No. 66 ‘Texas Note 66 1 Texas Notes on Precolumbian March, 1994 Tika] Altar 5 by Nikolai Grube and Linda Schele Simon Martin (1991) proposed a new histocicat analysis of the history and personages associated with Tikal Altar 5. He suggested that the main ‘events concern the death, burial, and reburial of a foreign woman who was a wife of Ruler A. He interpreted the scene as the reburial ceremony performed by Ruler A and a foreign man he named ‘Chan-Sak-Balam, who in the guise of God A” ‘exhumed and honored the bones of a woman married to the Tikal king and related to the for- cigner. He tentatively associated the foreigner with ‘the Calakmul sphere and proposed a alliance or political relationship between Tikal and its rival power during this time, We accept his scenario and ‘would like to add a bis of our own speculations 10 the interpretations he presented. ‘The text begins on the altar at 1-2 with the date 9.12.19.12.9 1 Muluk 2 Muwan, The event is a standing, headless body wit a ya suffix, We do not know how to read this verb yet, but the protagonist is a woman named Wayas Ch’ok Na Te Tun Kaywak. Her name seems to end with a toponym that also occurs on Stela 2 from Topoxte (Houston and Stuart 1991). We suggest that she came from there. ‘The next passage begins with a dn of 11.11.18 that leads to the date 9.13.11.6.7 13 Manik 0 Xul. A series of events are recorded for this date beginning ‘with kimi, "she died,” and then names the same The second division of the passage begins with the verb ubaii, “was inserted or deposited.” This verb is followed by a glyph EESTI consisting ofa hand with thumb (a extended and fingers upright 3s CC? it holds three pointed objects we ‘heey ag pani fom apt on Pc inde abd pup of 9 eid an me ‘Seinen rg tpn Cry tt et en nC ip by be ator ns SSIAAAC my pi a hei pei ete piste Rama wl ped tnt ‘oh ensayo Past uy sana py oss Coss yb ba yas rg hale? ope ng er A tbe wel pen ey Se wet a nl ab nna a oe woo tan ‘opi Aisin a anit fete wae carer pe Sse ae cng Te Pliny py ng Sete meat car alcponh penn bbe rss mama Te nett ict ae yw eed tape ae taper Sve mcs toa fon Cap Se Bend ugha med arm wen epg seas oo a ‘keeper tc uno rm tr tn nt, sate po acre ty THX, Pan aye ee pene alone ornare eed ow Kp Le Heke Ap, A Teus RS SIAM PAR SLACbelieve tobe flats or obsidians. A te’ “wood” sign sits below it. This hand holding flints appears in limited distribution. Gna looted panel from Bonsmpak (Mayer 1984:pl. 26-27), this samme verb is associated with a period-ending sequence. First the period ending is recorded as “18 Muwan it happened the ‘stone-setting’ on 2 Ahaw" followed by three ‘untranslated glyph. The next possage begins with a dn of 13 ‘winals associated with the at- ‘hand period-ending verb chat seems to refer tothe senting of a some. This the same verb in the first passage; however, hee it appears to ref tothe actuat erection of the monument. I ig followed by och wits, “entered the mountain.” Natanjo Altar 1 deseribes the deposition of a cache or a corpse as “mountaining.” We think this reference to entesing a mountain is the opening or reation of the chamber to contin the stela cache. The text continues with another da counted from the peviod ending to read 9.3,0.14.13, a day thiny-three days after the och wite ‘event. This date is followed by our hand holding flints glyph. We think i tthe deposition of the eccentric obsidians of flints that ‘were common sub-stela caches daring the Classic period. ‘On the Regal Rabbit pot (Kerr 1398), the hand holding Sints glyph appears in a passage refering tothe ‘ap or “erection” of stone and a tree. Once again, the deposition of a sub-stels cache is appropriate 10 the context. We suggest thatthe Tikal example refers to the depositing of flints in fr around this burial or the depositing of the corpse in their midst, Just such deposits are tombs at Tikal, ‘The third section of the passage begins mukah tf ‘Texas Note 66 1 Bolon Ahaw Na, “she was buried in the Nine Ahaw House.” We presume ehis Was & particulas building, but we are not sure iFit was at Tikal ot her home site. The agent of the buril follows in the phrase ahi Chan Sak Wayas Mas Ahaw, “by Four White Transformer, Duende Lord.” This last ‘lyph may be a generally distributed tile, carried by fords of Rio ‘Azul among others. As we will discuss below, we believe tis lord was Som Calakamul rather then Rio Aa. ‘This triplet has a parallel of starting similarity to 4 passage inthe Paxbofon Maldonado papers. The Geath ofthe focal king Pexbolonactea ig desczibed with exaeily te same sequence of verbs: yai-()x chamet tal-i cham! kub-c-t ta