Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Acta MesoAmericana
Volume 23
VERLAG
ANTON SAURWEIN
2011
ISBN: 3-931419-19-X
Copyright Verlag Anton Saurwein, Markt Schwaben, Germany, 2011
All rights reserved
Layout: Daniel Karlsson, Prinfo Grafiskt Center, Malm, Sweden
Printed in Germany
Contents
Introduction
Christopher T. Morehart
17
39
57
Lorraine A. Williams-Beck
Rivers of Ritual and Power in the Northwestern
Maya Lowlands
69
Alexandre Tokovinine
People from a Place: Re-Interpreting Classic
Maya Emblem Glyphs
91
Estella Weiss-Krejci
Reordering the Universe during Tikals
Dark Age
177
191
Integrated Landscapes
Christian Isendahl
107
Laura M. Amrhein
Xkeptunich: Terminal Classic Maya
Cosmology, Rulership, and the World Tree
167
Lars Frhsorge
159
Andrs Dapuez
Untimely Dispositions
Kerry Hull
Ritual and Cosmological Landscapes of the
Chorti Maya
Patrice Bonnafoux
145
121
Darwin at Copan
221
Abstract
This paper addresses the problem of the so-called emblem glyphs or royal titles that incorporate certain place
names. The common trend in scholarship is to view these place names as corresponding to a distinct kind of
spatial entities, even as polity names. I argue that there is no evidence to sustain the polity name hypothesis.
Instead, place names incorporated into the royal title should rather be interpreted as the most salient, highlighted
features in the representations of the political landscape created by each Classic Maya regime. Such features do not
necessarily correspond to the largest spatial entities within the political landscape. There may be little or no correspondence to the immediate physical landscape of Classic Maya sites as some of the place names in the emblem
glyphs are locations in deep time. The article begins with a brief overview of the research on the subject and then
proceeds with a specific case study exploring the relations between the ideational landscape in the inscriptions of
the site of Naranjo and the identities of its rulers according to the same corpus of texts. It considers other cases of
place names in emblem glyphs supporting the observations made in the case study.
Resumen
Este artculo examina el problema de los ttulos reales conocidos como los glifos emblema en las inscripciones
jeroglficas de los mayas. La opinin ms popular en las publicaciones sobre este tema es que los topnimos incorporados en los glifos emblema corresponden a un cierto tipo de las unidades polticas y territoriales hasta ser los
nombres de los reinos. Sin embargo, unos datos nuevos no permiten sostener la interpretacin comn de los glifos
emblema. Los ltimos corresponden a los rasgos ms marcados en las representaciones del paisaje geopoltico del
cada reino maya. La relacin entre el paisaje fsico, los topnimos, y los ttulos reales que incorporan estos topnimos parece mucho mas complicada. Los rasgos marcados no constituyen necesariamente las unidades espaciales
ms grandes. Adems, algunos topnimos en los glifos emblema corresponden a unos lugares mitolgicos y no al
paisaje actual.
his paper addresses some challenges in understanding the significance of place names in
a particular type of royal titles known as emblem
glyphs. An emblem glyph consists of a word ajawa
Classic Maya term for lord well-attested in Colonial sources (Lacadena Garca-Gallo and Ciudad Ruiz
1998)and a place name that precedes the word
ajaw and functions as an adjective. An expression
Boston lord would be a suitable English analogy.
Alexandre Tokovinine
Marcus (1976) argued that the emblem glyphs referred to archaeological sites, whereas Mathews and
Justeson, as well as Houston (Houston 1986; Mathews and Justeson 1984; Mathews 1991) argued once
again that the emblem glyphs were the titles of Maya
rulers with some geographical association.
