Society for American Archaeology

A Phonetic Glyph for Zenith: Reply to Closs

Author(s): Victoria R. Bricker
Source: American Antiquity, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Apr., 1988), pp. 394-400
Published by: Society for American Archaeology
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/281028 .
Accessed: 10/06/2014 15:46

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Society for American Archaeology is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
American Antiquity.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 193.104.110.128 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 15:46:53 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 A PHONETIC GLYPH FOR ZENITH: REPLY TO CLOSS

Victoria R. Bricker

The recently discovered Tomb 12 at Rio Azul contains some evidence in support of my "zenith" reading for
one of the collocations Closs reads as xaman, "north. " A positionally literal reading of the astronomical glyphs
associated with the directional collocations on the walls of that tomb is consistent with a directional system based
on zenith and nadir, but not one based on north and south. Furthermore, Closs's reading does not account for
the demonstrable na reading for the prefix in that collocation. On the other hand, his evidence for reading the
second collocation as xaman is compelling, and the polyvalency of T566 seems well established.

The April 1986 issue of National Geographic contains some evidence in support of my "zenith"
reading for one of the collocations Closs reads as xaman, "north." The recently discovered Tomb
12 at Rio Azul has directional collocations painted on its four walls (see Figure 1). The "east"
collocation appears on the east wall; the "west" collocation appears on the west wall; and the
directional collocations at issue appear on the north and south walls. Here, seemingly, is prima
facie evidence that the Maya directional glyphs referred to east-west-north-south, rather than to
east-zenith-west-nadir (Adams and Mobley 1986:442).
But is it? The directional glyphs are not alone, but are associated with four other glyphs of (broadly)
astronomical significance. Above each directional collocation is another glyph with a "ben-ich"
superfix containing signs for the sun or day (kin), the night (akbal), the Moon, and Venus (Graham
and Mobley 1986:456). The kin and akbal glyphs are infixed in the "ben-ich" superfixes above the
directional collocations on the east and west walls, respectively (Figure la, c). The Moon glyph is
infixed in the "ben-ich" superfix above the directional collocation on the north wall (Figure lb).
And the glyph for Venus is infixed in the "ben-ich" superfix above the directional collocation on
the south wall (Figure I d). The association of the directional and astronomical glyphs may be
interpreted in two ways: (a) as metaphorical, or representing the "mythical cosmic association [of
each direction] with, respectively, the sun, Venus, darkness, and the moon" (Adams and Mobley
1986:442), or (b) as astronomically, or positionally, literal.
There is some support for the idea that a metaphorical interpretation is correct. Two of the pairs
of "astronomical" glyphs associated with opposite directions at Rio Azul are among the set of
"paired opposites" in the Tablet of 96 glyphs at Palenque (i.e., kin/akbal, Venus/Moon) as discussed
by Riese (1984:283-284), and the possible metaphorical relevance of the oppositions recorded on
that tablet for the Rio Azul tomb has been discussed by Carlson (1986). On the other hand, there
is obvious support for the idea that an astronomically (or positionally) literal interpretation is correct:
(a) the general physical structure of the tomb inscription, with each directional glyph on a separate
wall; (b) the specific arrangement (east wall with "east" glyph and kin; west wall with "west" glyph
and akbal); (c) the positionally literal representation of near conjunctions of Venus and the Moon
in the Dresden Codex, where the signs for those planets appear next to each other in sky bands
(Bricker and Bricker 1986:31). The glyphs on the walls of Tomb 12 at Rio Azul very well could be
a graphic representation of Venus and the Moon in opposition, above and below the horizon, during
the night when the occupant of the tomb (Ruler 6 Sky) was buried. The tomb contains an inscription
giving the date of the occupant's burial as the Calendar Round, 8 Ben 16 Kayab. According to
Adams (Adams and Mobley 1986:443), the style of the painting in Tomb 12 suggests either 31
March A.D. 398, 18 March A.D. 450, or 6 March A.D. 502 as possible dates for the burial of Ruler

Victoria R. Bricker, Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118

AmericanAntiquity,53(2), 1988, pp. 394-400.

Copyright? 1988 by the Society for AmericanArchaeology

394

This content downloaded from 193.104.110.128 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 15:46:53 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 COMMENTS 395

a c

d
Figure 1. Directional glyphs from the four walls of Tomb 12, Rio Azul, Peten, Guatemala. (a) west; (b) north;
(c) east; (d) south (after a drawing by David Stuart; courtesy of the Rio Azul Project).

