Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ekbalam 1999 Mexicon-XXI
Ekbalam 1999 Mexicon-XXI
Ekbalam 1999 Mexicon-XXI
Mrida
Acanceh
Mayapan
Cancn
Ek Balam
Izamal
Halakal
Ikil
Valladolid
Chichn
Cob
Itz
Uxmal
Tulum
YUCATN
Campeche
0
124
100 km
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blem Glyph. In the case of Hun Pik Tok, this would lower his
status on the Halakal lintel to a simple Ahaw. The contemporary Casa Colorada text (see below), however, characterizes Hun Pik Tok as kul headless man? ahaw (Figure 10)
and the kinich-title which was reserved for divine lords
precedes his name in both inscriptions. I.e. Hun Pik Tok
obviously was an overlord. The truncated inscription on Ek
Balam Stela 1 (Figure 5) confirms the close association of the
headless man with the Emblem Glyph: the rather eroded
glyphs read most likely kalom ? ? kul headless man-nal,
kul tal ahaw. The date for Ek Balam Stela 1 is reconstructed
as 10.0.10.0.0 equivalent to January 22, 840 A.D. (Vargas de
la Pea, Castillo & Lacadena 1999: 174). Pityingly enough,
the remains of the name of the divine lord are illegible. The
second epigraphic subtlety concerns the earplug as part of the
Emblem Glyph on the Halakal lintel. A KAH place or
town reading has been proposed for the orthodox variant of
the earplug (Martin 1996: 225). The close comparison of the
latter variants with the one on the Halakal lintel revealed
differences (esp. the orientation of the earplug) too large to
allow for an application of the KAH reading. Examples from
Casa de Las Monjas (Chichn Itz) Lintel 3 (at E2) and Uxmal
Altar 10 (at A4; compare the substitution with E1) corroborate
our assumption that the earplug on the Halakal lintel serves as
a variant of T518; i.e., the earplug under T168 constitutes the
full version of AHAW and has no reading on its own.
The Casa Colorada text is reckoned among the inscriptions recording public events in Chichn Itz. It gives an
account of four fire-drilling events (cf. Barthel 1955: 13;
Kelley 1968; 1976: 278, 288, 284285; 1982: 4) which were
successively performed between 10.2.0.1.9 (September 11,
869) and 10.2.2.6.11 (December 12, 871) (Eberl & Vo
1998). At the very end it names Kak-u-pakal, Hun Pik Tok
and Yahawal Cho Kak? with their titles (Vo & Kremer
1998). This final clause is introduced by the relational glyph
u-kaban (Figure 10). From this it appears that notwithstanding the functional role of the other individuals mentioned in
the Casa Colorada text, the ultimate responsibility for this
type of public affair at Chichn Itz rested with the three
persons mentioned at the end of the text. Unfortunately, no
relational term or expression indicating a visit links Hun Pik
Tok with any of the other individuals named in the inscriptional corpus of Chichn Itz (cf. Wagner 1995: 6061).
Thus, it is impossible to determine Hun Pik Toks sociopolitical role at Chichn Itz. It is only save to say that the
distribution of his name in the inscriptions link him with
Chichn Itz and Halakal and his Emblem Glyph associates
him with Halakal and Ek Balam.
The ethnohistorical sources mentioning Hun Pik Tok
are not congruent with the epigraphic data. According to
Bernardo de Lizana (1995: 6364, 81, 82) he held a high
mexicon
Fig. 10. Detail of the inscription from the Casa Colorada frieze
(Chichn Itz): glyphs 5557 (Drawing by Alexander Vo)
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127
ably equivalent to Cupul as written in the Colonial orthography). Yet, the decisive reading of the death head or skull
as POL head is still open to discussion and no other
persons name contains the supposed Kopol (which would
be necessary to establish Kopol/Cupul as patronym). The
present evidence does not support far-reaching conclusions
especially with regard to the (Late Postclassic) Cupul
rulership at Ek Balam.