The discussion about the nature of emblem glyphs
received a new spin with the monograph by Stuart
and Houston (1994). The authors demonstrated that
there were many place namessome historic, some
mythicalmentioned in hieroglyphic inscriptions
after phrases like it happened at Some of these
place names also appeared in the emblem glyphs,
some were attested in the titles of origin (various expressions like a person from such-and-such place),
but some were not incorporated into the personal titles at all. Moreover, Stuart and Houston highlighted
several cases when the titles of origin and the emblem glyphs associated with the same historical individuals did not overlap. This important observation
was based in part on the earlier research by Houston
(1993) who noticed that the establishment and the
spread of the Tikal-originated dynasty in the Petexbatun region was accompanied by the proliferation
of rulers using the Tikal emblem glyph. It seemed
as if Petexbatun rulers placed political and dynastic
ascendancy above the current seats of rulership.
The discrepancies between the emblem glyphs
and the place names associated with the actual cen
ters of Classic Maya kingdoms were also discovered
and discussed in the case of the Kanul kings at the
site of Calakmul, Campeche. Martin (2005b) suggested that the Kanul dynasty was likely not autochthonous to the site of Calakmul known as Chik
Nahb in Classic inscriptions. Some time in the reign
of Yuknoom Chen II (AD 636686) the seat of Kanul
kings moved from the site of Dzibanche in Quintana Roo to Calakmul in Campeche (Grube 2004a;
Martin and Grube 2000a: 103; Martin 2005b). The
new beginning was reflected in zeroing down the
dynastic count with Yuknoom Chen II becoming a
new founder, the first Kanul lord. The arrival of
the Kanul kings to Calakmul eclipsed a local dynasty
with its own Bat emblem glyph. The Bat kings
disappeared from public monuments for a while.
Nevertheless, after Calakmul rulers suffered a series
of military defeats in the eighth century AD, it was
the turn of the Kanul kings to nearly disappear from
epigraphic records, while the Bat lords re-emerged as
the sole rulers of Calakmul and the nearby site of
Oxpemul (Martin 2005b). Both local and Kanul dynasts shared the same emblem glyph of Calakmul
kings (chik nahb ajaw) and the title of origin of
92
Contexts
CI*
Site name**
274
YAX
167
158
146
131
NAR
PAL
EG toponym
direct***
ix/aj[x]
[x]
[x]ajaw
[x]winik
[x]other
Pa chan
113
Kaaj
66
Saaal
60
11
Matwiil
12
23
Baakal
45
Tok tahn
TIK
Mutal
18
88
PNG
Yokib
52
Wayal
131
CPN
[T756] (variants)
62
109
DPL
Mutal
78
97
QRG
Uun
20
69
61
TNA
BPK
Ik [T756d]
Ik way nal
Po
29
[pu-[T609]]
[T533.122]
Kaaj
Ake
23
Xukal naah
24
Usiij witsiil
[T609]
49
CRC
Hux witsa
15
40
CNC
[ya-[T544.501]] ahk
14
35
SBL
[T176]
15
29
MQL
27
CLK
25
PRU
[[T174]-su]
22
Kanul
54
Chik nahb
[T756]
Waka
11
24
TRT
Baakal
15
22
TAM&ARP
[[T856]-la]
13
21
PUS
Uun
12
20
ITN
T556.686
19
ALS
[[T239]-si]
18
NMP
Wakaam
16
PMT
Pakbuul
11
Pipa
10
YXH
Yaxa
14
IXK
Julip
MTL
Ika
11
44
Table 1. Contexts of Classic Maya emblem glyph toponyms associated with sites with large corpora of inscriptions. * CI: The corpus size index
is the number of mentions of place names at a site. ** Site name acronyms: ALS (Altar de Sacrificios), ARP (Arroyo de Piedra), BPK (Bonampak),
CLK (Calakmul), CNC (Cancuen), CPN (Copan), CRC (Caracol), DPL (Dos Pilas), ITN (Itzan), IXK (Ixkun), MQL (Machaquila), MTL (Motul de San
Jose), NAR (Naranjo), NMP (Nim Li Punit), PAL (Palenque), PMT (Pomona), PNG (Piedras Negras), PRU (El Peru), PUS (Pusilha), QRG (Quirigua),
TAM (Tamarindito), TIK (Tikal), TNA (Tonina), TRT (Tortuguero), YAX (Yaxchilan), and YXH (Yaxha). *** Direct context: when a place name is mentioned as an agent, an object of ones action, or a location of the narrative.