6 Sky of Rio Azul (I have used here the 584,283 correlation constant favored by Thompson [1960:
305] because it best agrees with ethnohistorical sources).
Testing hypotheses based on a metaphorical interpretation is difficult, but testing hypotheses
based on an astronomically literal interpretation is simple and clear-cut. Therefore, the assumption
is made that the Moon and Venus glyphs refer to the real heavenly bodies and that the inscription
is making some statement about the directional location of those bodies on the date given elsewhere
in the tomb inscription. Let us consider, first, the second of the three possible dates, which Graham
and Mobley (1986:456) regard as the most likely date for the tomb.
On the night of 18 March A.D. 450, Venus was an evening star, setting after 9:00 P.M., about
three hours after sunset (Table la, c). The Moon rose in the east shortly before 9:00 P.M., and the
two planets were both visible, at opposite ends of the sky, for about seventeen minutes (Table lb,
c). The Moon continued to rise during the night, arriving at its highest point, 57.19? above the
horizon, at 2:45 A.M.; this also was the moment when Venus reached its lowest point below the
horizon, - 54.49? (Table Id). A few hours later, at 5:19 A.M., the two planets reached their greatest

This content downloaded from 193.104.110.128 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 15:46:53 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
396 AMERICANANTIQUITY [Vol. 53, No. 2, 1988]

Table 1. Positions of Venus, the Moon, and the Sun on the

Night of March 18-19, A.D. 450 (Gregorian).

Ecliptic
Longitude Latitude Azimuth Altitude

(a) 6:04 P.M. Venus 42.01? 2.16? 277.83? 42.90?

Sunset Moon 216.99? -.10? 94.15? -38.26?
Sun 358.34? .00? 269.35? -.14?
(b) 8.53 P.M. Venus 42.13? 2.17? 287.39? 3.64?
Moonrise Moon 218.37? .02? 105.16? .09?
Sun 358.45? .00? 284.71? -40.01?
(c) 9:10 P.M. Venus 42.15? 2.17? 288.65? -.20?
Venus-set Moon 218.52? .04? 106.48? 3.86?
Sun 358.46? .00? 287.00? -43.90?
(d) 2:45 A.M. Venus 42.40? 2.18? 359.68? -54.49?
Zenith-nadir Moon 221.26? .29? 180.25? 57.19?
Sun 358.69? .00? 70.86? -46.89?
(e) 5:19 A.M. Venus 42.52? 2.19? 48.67? -38.20?
Opposition Moon 222.52? .40? 230.40? 40.42?
Sun 358.80? .00? 86.99? -10.88?
(f) 6:05 A.M. Venus 42.55? 2.19? 56.64? -29.46?
Sunrise Moon 222.90? .44? 238.25? 31.73?
Sun 358.83? .00? 90.52? .07?
(g) 8:23 A.M. Venus 42.66? 2.20? 71.28? .18?
Venus-rise Moon 224.03? .54? 252.66? 2.55?
Sun 358.92? .00? 102.41? 32.71?
(h) 8:35 A.M. Venus 42.67? 2.20? 72.17? 2.90?
Moonset Moon 224.13? .55? 253.54? -.11?
Sun 358.93? .00? 103.76? 35.49?
Note: Maya day 9.0.14.8.13 8 Ben 16 Kayab, at Rio Azul (17?45'N latitude,
89?0'W longitude). Astronomical data obtained from Kluepfel (1980).

distance from each other, or opposition (Table le). The Moon set at about 8:30 A.M., 21/2hours
after sunrise (Table If, h). Although Venus had risen about ten minutes before moonset, neither
planet would have been visible during the brief time they were both above the horizon (Table Ig,
h).
The glyph for the Moon appears on the north wall of Tomb 12 at Rio Azul, but at no time during
the night was the Moon in the northern part of the sky. Similarly, the glyph for Venus appears on
the south wall of the tomb, but Venus was not visible in the southern part of the sky at any time
during the night. Although the inhabitants of Rio Azul could not have known that Venus would
reach its "nadir" at precisely the same moment when the Moon arrived at its "zenith," they certainly
would have considered Venus to be passing through the underworld from west to east at the same
time that the Moon was moving from east to west over their heads. And though they had no way
of knowing the precise moment when the two planets would be exactly 180? apart, or in opposition,
they were quite capable of predicting that it would happen sometime during that night. Therefore,
the fact that the directional glyphs in question are located on the geographically north and south
walls of the tomb is not conclusive, because the other parts of the inscription allow an alternative
interpretation, namely zenith and nadir, and this alternative hypothesis fits very well with the
astronomical facts of the case.
On the latest of the three possible dates for Tomb 12 at Rio Azul, 6 March A.D. 502, the Moon
and Venus were not visible simultaneously at any time during the night (Table 2). At 8:42 P.M.,the
Moon was less than five degrees from true zenith, and Venus came within four degrees of true nadir
approximately two hours later (Table 2b, c). At no time during the night was the Moon in the

This content downloaded from 193.104.110.128 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 15:46:53 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 COMMENTS 397

Table 2. Positions of Venus, the Moon, and the Sun on the

Night of March6-7, A.D. 502 (Gregorian).