Sociopolitical Organization
in Light of the Sources
Fig. 11. Inscriptions of the Temple of the Hieroglyphic Jambs,
Chichn Itz
a) Jamb 1: glyphs C6A7 (Drawing by Ruth Krochock)
b) Jamb 2: glyphs A5C5 (Drawing by Ruth Krochock)
The inscriptions that were presented above underpin a compelling insight into the sociopolitical organization of northeastern Yucatn during the Terminal Classic. The three
introductory facets of sociopolitical organization internal
organization, political landscape, and temporal and regional
variation may serve as linchpins in the following discussion.
The sources of information vary considerable in quantity
and quality. The relevant glyphic inscriptions are limited to
the 9th century (and for the Chichn Itz area to around 870
A. D.). Explanatory data or background information is rare
and the glyphic stage is reserved for selected main events
and main actors. The ethnohistorical documents e.g. the
Relacin de Ek Balam on the other hand abound with
memorized narratives. Myths make up for the 700 years that
separate them from the accounted events. Published archaeological data from Ek Balam is still rather scanty;
nevertheless it covers all time periods from a rather unbiased
perspective.
The Relacin de Ek Balam written by Juan Gutirrez
Picn renders a historically foreshortened sequence of Ek
Balam rulers (Garza et al. 1983, II: 127140). Coch Cal
Balam (a.k.a. Ek Balam which seems a convenient etiology
for the place name) and his son He Blay Chac [Ah Bolay
Chak] are said to have been the first rulers who for their
growing barbarity and idolatry were eventually replaced by
the Cupules. With the rise of the Cupules anchored to the fall
of Mayapan and therefore to the Late Postclassic period, the
inscribed monuments confirm the existence of rulers preceding the Cupul era. The Ek Balam rulers given in the
inscriptions are Ukit Kan Lek and Hun Pik Tok. Yet, there
are too few inscriptions to detail the dynastic history. Since
they are Terminal Classic in date, a direct connection between epigraphy and ethnohistory cannot be drawn. The
ostensibly different names underscore the loss and altering
of information from the Classic to Early Colonial period.
The case of Hun Pik Tok is telling: He appears as historical
person of highest rank (kul ahaw divine lord) in the
Terminal Classic inscriptions. The historical person and its
name seemingly became institutionalized and linked to an
office during the Postclassic. Lizana ascribes the same name
(most likely reflecting the Late Postclassic situation) to the
military-priestly leader of Izamal (Lizana 1995: 6364, 82).
The epigraphic evidence for an Ek Balam Emblem
Glyph makes the ethnohistorical clues to the eminent rank of
Ek Balam into a whole. The ethnohistorical Coch Cal Balam
is translated as lord over all and is said to have been a
supreme lord (Garza et al. 1983, II: 138). Ek Balam joins
rank with Dzibilchaltun which was the only Emblem Glyph
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The fact that the Ek Balam ruler Hun Pik Tok participated in
rituals with the Chichn Itz elite and that an Ek Balamista
presumably resided at this site lays bare to some extent the
political landscape of the Terminal Classic. The information
gained from the inscriptions demonstrates that Ek Balam
claimed sovereignty through its use of an Emblem Glyph and
was integrated at the same time into the political sphere of
Chichn Itz. The contacts, however, seem to have been
restricted to elite-level and/or sporadic interaction: The Late
Classic Sotuta pottery which is now attributed to the influx of
Chichn Itz is almost absent at Ek Balam (Bey et al. 1998:
115116, 118); a similar argument which promotes a smallscale impact of Chichn Itz on Ek Balam has been made for
the Terminal Classic C-shaped structures (Bey, Hanson &
Ringle 1997: 250).
The absence of Chichn Itz at Ek Balam may also
indicate that the external political relations between both of
them which can be extrapolated from the joint ceremonies of
Hun Pik Tok and the Chichn Itz elite were not mutual. Ek
Balam is present in the Chichn Itz area but not vice versa.