93
Alexandre Tokovinine
about the nature of the Classic Maya political landscape as represented in Classic Maya inscriptions. It
became common, in academic and popular discourses alike, to mechanically associate a Classic Maya
archaeological site as defined by contemporary researchers with one of local Classic Maya place names
and to assume that the place name in the emblem
glyphs of its rulers corresponds to the territory under
their political control. These operations introduce a
set of categories which are not to be found in the
Classic Maya written record and which reify modern
conceptions of statehood.
There are at least three ways to investigate the
significance of emblem glyphs. We can explore Classic Maya spatial categories and the notions of place
based on the available written narratives and imagery. Another venue is to see how place names in
emblem glyphs correspond to locations in the physical landscape. Finally, it is worth considering how
and in which contexts (historical circumstances and
narratives) Classic Maya lords associated themselves
94
Figure 2. Map of the Naranjo site center (Graham and Von Euw 1975).
texts. The bulk of the data comes from several major archaeological sites with large corpora of inscriptions1 (Figure 1, Table 1). Sites with small corpora
or with eroded or damaged monuments are underrepresented in the survey and do not offer enough
distinct contexts to explore the significance of local
place names. Finally, the sample is dominated by
eighth-century inscriptions. A study of place names
is inevitably a synchronic study of the eighth century
situation with some small digressions into diachronic
analysis when relevant samples are large enough.
a.
b.
c.
Alexandre Tokovinine
Context
Object
Site
lajuun hux winik u[?] u[?] u[?] kihnich lakam tuun yichnal itsamnaah kawiil winik chuwen uhtiiy maxam
St 8
NAR
Alt 1
NAR
[x] wak kab nal [?] ukabjiiy kuhul saaal ajaw uhtiiy maxam
Alt 1
NAR
vase
MVD:K635
Context
Object
Site
joyaj ti ajawil [?] [?] kahk [?] chan chaak itsamnaah kawiil [x] wak kab nal [?] kuhul saaal ajaw [?] waxak
winik baah kab
St 14
NAR
jahtsaj ubiih tuun [?] chan chaak kuhul saaal ajaw wak kab nal yook kin sak chuwen
Alt 2
NAR
St 33
NAR
uchokow chaaj t-u-lajuun haab yichnal bolon [?] ajaw [?] kahk ukalaw chan chaak kuhul saaal ajaw wak
kab nal winik sak chuwen
St 19
NAR
[x] yax mayuy naah saaal [x] chan [x] kahk tiliw chan chaak kuhul saaal ajaw wak kab nal yook kin
St 1
NAR
witsaj ujol nahbaj chiich [?] [?] ukabjiiy uyajawte kuh wak kab nal aj-[?]
Alt 1
NAR
[x] wak kab nal [?] ukabjiiy kuh [?] saaal ajaw uhtiiy maxam
Alt 1
NAR
ubaah ti akab kal hun ubaahil aan [?] winik haab chajoom muyal chan yopaat kahk tiliw chan chaak kuhul
saaal ajaw wak kab nal yook kin
St 30
NAR
ubaah ti och chen yoots muyal ukalaw chan yopaat kahk tiliw chan chaak [?] kuhul saaal ajaw wak kab
nal yook kin lakin waxak winik [?]