Ecliptic
Longitude Latitude Azimuth Altitude
(a) 6:03 P.M. Venus 321.19? -1.14? 260.64? -24.95?
Sunset Moon 112.28? .37? 76.55? 53.71?
Sun 345.96? .00? 264.27? -.41?
(b) 8:42 P.M. Venus 321.33? -1.12? 270.31? -62.61?
Moon-zenith Moon 113.60? .25? 359.33? 85.95?
Sun 346.07? .00? 277.06? -38.19?
(c) 10:36 P.M. Venus 321.43? -1.12? 358.81? -87.78?
Venus-nadir Moon 114.55? .17? 282.87? 63.73?
Sun 346.15? .00? 295.68? -64.33?
(d) 3:23 A.M. Venus 321.67? -1.13? 100.01? -21.72?
Moonset Moon 116.93? -.05? 292.02? -.09?
Sun 346.34? .00? 81.61? -40.92?
(e) 4:57 A.M. Venus 321.75? -1.13? 106.25? .07?
Venus-rise Moon 117.71? -.12? 300.52? -19.65?
Sun 346.41? .00? 89.81? -18.60?
(f) 6:16 A.M. Venus 321.82? -1.13? 113.31? 17.77?
Sunrise Moon 118.37? -.18? 311.77? -34.53?
Sun 346.46? .00? 95.72? .19?
Note: Maya day 9.3.7.3.13 8 Ben 16 Kayab,at Rio Azul (17?45'Nlatitude,
89?0'Wlongitude).Astronomicaldata obtainedfrom Kluepfel(1980).

northern part of the sky or Venus in the south (Table 2). The positions of the two planets on this
date also support a directional system based on zenith and nadir.
The positions of the Moon and Venus on the earliest of the three dates, 31 March A.D. 398,
support neither directional system, and for that reason it should not be considered further as a
possible date for the burial of Ruler 6 Sky of Rio Azul. The Moon and Venus both were morning

Table 3. Positions of Venus, the Moon, and the Sun on the

Night of March31-April 1, A.D. 398 (Gregorian).

Ecliptic
Longitude Latitude Azimuth Altitude
(a) 6:06 P.M. Venus 344.71? -1.50? 270.21? -25.83?
Sunset Moon 324.90? .15? 269.13? -45.69?
Sun 10.62? .00? 274.52? -.21?
(b) 3:45 A.M. Venus 345.19? -1.51? 93.84? -12.17?
Moonrise Moon 330.21? -.34? 102.46? .18?
Sun 11.01? .00? 73.79? -30.17?
(c) 4:37 A.M. Venus 345.24? -1.51? 97.67? .15?
Venus-rise Moon 330.70? -.38? 106.50? 11.81?
Sun 11.05? .00? 79.07? -18.13?
(d) 5:54 A.M. Venus 345.30? -1.51? 104.12? 18.15?
Sunrise Moon 331.41? -.44? 114.30? 28.50?
Sun 11.10? .00? 85.36? .05?
Note: Maya day 8.18.1. 13.13. 8 Ben 16 Kayab, at Rio Azul (1 7?45'N latitude,
8900'Wlongitude).Astronomicaldata obtained from Kluepfel(1980).

This content downloaded from 193.104.110.128 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 15:46:53 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 398 AMERICANANTIQUITY [Vol. 53, No. 2, 1988]

a b

c a I-Jna na

c d
Figure 2. Zenith collocations. Sources: (a) Palenque, Sun, A15 (after Maudslay [1889-1902:IV:Plate 89]);
(b) Dresden 30b (after Villacorta C. et al. [1976:681); (c) Madrid 70a (after Villacorta C. et al. [1976:364]);
(d) Madrid 46a (after Villacorta C. et al. [1976:316]).

