Ch. Prager - Notes on Ancient Maya Writing - A New Variant of the Hieroglyph CHANUL-guardian, MEZOAMERYKA
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Notes on Ancient Maya Writing
Christian M. Prager
July 11, 2008 (Bonn)
A New Variant of the Hieroglyph
CHANUL
"guardian"?
U CHAN(UL)-nu
cha-nu
Introduction
This short note about a minor observation concerns a hitherto unknown hieroglyph that is
displayed on a so called Ik'-Site (cf. Reents-Budet 1994:164ff.) ceramic vessel labelled as Kerr
1896. The grapheme is unique and it exhibits, similar to T644
CHUM
, a seated human torso, but
with its arms tied behind its back, a dislocated hand on the right upper corner of the torso, finely
traced toes and a rope or necklace hanging down in front of the chest. Scanning the literature one
notices that this sign has not been classified in any hitherto published signary of Maya writing. A
glance at Houston, Stuart and Taube's compendium of bodily expressions and experiences in
Maya art and writing reveals beyond doubt that this hieroglyph must represent a captive
"compressed into a pose of extreme discomfort" (Houston, Stuart, and Taube 2006:203). It is
thus highly suggestive that the semantic meaning or probably the phonemic reading of the sign
gravitates toward the main domain of "captivity" or "guardianship" in a more defined sense. The
latter assumption is mainly based on the observation that the nature of the relation between
captives and victors was often quasi-parental (Houston, Stuart, and Taube 2006:205) with the
victor being the guardian of this victim. In the following discussion I will thus argue that this
hieroglyph most probably is another sign denoting the well-known Classic Mayan term
chanul
"guardian".
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Notes on Ancient Maya Writing
Christian M. Prager
Context
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
K
Thanks to a high resolution photograph of K1896 by Justin Kerr, kindly provided to me by Erik
Boot (email dated July 10, 2008), the collocation can be doubtlessly classified as T13.nn:263
reading
U ?-nu
. The context of this collocation reads
A
u b'ah
B
ti ak'Vt ti sij
C
hix?
D
yajawte'
E
k'inich
ohl chan
F
u ?-nu
G
ik' bul
H
kaloomte'
I
k'uhul
T503
ajaw
K
te'tan [...]
, loosely paraphrased as "he his
dancing with the
sij hix
(costume), Yajawte' K'inich Ohl Chan, he is the ? of Ik' Bul, sacred lord
of the 'Ik'-Site',
te'tan
-title (unknown)". As for a possible phonetic reading of the torso hieroglyph
under discussion can be deduced from other Ik'-Site ceramics that are published and discussed by
Dorie Reents Budet (Reents-Budet 1994:164ff.). A page from the latter source (p. 167) exhibits
different contexts from Ik'-Site vessels that may clarify the meaning of the torso hieroglyph (see
the following examples)
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Notes on Ancient Maya Writing
Christian M. Prager
A series of texts display the Ik' Bul collocation preceded by the hieroglyphic expression
u chan
"his guardian". This compound has been identified semantically and deciphered linguistically by
several scholars in the 1980s (cf. Bricker 1986; Houston and Stuart 1989; Riese 1982), an updated
linguistic discussion and a list of the various contexts can be found in dictionaries independently
compiled by Erik Boot (MESOWEB) and Peter Mathews & Peter Biro (FAMSI). The latter give
chan
as a transitive verb "to watch over, to own, to master" and Erik Boot has compiled a useful
list of different contexts with their respective interpretation. According to him, and of course
other scholars of the field,
U-CHAN
can be analyzed '
chanul
(2) n. guardian, custodian »
cha-nu
>
chanu[l]
“guardian, custodian”' (Boot 2008:45). His list of contexts contain the following entries.
CHAN-nu
>
chanu[l]
’u cha-nu
>
uchanu[l]
“the guardian” COL Incised Shell
’u cha-nu
>
uchanu[l]
“the guardian” K1092, LTI Lintel 1: F1
52
’u cha-nu
>
uchanu[l]
“the guardian” K8889
’u CHAN-nu
>
uchanu[l]
“the guardian” YAX Stela 11 Back: E2
’u CHAN
>
uchan[ul]
“the guardian” YAX Lintel 1: A7
’u CHAN-na
>
uchan[ul]
“the guardian” IXZ Stela 4: A4a
53
’u CHAN-nu
>
uchanu[l]
“the guardian” NTN Drawing 52: A5
’u CHAN-na
>
uchan[ul?]
“the guardian” MQL Stela 6: B1b
’u cha
?
-CHAN-na
>
uchan[ul]
“the guardian” IXZ Panel 1: XI, 1
54
’u 4
>
uchan[ul?]
“the guardian” YAX HS 5 Step 37, 152
As it has been shown by previous scholars the affix cluster of the CHAN expression displays a
substitution between /
na
/ and /
nu
/, most probably indicating different vowel qualities (the
latter sign T592, T106, T263 were independently deciphered as
nu
by David Stuart and Werner
Nahm in 1990) (Macri and Looper 2003:282). As for the torso sign under discussion several
implications can be presented now. On K1896 the 'torso' sign is contained in the following
compound
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Notes on Ancient Maya Writing
Christian M. Prager
U ?-nu IK' bu-lu
A comparison to Erik Boot's compilation of U CHAN expressions yields that the suffix cluster
exhibits a substitution between /
na
/ and /
nu
/ and a glance at the Ik'-Site ceramic texts yields
that Ik' Bul is a prominent captive of the Ik' Site Ruler expressed by the
U CHAN
hieroglyphic
compound denoting a relation between captive and victor. This two factors may indicate one
plausible solution to the question about the meaning and reading of the so called 'Torso
hieroglyph'.
1) The torso hieroglyph takes the suffix /
nu
/ and it precedes the personal name Ik' Bul. Ik' Bul is
a captive of an Ik' Site Ruler who regards him as his guardian or possessor (
chanul
): The torso
hieroglyph thus may represent an allograph or unique spelling of the collocation
u chanul
and I
therefore suggest that it reads
CHANUL
Literature cited
Bricker, Victoria R.
1986 A Grammar of Mayan Hieroglyphs. New Orleans: Middle American Research Institute,
Tulane University (Middle American Research Institute Publication Series, 56)
Houston, Stephen D., David Stuart, and Karl A. Taube
2006 The Memory of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience Among the Classic Maya. Austin:
University of Texas Press (Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and
Latino Art and Culture, -)
Houston, Stephen, and David Stuart
1989 Ancient Maya Writing.
Scientific American
260: 82-89.
Macri, Martha J., and Matthew G. Looper
2003 The New Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphs - Volume 1: The Classic Period Inscriptions.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press (The Civilization of the American Indian Series,
247)
Reents-Budet, Dorie
1994 Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period. Durham: Duke
University Press
Riese, Berthold Christoph
1982 Kriegsberichte der klassischen Maya.
Baessler Archiv (N.F.)
30: 255-321.
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