St 21
NAR
Ln 2, T 4
TIK
Pl
HLM
Context
Object
Site
Ukal tuun ti tahn lam [?] [?] kahk [?] chan chaak kuhul saaal ajaw sak chuwen
St 12
NAR
[x] yax mayuy naah saaal [x] chan [x] kahk tiliw chan chaak kuhul saaal ajaw wak kab nal yookin
St 1
NAR
[x] wak kab nal [?] ukabjiiy kuh [?] saaal ajaw uhtiiy maxam
Alt 1
NAR
[...] uwaxak lajuun winik tsakbuul [?] chiit kuh ik miin kuhul saaal ajaw
St 24
NAR
St 24
NAR
[x] hux winik haab ajaw kahk tiliw chan chaak wak kab yookin kuhul saaal ajaw
St 14
NAR
T 4 Ln 2
TIK
Str 5D-57
TIK
St 3
CRC
HS 1:6
NAR
St 3
NAR
huli wak ik [T217.686] hun nal pek saaal ix wak chan [?] [?] kuhul mutal ajaw
St 24
NAR
ochi [?] ti [?] wak ik [T217.686] hun nal pek saaal ix wak chan [?] [?] kuhul mutal ajaw
St 29
NAR
St 45
NAR
St 22
NAR
Saaal gods
ajawaniiy [?] chiit kuh ik [?] [?] kuhul saaal ajaw
St 1
NAR
Utsakaw [?] kuh yeht kahk tiliw chan chaak kuhul saaal ajaw yitaaj nohol [?] xaman [?] aj-saaal
St 23
NAR
jahtsaj ubih tuun aj-[?] chan kihnich ukaba nohol [?] xaman [?] aj-saaal
Alt 2
NAR
St 12
NAR
St 12
NAR
St 23
NAR
winik may explain the otherwise unique direct reference to Wak kab nal in the Tikal text mentioned
above: the victim of the attack is not the Wak kab
nal (place) but the Wak kab nal (person), the king
of Naranjo.
That said, the term Wak kab nal is similar to the
titles of the dancing Maize God on the so-called
Homul-style vessels: Wak hix nal, Wak chan nal, and
Wak chwen nal. Each Maize God ascends to a distinct place associated with a royal dynasty including
the rulers of Tikal and Calakmul (Tokovinine 2008:
280284). Houston and colleagues (1992) pointed
out that the titles of the Maize God refer to specific
supernatural locales represented as mountains in the
backracks of the Maize God figures. Wak kab nal may
belong to the same set linked to presumably mythical
events.
A dedicatory inscription on a plate from Holmul
features an otherwise unique title of Wak kab nal
ajaw (Wak kab nal lord) attributed to the Naranjo
ruler (Tokovinine 2006: 359360). A caption to the
main scene on the same plate refers to the Wak hix
nal Maize God, who commonly ascends to the seat
of Mutal (Tikal) rulers, as kuhul Mutal ajaw or holy
Alexandre Tokovinine
Another important reference to Saaal appears in
the representation of a captured Naranjo palanquin
on Lintel 2 from Temple 4 at Tikal. The text and
image on the lintel, previously analyzed by Martin
(1996), describe the circumstances and the aftermath
of the victorious war that the Tikal ruler Yikin Chan
Kawiil waged against Naranjo. The main inscription
(Jones et al. 1982: Figure 73) informs of the defeat
of Wak kab nal [person] in the chen of Ik-[T1021]
and the capture of the royal palanquin. The base of
the captured palanquin depicted on the lintel is emblazoned with [SA] signs, which likely stand for the
Saaal place name.
Ik-[T1021], also known as a Square-Nosed
Beastie, is a divine founder of the Naranjo royal line
(Martin and Grube 2000a: 70; Grube and Martin
2004: 4; Tokovinine and Fialko 2007: 10, Figure 14).
According to Naranjo inscriptions, he acceded to
kingship either 22000 or 896000 years ago. Naranjo
rulers claimed the title of uyajawte kuh, those of the
lineage of the god (NAR Alt 1: H3I3). Deceased
Saaal lords could be even represented as avatars of
the divine founder (Tokovinine and Fialko 2007:
10). In other words, being a Saaal lord was as
much about governing Naranjo as being a descendant of Ik-[T1021].
There is some intriguing evidence that descent
from the Naranjo royal line could be enough to claim
the Saaal lord emblem glyph. For quite some time,
epigraphers have been puzzled by an inscription on
an unprovenanced Early Classic vase (MVD: K8763)
mentioning a certain Wak Chan Kawiil, the divine
lord of Saaal. The only known historical individual
from that time period would be Wak Chan Kawiil
of Tikal, although there was no indication that he
ever ruled at Naranjo (Martin 2005a: 68, Figures
12, 14). However, thanks to new insights from Tikal
and Naranjo inscriptions (Tokovinine and Fialko
2007: 1012), it seems that Wak Chan Kawiils
grandmother was from the Naranjo royal family. We
now know that it was Wak Chan Kawiils father who
started claiming Naranjo-related royal titles, even
though not the emblem glyph.
