[Aztlan] Cancun as...'Sky Foundation'?

[Barb MacLeod]

The Aulex is a nice little dictionary; in fact, the whole series is great--Japanese, Nahuatl, Mixtec, Tarahumara, Maya...and many more!

But Bastarrachea won't commit on Cancun, will he? Look at these, both from the same source:
Cancún : Kaank'uun (Lugar de la serpiente de oro)

Cancún : Kaankuum (lugar de la olla de serpientes)

I am going to use the Colonial Maya orthography in this post except for a couple of citations.

The concept 'lugar' (place) is inferred from the toponymic nature of the name and not from either<can> or <cun>. With respect to <can> I still feel that 'sky' has more going for it than 'snake' does. And I remain doubtful that the original was k'uum. Kuum (cum in the Colonial system) 'olla' seems possible, but I find the Cordemex sub-entry kuma'an 'asentado', 'contenido' (under kankun) closer to the mark. Asentar means not only to seat something but also to found or establish something.

Taking it a few steps farther (and paraphrasing a recent collaboration between myself and Carl Callaway), consider the text titled "The Creation of the Uinal" in the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel (Roys, 1967). The pacing and counting of footsteps which created the twenty day names and simultaneously all things--sky, earth, trees and rocks--was initiated in the east: "every day is set in order according to the count beginning in the east, as it is arranged" (Roys p.117). The dates < lahca Oc> and <ox lahun Oc>--12 Oc and 13 Oc--are presented at the start of the act of creation: "this was the count, after it had been created by 13 Oc, after his feet were joined evenly, after they had departed there in the east" (Roys p. 116). The interval between 12 Oc and 13 Oc is forty days--an interval known as 'the footsteps of the year' and a handy device for moving through the 260-day cycle. 

But here's the kicker: Eric Thompson (1960:214) states that the base date for the 819-Day Count (7 x 13 x 9) was 12.19.19.17.17  1 Caban 5 Cumku--just three days before 13.0.0.0.0  4 Ahau 8 Cumku. If one counts back from this base date 1 Caban to the preceding day Oc, one reaches 7 Oc. Twenty days back from 7 Oc is 13 Oc--the day on which the Chumayel creation event in question is begun. Thus the count of twenty days during which all of creation takes place, each thing on its day, ends at (12.19.19.17.11) 6 Muluc,  8 days before the base date of the 819-day count (itself an east station) and 11 days before 13.0.0.0.0  4 Ahau 8 Cumku.

It might be worth noting that the month name Cumku, analyzable as cum (kum in modern orthography) 'jar' and the positional root 'seat' plus ku (k'uh in modern writing) 'god(s)' seems likely to be the same root found in <cancun>. Structurally, it suggests 'jar/container/seat/foundation of the gods'. Its counterpart in several other languages, and in the Classic script, is Ohl 'heart'.

The Chumayel creation which started in the east appears to precede both the kick-off of the 819-DC and the 13.0.0.0.0 Long Count turnover date. How that little spit of land known as Isla Cancun figures into the story, I cannot say, but it is certainly located in the right spot, and, if one is obliged to wrestle with ambiguity and reach a fair compromise, I think the notion of 'sky foundation' is a reasonable candidate. I have made my case for 'sky' in a previous post.

Barb

***************
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2006 14:20:41 -0500
From: Jules Siegel <siegel at cafecancun.com>
Subject: Re: [Aztlan] k'uun??
To: Aztlan <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
Message-ID: <45425C09.3000702 at cafecancun.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Barb MacLeod wrote:

> I looked at the link and only find taak'in for 'oro'. 

It's here: http://aulex.ohui.net/es-myn/?busca=oro in the latest update
of the dictionary. I used the wrong URL in haste.

> Meanwhile, Barrera-Vasquez (p.296 )has kan kum [toponimico]; kan 'culebra, vibora...'; kum 'olla, hornillo'. he doesn't commit to a meaning for the whole...

See Cancún : Kaankuum (lugar de la olla de serpientes) at
http://sw.deri.org/~juan/weblog/mayan.html