[Aztlan] turtle

[Andrew P Griebeler]

Hi

I am an undergraduate doing research on turtle imagery in Maya art.  I’ve hit a few walls and would really appreciate any help.

The idea that the turtle shell was associated primarily with droughts and with the dry, cracked earth that is mentioned in Marc Zender’s “Teasing the Turtle from its Shell: AHK and MAHK in Maya Writing” (The PARI Journal VI, 3 (2006): 1-14; pp. 10), and in Mary Miller and Simon Martin’s Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya, (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2004, pp. 57).  I am wondering if there is an earlier mention of this, and if there is evidence for it beyond what Zender, Miller and Martin mention.  

Redfield and Villa Rojas connect the appearance of turtles with annual drought (Redfield and Villa Rojas, pp. 207), while the Chilam Balam of Chumayel states the month of Mac is so named “as it is the mating of turtles” (Translated by Munro S. Edmonson, Heaven Born Merida and Its Destiny: The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel [Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986], 5306, Ch. 39, pp. 226).  Assuming the turtles do behave this way (disregarding differences between turtles, tortoises, and sea turtles as well) would the two phenomena (turtles wandering around, mating) be restricted to the Northern Lowlands? Is it true elsewhere where the environment is considerably different?

Are there any sources regarding the patron deities of numbers, especially the God of Number 13?

Is there any link between a generalized term for turtle and the word used to refer to the stick (ak’) carried by the chief Huastec mam (Alcorn 1984: pp. 59, cited in Karl Taube, “The Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan,” Studies in Pre-Colombian Art and Archaeology 32, Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1992: pp. 99)? Maybe a correlation between the "earth god's instrument"?

The Maya Vase Database notes for K7287 say “This figure has also been found in anther dimensional incensario,” Is there an example of this? Also, is there a specific example of the turtle images at Quirigua that appear to have stimulated the turtle discussion earlier this year (June, July)?

Finally, is the idea of the turtle as a spatio-temporal map/ model necessarily different from the astronomical significance discussed this past summer? 

Thanks,
Andrew