The rhetoric of the inscription on Lintel 2 from
Temple 4 at Tikal, therefore, evokes an underlying
notion of a political landscape of holy sites which
still belong to the founders of royal lines. In the
case of Naranjo, this site is Saaal. The fact that the
Naranjo royal palanquin is emblazoned with references to Saaal also suggests that such objects might
be intended as tangible representations or even ritual
transpositions of places like Saaal. A portable piece
of Saaal would literally allow Naranjo rulers to travel
98
without leaving their ancestral homeland. The conquest of Saaal would apparently involve capture and
relocation of these portable places.
a.
b.
Figure 4. Gods of Saaal: a) NAR St 23:G4-H6 (CMHI 2:60); b) NAR
Alt 2:B4-C1 (Grube 2004b: Figure 13).
Alexandre Tokovinine
Saaal and Maxam are mutually exclusive and refer to
different areas of the site. This conclusion does not
necessarily disprove the idea of several place names
within the Wak ik [T217.686] hun nal pek saaal sequence, but it strongly supports the hypothesis that
all of them refer to the Triadic Acropolis C-9 or its
parts.
In summary, the relationship between the political landscape and the identity of the Naranjo kings is
complex and multilayered, evoking different systems
of references and different tropes. Naranjo lords oriented themselves in at least three distinct mapsone
of local place names, one of mythical Maize God
toponyms, and one of sacred temples, the latter being
the most salient in the written discourse. The place
name for the site of Naranjo or its largest section was
Maxam. For some reason, this place name was not
important for the outsiders as a term that immediately identified those of Naranjo. However, it was
significant for local identities including the identities
of non-royal people. Kings of Naranjo also associated
themselves, just like kings of several other ancient dynasties with a mythical location of Wak kab nal and
probably with a particular form of the Maize God
linked to this place name. Nevertheless, the most
sacred place (temple/cave) at Naranjo was Saaal. It
Object
was linked to local gods, kings, and maybe even nonroyal individuals. It distinguished the inhabitants of
Naranjo from everybody else on the Classic political
landscape. Saaal was the only known chen associated
with Naranjo in the inscriptions. Available data suggest that it was not the designation of the territory
under the control of Naranjo rulers, but rather part
of the name of a particular hill with a temple complex within the core of the site.
Discussion:
Emblem Glyphs and Other Places
The idea that the most important place name is
not necessarily the largest spatial unit in the political landscape of a Classic Maya kingdom or that the
kingdom is not represented as a distinct spatial category in Classic Maya inscriptions may seem hard to
accept. Nevertheless, the inscriptions at other Classic
Maya sites reveal patterns, which are similar to what
we have just discovered in the case of Naranjo.
One of the most striking examples of the kind is
provided by the texts from the site of Copan in Honduras at the southeastern periphery of the Classic
Maya world (Figure 5, Table 5). The undeciphered
Full Context
Hux wintik
Alt A
[...] i patlaj kihnich yax kuk mo nal [x] kuh hux wintik chan chen
Alt L
Alt Q
St 12
[...] yitaaj tahnlamaj chanal kuh [...] kahk uti wits kawiil hux wintik [...]
St B
St J
cham kihnich kuk mo hux yop hun yichnal umam kuh usak kuh uhtiiy hux wintik chan chen
T 11 HS
i pat kuhul [?] ti waxak eb hux lajuun chak at naah [?] [?] yax chiit hux wintik chan chen [...]