hucub w kal winic-ob ‘nul ta mue-c-el tt noh cai Itzamkanaae ot “there he died, he eame, he died, he was deposited inthe canoe by the people, he erived at the burial place in the great city of Izamkanaac” (Smailus 1975363. ‘The next passage on the Altar begins with a da leading from the burial to 9.13.19.16.6, The event is written pasoh, “was opened.” At this pont, the text * move into the scene tothe passage below the figures. This text continues with “the bones and skull of a woman who may or may not be the same ‘person asthe deceased from the previous ‘passage. Her name has yax over an tndeciphered bird head and /e preceding the glyph we are reading as wayas. Now the text Shifts to the pair oF glyph between the two actors to recont the agent who opened the bones. The passage reads u kahi Chan-Sak-Wayas. This isthe same ‘person who buried the first woman. His presence here suggests that only one woman is begin tatked about, even though the two names ace aot the same.‘This opening ofa grave to retrieve bones is shown inthe scene. Two figures in the costumes of wayob in the form of God A prime knec! on either side of a pile of long bones and 2 skal, These are the bones of the woman and we think one ofthe actor is the ‘man called Chan Sak Wayas. ‘The identification ofthe sak wayas glyph begins ‘with pattem of titles or toponyms that appears ona group of codex style pots (Kerr 2777, 2723, 4620, RH 81). These examples always have a sak prefix, but the sz may be followed by various glyphic ‘compounds including a 7534 way glyph with appropriate phonetic complements and the “kit form of way. In some examples, the crossed band sign that has been read in other contexts as nu. On ‘Altar 5, this crossed bands sign has a ky phonetic complement. Schele (1991:22) had taken this phonetic complement as evidence fora sa value for the crossed sign, but we think the mu or nuk value to be the most likely. Many of these examples have a si sign following the way glyph giving a reading of ‘wayas oF wayst. Wayasba is Yukatek for “sign or image,” while wayas i “figre, fantasy, and illusion” (Barrerra Vasquez. 1980:917) as in reaming and the vision rite. Nuk teans “large” in both Cholan and Yukatek, bu itis also “to think” and “figure, signification, and information” in ‘Yulatek (Barrera Vasquez 1980:584). Together nuk ‘Texas Note 66 3 wayas would mean “large dream image” or “significant dream image.” ‘We propose thatthe glyph on Tikal Altar 5 is ‘another variant of this same ttle, bectuse ofthe consistent presence of the sak, nuk, and si signs around the ahaw-eyed jaguar. We therefore suggest ‘hat this jaguar variaar is a another glyph for way. Morcover, this particular version ofthe ttle or family name is associated with nobles from CCalakmul. They appear on the codex-style vases ‘mentioned above in the name phrase of the owner. ‘A.number of people from site Q have this glyph in their names. On Site Q Panel 3, the ruler called Chak Wa Nab carries the Sak Wayas ttle in his ttle sequence at 9.11.10.0.0. This same person reappears on Incised Panels 1 and 2, his successor carries the same ttle, but « geometric sign SOR) teplaces the ‘} Jaguar. In addition, Jaguar-Paw, who became king of Calakml, registers this elyph among the rams of his younger brother on 9.12.10.14.11 (Site Q panel D), But in contrast to this royal use ofthe name, a seulptor, who was also a noble, ineluded his ice in his name on Calakmut Stela 51 at the éared.15 ‘This person is clearly 0. not the ruler fiom Ste Q Pane 3 SSA, Mentioned above nor the a HE King’s younger brother. i? The gap in the dates aaa PRESS seen ne oe from one generation to 2 = On Tikal Altar 5, the- number four. This same name, oo 3 Ballplayer Pane} } from the Chicago Institute of Art. There it turkey (Martin 1991) headdress. This headdresscorresponds to the name of the person in the main tex." The action takes according to the text at Ox-Te-Tun Nab-Tunich, toponyms associated with Calakmul. The date fell ona “five tuns lacking” interval, probably 9.14.15.0.0. The name of the protagonist has the turkey glyph ‘accompanied by chak and yuk. The second glyph in his name is the sak ways title—this time with the four prefix. This is the same Chan-Sak-Balam title as on Tikal Altar 5, although we cannot be sure both actors are the same person. However, we feel Chan-Sak-Wayas petson on Altar Scan be clearly identified as a pesson from the Calakmaul political sphere as Martin (1991) first suggested. ‘The text on the altar goes back tothe rim text in the next passage. It begins withthe date 1 Muluk 2 K’ank’in 9,13.19.16.9, three days after the