A hierarchy is not directly discernible from the inscriptions,
yet it is likely that the Ek Balam elite played its role within
an overarching Chichn Itz rule. The inclusion of Hun Pik
Tok as ruler of Ek Balam into the rulership of Chichn Itz
affirms the collective government or multepal which has
been proposed for Chichn Itz (Schele & Freidel 1990:
Chapter 9; Grube 1994: 335336). Diego de Landas report
reflects the notion of his informants concerning the political
organization at Chichn Itz:
Es pues Chicheniz un asiento muy bueno [], en la cual,
segn dicen los antiguos indios, reinaron tres seores
hermanos los cuales, segn se acuerdan haber odo de sus
pasados, vinieron a aquella tierra de la parte del poniente y
juntaron en estos asientos gran poblacin de pueblos y
gentes, la cual rigieron algunos aos en mucha paz y
justicia. (Chichn Itz, then, is a very fine site, [], in
which, as the elders of the Indians say, three venerable
brethren ruled, who as they remember to have heard from
their ancestors, came to this land from the west, and brought
together in those settlements a great number of commoners
and gentry, whom they governed in great peace and justice
for several years.) (Landa 1959: 112; own translation)
Summary
N
1 2 4
Chichn Itz
1 = Tekay
2 = Sodzil
3 = Tikuch
4 = Tahcabo
5 = Nabalam
6 = Hunabk
7 = Yalcob
6
7
Ek Balam
5
100 km
Fig. 12. The Cupul province in the Late Postclassic and Early
Colonial periods (based on Okoshi & Quezada 1990: 367)
mexicon
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129
Endnotes
1. The Emblem Glyph of Ek Balam was independently identified by Leticia
Vargas de la Pea, Vctor Castillo Borges & Alfonso Lacadena GarcaGallo (1999; cf. Vargas de la Pea & Castillo 1999: 30), Jos Miguel
Garca Campillo (in press) and the authors of this paper. William Ringle
(Ringle et al. 1991: 4) was the first to suggest the presence of an Emblem
Glyph at Stela 1 but failed to provide a proper description.
2. The inscribed lintels of Ikil which lies 25 kilometers west of Chichen
Itza (Wyllys Andrews & Stuart 1975: 70) describe the dedication of
Structure 1. At the very end of the inscription on Lintel 2 (Glyph T) the
glyphs TAL.lo appear as written on the Ek Balam balustrades. We
hesitate to identify these glyphs as Ek Balam Emblem Glyph since the
Ahaw is clearly given in the preceding Glyph S. Secondly, Glyph T
begins with T74 ma (which would lead to matal) and ends with yet
another two eroded and unidentifyable glyphs below the Tal.
3. The NAB-reading of T625 is based on its resemblance to T244 (Stuart
& Houston 1994: 2830) and the phonemic complementation on Lintel
7a (glyph E1) from the Casa de las Monjas, Chichn Itz (T4:625:501:24
na:NAB:ba:li).
4. Christian Prager suggested that T679 i may serve in this inscription as
a deictic particle attached to y-otot that refers directly to the Temple of
the Hieroglyphic Jambs (this house here).
Acknowledgements
The authors want to take the opportunity to express their gratitude to the
Proyecto Arqueolgico Ek Balam, especially to its Director Leticia Vargas
de la Pea, to Vctor Castillo Borges, and to Alfonso Lacadena Gallo-Garca
for placing their paper which was presented at the VIII Encuentro de
Investigadores del Area Maya, Campeche at the disposal of the authors.
Without their approval (Oficio dated 03/08/1999) the present endeavor
would not have been possible. The critical contributions made by Daniel
Graa-Behrens, Nikolai Grube, Alfonso Lacadena, Christian Prager, and
Ute Schren are much appreciated.
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