T 11 Pn
Haa [?] chan makoom chan [?] [x] koknoom hux wintik
T 11 Pn
[?] kuy [?] ajaw mo wits ajaw tukun wits ajaw haoob koknoom hux wintik
T21a Stp
[...] ubaahil aan kuy [?] ajaw mo wits ajaw tukun wits ajaw bolon kawiil koknoom hux wintik
ochi kahk kuhul [[T756]-pu] naah yotoot kihnich yax kuk mo [?] kihnich [?] kal tuun hix [?] uh chan ahk yajaw kin [?] ochkin
kaloomte
St 10
[x] ubaah tsih pik chan nal kuh tsih pik kabal kuh [x] ti way [T24] nahb nal [[T756d]-pi] chan chen
St I
[...] utsakaj waxak hew lajuun winikjiiy ta lajuun lamat [...] [x] [[T756d]-pi] [x] chen
St P
ajawani [] kahk yipyaj [x] kawiil yunen itsam kan ahk ajaw [[T756d]-pi] [?] hux wintik [x]
St 10
St P
[...] upatnaj [?] tuun hux wintik och chenaj [[T756d]-pi] [...]
haoob chan te chan chan [T1021] chan chan ni chan chan may chan kuhul [[T756]-pi] ajaw kuhul mutal ajaw kuhul kanal
ajaw kuhul baakaal ajaw [?] [T24] chan [T24] kab lakin ochkin nohol xaman haoob pasnoom way maknoom way ti tahn lam
100
a.
c.
b.
d.
e.
Figure 5. Copan place names: a) T756d [T756d] (CPN St A); b) 3-wini-ti-ki Hux wintik (CPN St 10); c) MO-wi-WITS Mo wits (CPN St
B); d) 4-T1021-CHAN-na Chan [T1021] chan (CPN St B); e) WATER.
DOG-HA-NAL [WATER.DOG] ha nal (CPN St B).
Alexandre Tokovinine
Place Name
Context
Object
Site
patlaj lajuun akan chapaht haab nal yax mutal chan chen
Ln 3
TIK T 4
tsutsyi bolon pik [...] uhtiiy bolon tsakbuul [?] nal chan chen mutal
St 31
TIK
St 1
TIK
St 1
TIK
mutal
huli mutal chen jo noh wits waxak lajuun ubaah kan [...]
BCM
TIK
mutal
BCM
TIK
mutal
Ln 3
TIK T 1
yax mutal
St 39
TIK
yax mutal
Alt 8
TIK
yax mutal
utsutsuw bolonlajuun winik haab uhti yax mutal chan chen ta uchen [x]
St 39
TIK
mutal
chumlaj ta [?] [?] [?] kan chitam ehb xook [?] nahb nal kihnich [?] ochkin kawiil
uhtiiy mutal chen
St 40
TIK
indicator of such incorporation is when the expression chan chen appears between the lower-order
place name and (Yax) Mutal as in the case of the text
on Tikal Stela 31. On the other hand, that passage
on Stela 31 remains unique among references to
other place names at Tikal, which are not followed
by (Yax) Mutal. That list includes Kahk Wits, the location of 8.18.0.0.0 period-ending, the place names
associated with the period endings on Stele 16, 20,
and 22 (Stuart and Houston 1994: 8185), the place
name on Stela 5, as well as four other presumably
historical place names in the inscription on Stela 31
(Stuart and Houston 1994: Figure 58). I believe, that
this situation still leaves open a possibility that Yax
Mutal corresponds to a particular location within
Tikal, possibly one of the main temple groups like
the North Acropolis.
Another complicated case of emblem glyphs in
place names is represented by the titles of the rulers
of the Classic Maya site of Palenque (Table 7, Figure 6). Late Classic rulers of Palenque take the title
of Matwiil lords and Baakal lords (Martin and
Grube 2000a: 155160), but the actual place name
for Palenque is Lakam ha (Stuart and Houston 1994:
3031). Some of the earliest events in the history of
the Palenque dynasty take place at Tok tahn and some
early kings carry the emblem glyph of Tok tahn
lords (Martin and Grube 2000a: 156157).