opening of the bones. The event is hulit pichnal Chakte, “he arrived in the company of the Chakte’.” We ‘assumed the person who arrived isthe same #4 Chan Wayas as in the bone opening event, but the fact that he arrived in the company of the Chakte’, whom we presume was the king of Tikal, suggests thatthe bone ceremony took place at some other location and that the Calakmul lord then journeyed to Tikal. The question is whether the Tikal king Was also at this other place. We suspect thatthe yichnal implies that the two S1 men opened the bones in each other's ‘company and then joumeyed to Tikal together. Simon Martin (1991) was then ZU probably correct to identify the two pictured F lords asthe Tikal king and Chan-Sak- Wayas. Hiasaw-Chan-K’awil, who was the current Chakte” of Tikal, and his compartion arrived in Tikal eleven days before the period ending events celebrated on Stela 16. We suggest the altar text continued directly onto that stela which stood over the altar. 7 On the stele the king wears the headdress Texas Note 66 4 of Venus as Eveningstar as Floyd Lounsbury first ‘pointed out, because 9.14.0.0.0 corresponded to & ‘etic rising of the Eveningstr. Implications Hiasaw-Chan-K’awil's father was captured and sucrificed by Flint-Sky-God K of Das Pas. That Dos Pilas king acknowledged his subordination (© the contemporary king of Calakmul. One of the ‘most important early acis in Hasaw-Chan’s eign ‘was fo extract vengeance from Calakmul by ' capturing and sacrificing its king, Jaguar-Paw. This campaign of conquest, revenge, counter-revenge, tc, was not the first instance of oper warfare in this bitter sivairy. instead it was atthe end of along, history of such encounters. Why then did a lord from the Calakmul sphere and the Tikal king go together to exhume the bones of a woman of ‘Topoxte? Simon Martin suggested she was the wife of the Tikal man and the kinswoman of the ‘Calaksmul man. He may be righ, but there are ambiguities. First, there are two names. Do these names refer tothe same person? We think so, but only because it seems logical tous that they would not have recorded the death and burial of one ‘woman, and the exhumation ofthe bones of another ‘without explaining who she was and the connection ‘between the two. Therefore, we conclude thatthe text describes events conceming one wortan, ‘At almost this same time that Hasaw-Chan- ’awil and Chan-Sak-Wayas goto retrieve her 2g bones, Naranjo Stela 23 records Ofori Memo ie ‘Yaxha and pethaps Topoxte. "| Martin and Grube have reexamined the text on this interpretation, On 9.13.18.4.18, Smoking-Squirel bbumed the seat of lord of Yaxha. Something, also happened to a asa lady from Tikal or Dos Pilas. She is also named a companion and wife, but we ‘cannot say whether she was the wife of the Yaxha lord or the ‘Naranjo king, The text includes 2.dn of 18 days, the verb ahawin, “he was ahawed,” and a second verb reading fwal Iok’, I, We would ike wren a reservation here over the reading oF the fox. The redable glyph in he hovaonal vex apeats be the five tans Inking glyph thst woud be the last element othe date IF the next elyph ie the personal name of he prsagenisy, chen ‘he txt would be massing a ver inthis section, This sya i nt the nara sue expected in bieroglyple txt, 50 that we tion that the trkey glyph may beth missing ve,“and then she was freed.” The text continues by recording that this done by Smoking-Squirrel. Shortiy thereafter on 9.13.18.9.15, the bones and skull of @ person from Yaxha were exhumed and scattered on an island we believe to be Topoxte. This occurred only one year, 226 days before the exhumation carried out by (Chan-Sak-Wayas and Hasaw- ‘Chan-K’awil, In January, 1994, Schele travelled to Topoxte and ‘was informed by a focal posada ‘owner that recent excavation fon the island had found large clay ealdrons filled with hurnan bones. These huge pots were set in tows along the scges of the Jower courts. These may hhave been the location where the bones Were scattered, oF pethaps they were taken out of ine of these pots and thrown around op the ground as a Way of desecrating the dead of a conquered enemy. The Naranjo text continues to another event on 9.13.19.63, only 203 days before the Tikal ‘event, This event may have involved the manipulation of ‘an object owned by Ah Sak-Nab, a person from the other lake at Yexha, We think the object was the tok’-pakal ofthis man, and the agent is clearly ‘Smioking-Squirrel. The event seems to be the display of the emblems of war over conquered territory. The phrase continues with a still-unidentified verb in front of a second mention