Mo’ Nahb’ III.

Deities with the Banded Bird Title

On the main tablets of the Temple of the Cross and Foliated Cross (E10-F13), the texts mention a Nun Yajaw Chan Muktaw who is the patient of a third god-conjuring (utzak k’uh) by Kan B’ahlam in a ritual engendering (tu ch’ahb’ yak’(a)b’). We conclude from these and other occurrences at Copan that Nun Yajaw Chan Muktaw is a supernatural being who holds this office. This places the title within a mythological milieu which in turn has bearing on its meaning.

The "Paddler Gods" (so labeled by Stuart, 1988: 190) because they are depicted at bow and stern of canoes carved into small bones from Tikal Burial 116 (MT 38a-d) may also carry the Banded Bird Title, as noted on Ixkun St. 2, D12 and Sacul St. 1, B6-C6. Of the fifty-plus corpus examples of the Paddler Gods assembled by ^{Prager (2013: 564-565)}, all are associated with Period Endings in the calendar. Some twenty of these employ the verb or nominalized verb y-atij, 'they count it/(it is) their count'.¹⁵ These deities are distinguished in the script as the "Jaguar Paddler" vs. the "Stingray Paddler" (anthropomorphic aged heads with jaguar features or a stingray spine through the nasal septum, respectively), and they have symbolic allographs as "day" and "night" associated with the (as yet poorly-understood) suffixes -ti and -na. It is clear that these beings operate in primordial time as adjuncts to creation and the celebration of time counts along with their human counterparts, which highlights the translation 'trazar o dar orden' ('plan/contrive or set in order') for <muktah/mukut> in Yucatec (^{Barrera Vásquez, 1980: 535}).With this, we further speculate that the Paddlers may have been the antecedents to the deities termed "Maker and Modeler" in the Popol Vuh.

In the human sphere, mukut‘ one who tends to X, one who designs or plans?’ and muktaw ’the act of tending or planning’ aptly describe what the associated iconography demonstrates.¹⁶ This, in turn, leads to the consideration of an abstract status muktawil into which a candidate may accede via receipt of a headband. It parallels the well-understood and very common term ajaw(a)lel 'lordship'.

The K'an Tok Panel

The hieroglyphic text from Palenque's Temple XVI is known as the K'an Tok Panel due to the second of three elusive elements in a complex, repeating event featured in the text (Figure 8). It has been studied by multiple investigators including Mathews [unpublished analysis cited by ^{Stuart (2005: 134)} and discussed by ^{Bernal (2009: 80)}], ^{Stuart (2005: 133-136)}, and Bernal (²⁰⁰²; most extensively in 2009, in his volume dedicated to the panel). It was discovered in pieces in Temple XVI in 1993, and it remains incompletely reconstructed due to some fragments never having been recovered. Thus, its dates are partly in dispute (^{Stuart, 2005: 134}). It contains a list of Palenque rulers spanning the interval 445-768 C.E., who are well known from other sources (^{Bernal, 2009: 12}). However, the events recorded do not occur elsewhere at Palenque or at any other Maya site.

(Drawing by Peter Mathews, 2007)

Figure 8 K’an Tok Panel. 

Each of the events consists of a Calendar Round date followed by the installation of a different individual into the office of Ajaw Muktawil 'Lord of Attendantship', or 'Lord of Setting-in-Order' which suggests a court management role of high status. Each of these is supervised by (ukab’jiy) the contemporaneous Palenque ruler, including the queen Ix Yohl Ik'nal; all rulers are represented by a personal name and the title K'uhul B’ak Ajaw. The initiates into the office are also named; with the exception of Janab’ Ajaw mentioned above -who sits before the king on the panel of Temple XIX holding a headdress-, they are not known elsewhere at Palenque.

The structure of each event is as follows, with a few variations:¹⁷

CR Date- k'ahlaj hun tu b’ah -personal name followed by three titular or event-specific elements:

While no -tV syllable appears in any of the Muktawil examples, we reconstruct *mukut(aw) from the foregoing analysis of the BBT in other contexts. In this case the final -li is analyzed as the -il abstract nominalizing suffix marking a category of office which elsewhere might be translated with the suffix '-ship'.

The other two components of this phrase remain less transparent, although we may offer contexts for them. For K'AN to-ko K'an Tok ^{Bernal (2009: 94)} proposes 'Nube Preciosa/Amarilla' ('Precious/Yellow Cloud'), with which we are in general agreement without being confident that we understand it. Because there are other occurrences of the sequence "color term-to-ko" in the corpus, we consider k'an to be specifically 'yellow' and tok to likely be 'cloud'.¹⁸ The context is nonetheless opaque and the phrase is likely to refer to a mythological toponym or cosmogram.