Nevertheless, it does not mean that Matwiil, Tok
than, or Baakal were the names of a territory or territories controlled by Palenque rulers. Matwiil is a
mythical place name associated with the origins of
the Palenque dynasty and its tutelary gods and possibly even re-created as a setting for the Temple of the
Foliated Cross at the site (Stuart 2005: 7983, 169,
Full Context
Object
Site
hux kal hun muwaan jol pakal [?] yichnal kihnich kan bahlam uhtiiy baakal
St 4
MRL
Mn 6
TRT
Baakal
Lakam ha
Chahkaj lakam ha
HS 1
PAL Palace
Tb
PAL Palace
Tb
PAL TFC
Uhuxtal tsakaw kuh patlaj lakam ha chan chen yehmal kuk wits
Tb
PAL TS
Tb
PAL T 17
Pn
PAL
Bl
PAL TC
chahkaj lakam ha
Tb
PAL TI
Tb
PAL T 19
Jmb
PAL T 18
Bl
PAL TFC
Jmb
PAL TC
Tb
PAL TFC
Jmb
PAL T 18
Tb
PAL TC
utal kab matwiil ubaah uchabil akabil mat muwaan hux [ya-[T831]-le] ixiim
Tb
PAL TC
Tb
PAL TFC
Bl
PAL TFC
utal kab matwiil ubaah uchab [T69.610] nal ixiim mat muwaan
Tb
PAL T 19
Tb
PAL T 19
Tb
PAL TS
Bl
PAL TS
Pn
PAL TC
Tb
PAL TS
Tb
PAL TC
Tok tahn
Table 7. Direct references to Matwiil, Baakal, and Lakam ha in Classic Maya texts.
a.
c.
b.
d.
Figure 6. Palenque place names: a) BAAK-a Baakal; b) to-koTAHN-na Tok tahn; c) ma-ta-wi-la Matwiil (PAL Temple of the Cross
Tb); d) LAKAM-HA Lakam ha (PAL Temple 17 Tb).
Alexandre Tokovinine
are no direct references to Baakal either at Palenque
or at Tortuguero in the context of dedications of new
buildings or monuments. Therefore, Baakal could
be a distinct location in the vicinity of Palenque and
Tortuguero.
In summary, just as in the Naranjo case, the inscriptions from Copan, Tikal, and Palenque offered
no convincing evidence that the toponyms in the
emblem glyphs stood for the largest spatial entities or
for the territorial extent of the political power of local
rulers. When a measure of correspondence between
a place name and physical landscape can be established, the toponyms in the emblem glyphs denote
areas of archaeological sites. The significance of other
emblem glyph places seems to be based on their link
to the origins of royal dynasties and their present or
past seats of power.
Concluding Remarks
As we have seen above, place names in emblems
glyphs do not denote a distinct class of spatial entities. They may correspond to archaeological sites or
even smaller areas. In other words, the place of choice
for the emblem glyph is not necessarily the largest
spatial entity attested in the inscriptions at a given
site. In fact, the examples discussed above suggest
that the place name in the emblem glyph may denote
a rather small section of the site that is, nevertheless,
more important than others in defining ones identity.
Emblem glyph place names are the most salient
features of the ideational landscape that defines a particular ruling dynasty vis--vis other dynasties: these
places dominate the written discourse. The Naranjo
case suggests that such salience can also corresponds
to the physical manifestation of the political landscapethe largest temple at the site with exceptional
evidence of ritual activity undertaken by local rulers.
The emblem glyph place name is often related to
the deep time history of the dynasty that may or may
not be associated with its current location. As such
ones affiliation to a place of origin may pass through
descent. This observation, however, does not imply
that this place cannot be re-created in permanent architecture or in temporal installations on certain occasions, visited through pilgrimages or evoked in any
other way.
104
Notes
Abbreviations for archaeological sites and types of
inscribed objects in this paper follow the guidelines of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions (Graham et al. 1975). In addition, MVD
and K-numbers are used for photographs of Classic Maya vessels in Kerrs online data base (Kerr
n.d.).
2
See Tokovinine and Fialko (2007: 1) for a discussion of various spellings of the Naranjo emblem
glyph and the arguments in support of the saaal
reading.
1
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