of the tok'-pakal of He of ‘Naranjo. The location is clearly named to be Sak Neb. ‘There are some stunning contradictions in this ata, What is the king of Tikal doing with a lord from the Calakmul polity? Moreover, from where did they travel to get to Tikal in three days? Why is 4 Tikal king going into territory that had just been conquered by the ally of the Calakmul lord? Grube and Mactin have identified a phrase on Stela i stating explicitly that Smoking-Squirel was the ‘yahaw of “vassal lord" ofthe king of Calakmu. ‘We think the Natanjo war against Yaxha is the ‘Texas Note 66 5 key tothe interpretation, Two hundred and three {sys before Hasaw-Chan-K’awil went to retrieve the bones of the woman, Smoking- Squire raised his tok’-pakal over a person of Sak Nab. Then he did some other action with the tok’-pakal of a person of Naranjo at the site of Sak Nab itself. This sugges that the site where the woman lived—that is, ‘Topoxte—had been conquered and removed from the political sphere of Tikal. We surmise this ‘woman from Topoxte must have been important to the king of ‘Tikal, his lineage, anc his city ot -ke would not have risked going {nto recently conquered enemy territory in order to retrieve not 8 living person, but the bones of a dead person, Moreover, ‘Stnoking-Squirrel had also ‘exhumed bones from the grave of a Yaxha lord and spread them over Topoxte only a year and 126 days before Hasaw-Chan- K’awil went 10 Topoxte, We feel these two actions were probably historically related. ‘Tiree days isa feasible span for travel from ‘Topoxte to Tikal in procession through enemy Tands. ‘The retrieval of bones from enemy temitory has 3 historical parallel from the vime after Chan Santa (Cruz, the capital ofthe Cruzoob-Maya was conquered by General Bravo and his troops in 1901. Many of the leaders of the Cruzoob Maya had been buried in the church of Chan Santa Cruz. The conquest of Chan Santa Cruz by che Mexicans had desecrated the hofy precinct and the burial places of these important leaders. According to narrations by cold members of the Crizoob community recorded by Grube in 1992, four years after the conquest an agreement between the Cruzoob and the Mexicans was made that allowed the Cruzoob to retieve the bones oftheir venerated leaders, According to these oral traditions, the bones of Manuel Nahuat and other “Speakers of the Cross” were exhumed and brought to Tixcacal Guardia, the sacred shriae center of the present Crizocb, There the bones were buried wader the floor of the church, four interpretation comes close to the historical‘circumstances surrounding these events, then these texts point 10 the crucial importance of ancestral ‘ones in the machinations of Maya power politics. Hasaw-Chan-K'awil apparently had to goto retrieve these bones in the company ofa high fevet ord of the enemy alliance. This telts us tar such an arrangement was both needed and possible, and that ‘these major polities were in communication with ‘each other and maintained formal conventions for abatements of hosiltes. ‘We do not understand the rules of dipfomacy or negotiation in Maya politics ofthe eighth century, but we can deduce that Hasaw-Chon-X ‘awl perceived political advantage in recording that he hhad retrieved these bomes and that he had done it in the company of a high-ranking Calakmul lord, Perhaps this action was presented as an example of his power because he was able to recruit or demand 4 Calalamul lord to go with him. Stele 16 with the scene of his period-ending rtua stands aver the scene of che bore retrieval. His positioning ofthe ‘bone retrieval a he did allowed Hasaw-Chan- KCawil to appear as ifhe were dominating the Cataksmul lord who helped him. The bone retrieval stent is in the position usually occupied on other Tikal altars by scenes of scaffold sacrifice or belly- down captives. Texas Note 66 6 References Martin, Simon 1991, Some Thoughts and Work-in- Progress, Summer 199%. A manuscript circulated by the author. Mayer, Karl Herbert 1984 Maya Monuments: Sculptures of Unknown Provenance in Middle America. Berlin: Vetiag, von Flemming, ‘Schele, Linda 1991 Workbook for the 199) Workshop on Maya Hieroglyphic Writing, with commentary on the ‘inscriptions of Bird-Jaguar of Yaxchilan, ‘Austin: Art Department, University of Texas. Smailus, Orwin 1975 El Maya-Chontat de Acuian, Analisis Lingiistica de ut Docuimenio de los Atos 4610-12. Centro de Estudios Maya, Cuaderno 9. Universidad Nacional Auténoma de México, México, Stuan, David, and Stephen Houston 1991 Classic Maya Place Names, A unpublished ‘paper circulated by the authors in March, 199).