[Aztlan] Yucatan Stone Block

[John Drever]

How exciting!

Would like to discuss two of the signs:

1:  Items 28 and 58 look, to me, a lot like the objects on page 305 of The Olmec World, Ritual and Rulership, ISBN 0 8109 6311 6.
        These are Spoons and Perforators. 

2:  Items 3, 4, 16, 45, 53 and 59 - Could these be references to the "Jester God"?    This quotation is from Page 17, The Iconographic Heritage of the Jester God, a chapter within "The Origins of Divine Kingship Among The Lowland Classic Maya,"  a PhD dissertation by Virginia Mary Fields, May 1989.  "The Jester God, named for the resemblance of his tri-pointed forehead to the cap of the medieval jester is one of the earliest symbols associated with Maya rulership."

It seems to me that many Maya stele have references to their kings and also to rituals in which the king draws blood using a perforator.   So might it not be reasonable to assume that like the Maya and the Egyptians and many other  ancient societies, the Olmec would refer also to their king in many inscriptions, and if so what symbol would they use for King?  

So, amongst other things, this could be a statement that on a certain date, good king so-an-so drew blood in a ritual performed for the benefit of his people.   Might also involve a period ending celebration or a building dedication?

Well... What are your thoughts?

Oh what fun it is to do epigraphy... even if you're wrong.

John Drever


drever at mindspring.com