[Aztlan] Who is the Bolon Yokte'?

Fri Dec 21 22:47:36 CST 2007

Very interesting questions.  You may recall that Dave Stuart posted
something about this Bolon Yookte' (K'uh) on the UT Mesoamerican discussion
board in April 2006.  It appears that he believes that the deity appears at
Palenque.

"As promised here's a quick translation of the final passage of 
Tortuguero Monument 6, recording the 2012 Bak'tun ending: 

Tzuhtz-(a)j-oom u(y)-uxlajuun pik 
(ta) Chan Ajaw ux(-te') Uniiw. 
Uht-oom ? 
Y-em(al)?? Bolon Yookte' K'uh ta ?. 

"The Thirteenth 'Bak'tun" will be finished 
(on) Four Ajaw, the Third of Uniiw (K'ank'in). 
? will occur. 
(It will be) the descent(??) of the Nine Support? God(s) to the ?." 

This is it.  The term following uht-oom is the main puzzle, and largely 
effaced. The "descent" reference is highly tentative, too.  The 
enigmatic deity Bolon Yookte' K'uh has been known for some time 
from many sources, and I suspect that he (or they) has some tangential 
relationship to the Principal Bird Deity, as well as war associations. 
Interestingly, he is a protagonist in the deep time mythology of 
Palenque, as recorded on Palenaue's Temple XIV tablet.  A 
long-lasting character who's still around somewhere waiting, I suppose. 

- Dave S."

-----Original Message-----
From: aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org]
On Behalf Of Carl callaway
Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 8:40 PM
To: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
Subject: [Aztlan] Who is the Bolon Yokte'?

  Who is the Bolon Yokte'?

  I'd like to take up Barb MacLeod's suggestion to 'merrily speculate' about
the 13.0.0.0.0. period ending. One thing is for certain. The Ancient Maya
believed that the Bolon Yokte' will arrive. So, the question arises "Who is
the Bolon Yokte'? Many scholars have pointed out that scribes quote his name
twice on page sixty of the Dresden Codex (see glyph block C1 no page 60a and
glyph block D1 on 60b). Very likely, he is the figure painted directly below
each caption who carries the implements of war. He carries an spear-thrower
and darts in one instance (see top of page 60) while in another he sports a
circular shield and flint spear (see bottom of page 60). In the former
picture, he is charging toward God N? with spear-thrower raised  as if to
strike (a prelude to the falling of the sky and earth via the destruction of
the Bacabs?) while in the latter picture he presents a bound captive before
a god? who sits or rides atop a serpent throne. Why is the Bolon Yokte'
being
 depicted here? What is his purpose? Are there any more depictions of him
within the corpus? I think a few of these questions can be partially
answered by asking "Where in time is the Bolon Yokte' on page 60?" 

  It is significant that page 60 is sandwiched between two pages explicitly
quoting pre-Era Day events-pages 58 and 61. The far right side of page 58
explicitly records two dates occurring BEFORE the Era date on 4 Ajaw 8
Kumk'u on the day 13 Muluk (13 flood?). These two days are calculated from
the "Ring Number" located at the bottom of page 68. By my reckoning, these
two Era events are 12.19.10.18.09 13 Muluk 2 Zak and 12.19.19.05.09 13 Muluk
17 Sek. The event stated is 819 day Count verb and is in essence recording
the position of a whole lot of gods one of them being K'awiil?

  Page 59, continues the scribal obsession with calculating the 13 Muluk
Calendar date. Again and again, he calculates what seems to be an infinite
variety of 13 Muluk days. Why is he doing this? Could he be tabulating
possible "flood" days?

  Page 61 falls directly after the Bolon Yokte' portraits and events. Page
61 is one of three Serpent number pages that records a whole bunch of
pre-Era and Era day events, namely the 'PATAJ' or the 'making' of time
periods, Pawahtun/Bacab gods, and the number twenty (see page 61, section 1,
glyph blocks A1-B10). On Era Day, the scribe notes that these time periods
"enter water" and it is hypothesized that the serpents could represent
animated aspects of flowing water (five serpents/five floods???). At this
point, it is any ones guess what is going on.

  OK, back to page 60 and the Bolon Yokte'. I think there is a good chance
that page 60 is recording Era Day or Pre Era day events. Not only does page
60 occur between pages quoting creation events, but glyph blocks A1 and B1
on page 60 look as if they record the Era Day 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk'u. A look at
high resolution scans of the Forstemann Edition of the Dresden Codex
verifies in my mind that yes indeedy, block B1 is the day 8 Kumk'u. Also,
the text is recorded on a solid BLUE background. When the Dresden scribe
records a day or a passage on a BLUE background, he seems to be tagging that
event as occurring in pre Era time (see page 69, 61[with the 9 KAN 12 Kayab
date that falls 34,000 years into the past!], and page 58 for other passages
on a blue background) or perhaps he wants to make some connection between
blue and all the water events-Quien Sabe?

  If page 60 is recording pre-Era events, then this observation would agree
nicely with his appearance on the Vase of the 7 and 11 Gods during the Era
Day events. He appears again at the end of the 13 the Baktun in the year
2012 because as the Chilam Balam state "What has happened in the past Katun
will happen in the future Katun." The god seems to play an active role in
the destruction and reorganization of cosmic forces just before and on Era
day. Just who is the Bolon Yokte' is, and his what is his function, and what
force he defeats and subdues, can be determined perhaps by noting where else
he appears in the corpus. 

  If any of you know where else the Bolon Yokte' is represented, I'd
certainly like to know. Every bit of evidence found, will allow us to
reconstruct his character and to provide a proper reception for him when he
returns ;-). I don't think he will be looking for Santa's milk and cookies.

  Best,

   Carl Callaway 

Barb MacLeod <bmacleod at austin.rr.com> wrote: I did a quick review of the
posts featuring 2012 per Dave's suggestion, and 
would recommend that anyone wanting the scoop on 2012 do the same. The 
point-counterpoint between John Major Jenkins and Lloyd Anderson is very 
useful vis-a-vis the astronomy, and Christian Prager's and Dave Stuart's 
input on Bolon Yokte' and Tortuguero 6 is also extremely pertinent.

Shouldn't we be asking--or speculating merrily--about why this deity is so 
important to the 13.0.0.0.0 period ending? If he's about to 'descend' then 
where is he now, and where's he gonna descend to? Shouldn't we be more 
attentive to what happened the last time? Howzabout an on-list review of the

text of the Vase of the Seven Gods? Why is the verb tzak-aj 'line up'/count 
present? Who are all those gods, and what's God L's role in this brouhaha? 
And then, what about the various creation texts on the stone monuments which

reference the changing of the hearth at the bak'tun ending? What's that 
about, and is it a forerunner of the Wayeb rituals described by Landa (toss 
the old crockery and hearthstones and get new ones)? What about Quirigua 
Stela C? Who are those gods, really, and what are they up to?

It seems to me that if we are really concerned with what the ancient Maya 
expected to happen in 2012, we ought to be attempting to correlate the 
various 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk'u events and make some sense of it all. Aztlan seems 
the perfect venue. Now, as the winter solstice and the new year approach and

we are poised to enter the final jo'tun of the great cycle--seems the 
perfect time.

Barb MacLeod

----- Original Message ----- 

--- Henry Avila  wrote:

> Somebody asked me a question about the already
> popular 2012 maya
> predictions, and I would like to know if somebody
> knows scientific
> information that could refute all the misconception
> about the maya
> profecies.

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