The Glyphic Corpus from Ek’ Balam, Yucatán, México

The Glyphic Corpus from Ek’ Balam

The glyphic corpus from Ek’ Balam is among the richest known in northern Yucatán, because of the number of texts and the number of glyphic blocks found in a fine state of preservation, comparable in terms of importance to those from Edzná, Xcalumkin, Oxkintok, Chichén Itzá and Cobá. Between the only two texts from the site that were known by the mid-eighties and the approximately forty that are presently documented, some excellent archaeological works have been carried out, first by the teams of Drs. William Ringle and George Bey, and subsequently by the teams of Archaeologists Leticia Vargas de la Peña and Víctor Castillo Borges. It was precisely during the works undertaken by the Mexican archaeological team–from the Regional INAH Yucatán, that the hieroglyphic texts from the site began to be uninterruptedly recovered, after the excavation works in Structure 1 (Vargas and Castillo 1998; 2001) were initiated. Most of the texts originate precisely in this Structure 1 of the site, an impressive Acropolis building with a complex and fascinating architecture which has been revealed as Ek’ Balam’s Royal Palace during the Terminal Classic Period (Figure 1 and Photo 1, shown below). Up until now, only half the extension of this building has been explored. It would not be extremely risky to venture that in the following years the number of hieroglyphic texts found in Ek’ Balam may well duplicate.

Click on image to enlarge.

The glyphic corpus from Ek’ Balam is peculiar. Unlike other hieroglyphic corpus from the Maya Lowlands, the corpus from Ek’ Balam includes abundant painted texts. In fact, the painted texts exceed the number of texts cut or carved, which is rather unusual. Other characteristics, such as conveying numerous calendric references, or their extraordinary originality regarding the rich variety of writing formats chosen, or the subjects dealt with, make of the Ek’ Balam corpus one of the most significant ones from the northern Maya Lowlands. Ek’ Balam has come to fill, at last, a geographic and chronological void in the septentrional central region of the Yucatán peninsula.

This report will present and analyze twenty-seven hieroglyphic texts from Ek’ Balam: four stone monuments–Stela 1, Column 1, the Western and Eastern Hieroglyphic Serpents,–twelve Cover of Vaults–CV 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 14, 15, 18 and 19,–five hieroglyphic mural paintings–Murals A (96 Glyphs), B, C, and D of Room 29-sub, the Mural in Room 22,–and seven miscellaneous texts–MT 1-7. This relation includes the most important texts from the site that we know of so far, and allows to sketch Ek’ Balam’s dynastic history throughout the one hundred years they cover, since the last third of the VIII century A.D. to the mid IX century A.D. Some of the texts have been previously referred to in October, 1998, during the Encuentro de Investigadores del Área Maya de Campeche (Meeting of Researchers of the Maya Area in Campeche) (see Vargas et al. 1999). Those texts have been included here, together with the drawings and the updated transliterations, transcriptions, and translations. Similarly, and to fulfill the goals of the Project, this report already advances a number of conclusions derived from the interpretation of the information found in the hieroglyphic texts, from an epigraphic, historic, and linguistic point of view.

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