In relation to wa-WE'-la, ^{Bernal (2009:95)} notes the presence of the WE' sign and its relationship to food or sustenance, but suggests that the wa- prefix may change its reading to *WA'-a cognate of *we' 'to eat' in several highland Mayan languages. In this case we prefer to speculate in a different direction and maintain the integrity of WE' as we' 'eat' or with wa- and -la, perhaps wa(j) we'-al 'tamale feast'.¹⁹ We note the co-occurrence on Site R Lintel 4 of YAX to-ko with WE'-ne-la , but while we'en-al appears to be a noun related to meat or eating, the sequence-which is part of a nominal phrase-remains opaque. We are by no means confident of "tamale feast" here, but the context is ceremonial and celebratory, and we leave it as a working hypothesis.

In closing, we may recall that the mukut(aw) title is held by gods and the k'an (or other color term) tok appears toponymic. Perhaps with the denouement of muktawil, we or another investigator will eventually come to understand these significant and unique events at Palenque.

The Toponymic Title of El Palmar, Campeche

El Palmar was a major Middle and Late Classic center in southeast Campeche which until recently has received little attention since its initial discovery in 1936 by Thompson, when he and his crew spent several weeks mapping and doing surface collection. They excavated a noteworthy cache of obsidian and flint eccentrics beneath one of the stelae (^{Thompson, 1936}; ^{Tsukamoto, Hirokazu, and Campaña, 2012}). Thompson described El Palmar as having been built around two lakes (one with an island with its own structure and stela) and having no standing architecture but for fragmentary unfaced walls. Numerous badly-eroded stelae and altars were also noted. Twenty-three of forty-four stelae were carved, but due to the poor quality of the limestone were in such poor condition that only a few Late Classic dates were recoverable. Subsequent investigations by Tsukamoto (^{Tsukamoto, Hirokazu, and Campaña, 2012}) have documented eight plazas and evidence of major construction and monument erection during the Middle Classic, continuing to a lesser degree into the Terminal Classic. A new cache of eccentrics was discovered beneath the Middle Classic Altar 10, dated 9.6.0.0.0 (^{Tsukamoto, Hirokazu, and Campaña, 2012}). This monument bears the El Palmar dynastic title/toponym Sak-T694, dubbed Sak "Ok" by epigraphers for want of a better candidate, one which we will here propose (Figure 9).

(Drawing by Octavio Q. Esparza, 2015)

Figure 9 El Palmar Toponym: a, Naj Tunich Drawing 29 (Drawing by Barbara MacLeod); b, “Señor de Peten” vessel (Drawing by Kenichiro Tsukamoto); c, El Palmar Hieoroglyphic Stairway Step VI. 

A recently-discovered hieroglyphic stair (^{Tsukamoto and Esparza, 2015: 52, 53; Figures 8 and 9}) depicts multiple examples of the royal title amid a narrative featuring a secondary lord named Aj Pach' Wal, designated a Lakam or 'bannerman' of El Palmar. The long reach of this polity -perhaps in collaboration with neighboring Calakmul- is proven in the detailed record on the stair of an audience by Aj Pach' Wal with the king of Copan in the presence of the latter’s patron gods on June 24, 726 (^{Tsukamoto and Esparza, 2015}). A fragment of the narrative includes the name UPakal K'inich -an individual also referenced in the contemporaneous Drawing 29 of Naj Tunich Cave in Guatemala, 200 kilometers to the south. Pilgrims from El Palmar appear several times in the cave texts between 719 and 740 CE. The first of these pilgrimages was an agricultural rite shared with ritualists from the region of the cave; the others featured end-of-year ceremonies shared with travelers from Altun Ha and the Petexbatun.

In consideration of the sad condition of El Palmar's carved monuments, it is ironic that during the Late Classic, this kingdom frequently exported highly-skilled sculptors. Bíró has noted that an El Palmar sculptor was present in Yaxchilan in 724 during the reign of the long-lived king Itzamnaj B’ahlam, one of whose two wives was from Calakmul.²⁰ An El Palmar sculptor named Aj Mut (^{Beliaev, 2017}) signed his name on Rio Azul Stela 2, dated 9.18.0.0.0 (October 11, 790). Bíró also notes that Panel 3 at Cancuen (dated 9.19.0.0.0, June, 810) credits its production to another El Palmar sculptor, while the name Aj Chak Max appears in the nominal phrase of the seated Cancuen king Tajal Chan Ahk. Finally, amid the foregoing references to an El Palmar presence at foreign cities, it is significant that this polity had a second center at Chacchoben, a predominantly Late Classic site strategically located on a perennial lagoon near the northern tip of Lake Bacalar in Quintana Roo, and forty kilometers from Chetumal Bay.²¹

Given the foregoing evidence for a MUK reading for T694, we propose that the El Palmar toponym reads Sak Muk, 'the muk plant'. We identify muk as the shrub/small tree Dalbergia glabra, 'muk enchantment' (^{Roys, 1931: 266}), which has white flowers. It has both practical and medicinal uses and is particularly abundant in Campeche (^{GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, 2017}; ^{Cervantes, Linares and Quintero, 2019}). This identification conforms to a common Classic Maya practice of deriving toponyms from features of the local geography.

