[Aztlan] Ball glyphs

[Lorna Huff]

Dear listeros,

I've been doing some research on ballcourts and have some questons about the balls containing glyphs in ballcourt scenes. There are several such balls depicted in the hieroglyphic stair panels at Yaxchilan and some are from La Corona/Calakmul as seen in illustrations in the book Maya Cosomos (Figs. 8:13 ;8:16). The same drawings can be viewed in closer detail in the Schele drawings Collection at FAMSI (search "ballgame") :

http://www.famsi.org/research/schele/index.html

In Maya Cosmos (1993) the authors comment that the glyph shown inside the balls is a Nab sign and the numbers often shown with Nab in the balls are nine, twelve, thirteen and fourteen, and that the glyphs meaning in the context of the ballgame is not yet known. In Reading the Maya Glyphs, Coe and Van Stone list four variants of NAAB referring to 'pool" and 'water-lily'. In Montgomery's dictionary (also at FAMSI) there are some samples of NAAB' (naab') for 'water', 'sea', 'plaza', possibly 'water-lily'.  The T501 b'a glyph closely resembles the Yaxchilan ball glyphs and it has several possible meanings including 'head', 'image', or 'self '. The day sign Imix is desribed as a water lily blossom inside a cartouche. 

All of this makes me wonder if the ball glyph could signify ' water-lily image ' or ' water-lily head ' ? And could the numbers , at the same time, be associated with Imix ? Or something else ?

Does anyone know if there is more recent information on this specific subject?  I have accessed most of the ballcourt related articles that are available on-line but may have overlooked some.

Thanks for any clarification and leads. 


Lorna















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