Archaeological Reconnaissance in Southeastern Campeche, México: 2002 Field Season Report

Appendix 2: Epigraphic Analysis of Altar 3 of Altar de los Reyes by Nikolai Grube

In August 2002 my friend Antonio Cuxil Guitz and I had the opportunity to visit the ejido Ley de Fomento Agropecuario, south of Xpujil, where Altar 3 from the nearby archaeological site Altar de los Reyes is being kept. Following is a brief analysis of the iconography and, particularly, of the important hieroglyphic text on this altar.

The altar is a circular monument, broken in a number of fragments. While many larger pieces were reassembled, the original positions of a number of smaller fragments have not been determined. The restored altar includes most fragments that exhibit vestiges of sculpture, but it must be recognized that the monument is incomplete and that significant portions of iconography on the upper face, as well as of the hieroglyphic text, are missing. The relief is of high quality, but on various parts the details have been badly eroded.

The upper face of the altar has suffered much more erosion than the lateral surface. A human figure sitting on a throne and looking to the left can be distinguished. The support of the throne had a hieroglyphic inscription, of which only two blocks can be discerned: the first one reads K’UHUL-ka-ba, k’uhul kab, "divine earth" or "sacred lands", and the second one UXLAJUN-ka?-?, "thirteen ?" (Figure 1). Even if the details of the second glyph no longer survive, it is very likely that a parallel construction is involved and that also the second glyph represented the word ka-ba, kab "earth", expressed syllabically. This reading is strongly supported by the hieroglyphic text running around the side of the monument.

Click on image to enlarge.

The inscription on the lateral surface forms a continuous band of fourteen or fifteen blocks, without a clear indication as to where the reading of the text starts (Figure 2, shown below). Neither is a date present to initiate the text. Of the hieroglyphic blocks that occupied the space around the altar, only eleven are preserved. All these glyphs, except two, can be identified as emblem glyphs with the K’UHUL ("divine") element in front and the AJAW ("king") superfix. The two glyphs that do not correspond to this scheme very likely represent the beginning of the text. The first glyph is of foremost importance for the interpretation of the text, but unfortunately poses problems of reading. It consists of an "Ajaw" sign (though in this context it may have a different reading), which is followed by a sign for "throne" (also of unknown linguistic reading). Since the throne sign has a suffix -il, and the "Ajaw" seems to have the possessive prefix u, the entire construction forms a possessed noun, like "the royal throne of…", or "these are the royal thrones". The following glyph is composed of TAN and WINIK logograms. The two superfixes of this block broke off. Possibly the glyph, when complete, represented the expression chatan winik, which is very common on the codex-style ceramics and can be also found in the position of toponyms or emblems in the hieroglyphic texts of Calakmul and Nakbé. It might represent the emblem glyph of Nakbé, or of a whole region between the basin of El Mirador, Calakmul and perhaps Altar de los Reyes. The glyphs following this one are all emblem glyphs of various states in central Maya Lowlands. Those of Calakmul, Tikal and Palenque are clearly recognizable. The Palenque emblem glyph is followed by one whose main sign is a water scroll. While this emblem has been found in various texts from different places, so far it has not been securely identified with any known archaeological site. The following part of the text is missing. Before it ends, with the glyph referring to the "royal throne", the inscription has three more emblem glyphs. The second is the emblem of Edzná (David Stuart, personal communication, November 2002). This glyph is not very well known, but appears in various texts at Edzná, particularly on the Hieroglyphic Stairway. It differs from the emblem glyph of El Perú, which is very similar, but is preceded by a head including another element in the shape of a fish head. The last emblem glyph is clearly the one of Motul de San José.

The text of Altar 3 originally had a list of thirteen emblem glyphs. All of them, perhaps with the exception of the Palenque emblem, correspond to places in the surrounding area, or at least within the interaction sphere of Altar de los Reyes. Some important sites are missing: the emblem glyphs of Copán, Quiriguá, Cancuén, Caracol, Pusilja, Machaquilá etc. are not included. The reference to thirteen sacred places on the upper face of the altar can be interpreted as an introduction to the list of emblems of the sites, which may have been the seats of the most important and sacred kings from the point of view of Altar de los Reyes. The number thirteen must have had a cosmological significance and may have been considered as an ideal number of royal seats in the Maya Lowlands.

Click on image to enlarge.

There is an alternative as to the reading order of the emblem glyphs. It is possible that the glyphs referring to royal thrones and the following ?-TAN-?-WINIK constitute the end of the text instead of its beginning. In this case the preceding thirteen emblem glyphs would have had the expression "…are the royal thrones of…" as an attribute. The clause would then have finished with ?-TAN-?-WINIK, which might have been the name for a panregional concept that included all the sites that are referred to. In any case, the list of emblems found on this altar is of great value for the reconstruction of political geography in the Maya Lowlands. The list presents an emic view of the sites considered to be the most sacred or powerful centers in a certain moment of Maya history.

Due to the lack of a date, the moment when the altar was sculpted cannot be established with precision. Of the monuments from Altar de los Reyes known so far, the only one with a date is Stela 1, which contains a Calendar Round date corresponding to 9.18.10.0.0 10 Ajaw 8 Sak (see Grube, Appendix, in Šprajc 2001). Stilistically, the glyphs on Altar 3 and Stela 1 are very similar, and both monuments may have been originally associated. In this case the presented political panorama reflects the Maya world in the Late Classic period.

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