Piedras Negras Panel 3

Ever since its discovery, Piedras Negras Panel 3 has been viewed as one of the most beautiful Classic Maya monuments known. In subsequent work by epigraphers, its long text has unraveled as the record of a banquet of Itzam K’an Ahkul II (r. 729-757) which occurred in the interval between 9.15.18.3.13 and 9.15.18.3.15 (July 31 - August 02, 749). The inscription then jumps to the death of the king (9.16.6.11.17 or November 30, 757) and then to his burial three days later on 9.16.6.12.0 (December 03, 757). The last event is a tomb re-entry ceremony by K’inich Yat Ahk II in 9.17.11.6.1 (March 28, 782).

A short caption above the heads of Individuals 2-4 on the curtain consists of two slightly separated texts, one having three glyph blocks in a single vertical line while the other also contains three glyph blocks, the first having a coefficient of seventeen (Figure 10):

ha-a ta-ka CHAN-nu 17-yo-o WINIK-HAB’-ya wa-ya-la-wa

ha’at ka chanul 17 yo’ winikhab’iy wa’ yalaw

(Drawing by Alexander Safronov, 2011)

Figure 10 Piedras Negras Panel 3. 

Two different papers have dealt previously with this short text, with slightly disparate solutions (^{Bíró, 2011: 295-299}; ^{Beliaev and Safronov, 2013: 577-578}). While the first clause is agreed upon in both papers, the second clause has alternative interpretations. The first part of the sentence is ‘You are our master (as a supervisor)’, meaning that this utterance was spoken by one of the invitees from Yaxchilan or Hix Witz who attended the banquet. The three were princes who came to the city of the overlord to learn the court's etiquette; they may also have been hostages.

We understand the transcription of the second clause to be 17 yo’ winikhab’ wa’ yalaw (with the full text naming the speaker continuing on the curtain to the right). This contrasts with the view of ^{Beliaev and Safronov (2013: 578)} who suggested it to be 17-oy winikhab’ wa’ yalaw.²² The order of the signs in the glyph block favors the sequence yo-o rather than o-yo. Moreover, we suggest this to be an apparent distance number formula employing yo' in the sense of 'over, in addition to'.

Therefore 17 yo’ winikhab’iy should be 'seventeen (something, probably "days") on top of/added to… one winikhaab', or better '17 days on top of one winikhab’ (there)'-literally a k'atun plus 17 days.

Conclusions

The quest to decipher the remaining unknown signs in the Maya script has tended to proceed along predictable paths. Progress typically results from an obscure context hitherto overlooked, or from a newly-discovered text which corrals the elusive sign within new constraints. In the present era of Maya epigraphic research, it is uncommon that a sign (or in this case, a pair of signs) having a known reading is suddenly shown to have an additional reading which allows several of its murky occurrences to spring into focus.

In our paper we explore a historical relationship between T694 and T648 leading to the conclusion that they shared the same pattern of bivalence during different epochs of script usage. Our investigation was initially prompted by an unusual codical example of T648 which bears a striking resemblance to T694, leading to our proposal that in the Classic script T694 has two independent readings: logographic MUK and syllabic o. Likewise, in the Postclassic Period T648 (a slightly different version of T694) has the same readings. We have analyzed both the earlier and later signs in distinct contexts such as the K’an Tok panel of Palenque, Piedras Negras Panel 3, and the panels of Copan Temple 11, as well as several occurrences in the codices. We have found a productive substitution on page 46c of the Dresden Codex in which both versions of the sign occur side by side in a secure context. This discovery enabled the re-analysis of other appearances of the glyph and a new perspective on expressions which had not yet been deciphered. For example, we propose that the reading of the Banded Bird Title (BBT) is mukut/muktaw, 'attendant', while the toponym of El Palmar is Sak Muk, 'White Muk Plant (Dalbergia glabra)'.

On the Copan Temple 11 Panels, T694 as MUK is perfect for an omen formula occurring for the first time in the Late Classic Period -one which is the forebear of the known examples in the codices. The current investigation has given collateral birth to new understandings of old decipherments and expressions such as taj yalaw chan ajawtak, which we propose to refer to deities that appear in the Dresden Venus Table. These are specifically the Five Venus Regents as the five constellations where the heliacal rise of Venus repeatedly takes place.

Finally, we have reexamined the yo’ collocation both in the Classic and Postclassic Periods, and we have suggested for these the reading 'upon, on top of'.

This pair of new decipherments and resulting interpretation naturally leads to a better understanding of each known context. While it may be that some of our proposals are not as conclusive as others, future scholars proceeding even from those may formulate new ideas to further explain remaining unknown glyphs in the Maya script.