stars on that date, rising about an hour apart in the predawn sky, and they both were visible in the
east for an hour before sunrise (Table 3). Clearly, neither planet reached its zenith that night, nor
were they at any time visible in the northern or southern parts of the sky. Therefore, the glyphs on
the walls of the tomb cannot possibly refer to the positions of the two planets on the night of 31
March A.D. 398.
The directional collocation on the north wall of the tomb (Figure lb) is a variant of the glyph
shown in Figure 2a (the codical variant appears in Figure 2b). The prefix is not, as I once thought,
a variant of the pronominal prefix u- (Bricker 1983:350). It is, rather, a variant of T23 (na). The
substitution pattern first was recognized by Mathews in 1978 (Lounsbury 1984:183-184) and has
been amply documented by others since then (e.g., MacLeod 1984:249-250; Smith-Stark 1984; see
Figure 3). I already have pointed out that the codical allograph of the main sign is complemented
occasionally by Landa's grapheme for "ca" and T23 (na) (Bricker 1983:351 and Figure 2c), which
suggests that it can be read as caan, "sky, heaven." Yucatecan caan is cognate with Cholan chan,
and Barbara MacLeod (personal communication 1983) has pointed out to me that na chan can be
translated as "first heaven" or "zenith" in Chol and Chontal. Therefore, I continue to believe that
this collocation originally referred to zenith instead of north and that the apparent counter-example
in the Madrid Codex recently cited by Lounsbury (1984:Figure lOf) represents the use of phonetic
complements to specify a Yucatecan reading for a collocation borrowed from the Cholan region to
the south (Figure 2d; the xaman interpretation does not account for the formal resemblance between
the prefix and T4/48 [na]).
T566, the main sign of the second collocation Closs reads as xaman, "north," clearly is polyvalent.
Houston (1984) has demonstrated that it substitutes for the "sky" glyph, T561, which means that
it also can be read as chan or caan but Closs has provided compelling evidence that it has the value
man in collocations with T114 (xa) and T23 (na). I accept Closs's xaman "north" reading for
directional collocations based on T566, but not for those based on T1008 and T1016c. The in-
scription in Tomb 12 at Rio Azul supports a Cholan na-chan "zenith" reading for directional
collocations based on those glyphs.

This content downloaded from 193.104.110.128 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 15:46:53 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 COMMENTS 399

~-o I na na
jC

a b

wa
na
wa na 0 ah

c d

na na

ah be ah b
be

e f

na

gU ~na
A~~

9 h
Figure 3. Alternative representations of na. Sources: (a) Palenque, Foliated Cross, M7 (after Maudslay [1889-
1902:IV:Plate 821); (b) Palenque, Sun, 09 (after Maudslay [1889-1902:IV:Plate 89]); (c) Piedras Negras 3, D2
(after Marcus [1976:Figure 121); (d) Palenque, Temple 18, stucco (after Schele and Mathews [1979:Number
4461); (e) Palenque, 96 glyphs, J6 (after Palacios [1937:Figure 161); (f) Palenque, Temple 18, stucco (after Schele
and Mathews 11979:Number 5141); (g) Copan J, B7 (after Maudslay [1889-1902:I:Plate 72]); (h) Sacul 1, Cl
(from a field sketch by Ian Graham).

This content downloaded from 193.104.110.128 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 15:46:53 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
400 AMERICANANTIQUITY [Vol. 53, No. 2, 1988

REFERENCES CITED

Adams, R. E. W., and G. F. Mobley

1986 Rio Azul: Lost City of the Maya. National Geographic 169:420-451.
Bricker, V. R.
1983 Directional Glyphs in Maya Inscriptions and Codices. American Antiquity 48:347-353.
Bricker, V. R., and H. M. Bricker
1986 Archaeoastronomical Implications of an Agricultural Almanac in the Dresden Codex. Mexicon 8:29-
35.
Carlson, J.
1986 In the World of the Sun and the Four Quarters: Maya Cosmology-Tomb 12, Rio Azul. Paper presented
at the Sexta Mesa Redonda de Palenque, Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico.
Graham, I., and G. F. Mobley
1986 Looters Rob Graves and History. National Geographic 169:452-461.
Houston, S. D.
1984 An Example of Homophony in Maya Script. American Antiquity 49:790-805.
Kluepfel, C.
1980 Planets. (An astronomical software package available from the author.)
Lounsbury, F. G.
1984 Glyphic Substitutions: Homophonic and Synonymic. In Phoneticism in Mayan Hieroglyphic Writing,
edited by J. S. Justeson and L. Campbell, pp. 167-184. Publication 9. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies,
State University of New York, Albany.
MacLeod. B.
1984 Cholan and Yucatecan Verb Morphology and Glyphic Verbal Affixes in the Inscriptions. In Phoneticism
in iMayan Hieroglyphic Writing, edited by J. S. Justeson and L. Campbell, pp. 233-262. Publication 9.
Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, State University of New York, Albany.
Marcus, J.
1976 The Origins of Mesoamerican Writing. 4nnual Review of Anthropology 5:35-67.
Maudslay, A. P.
1889-1902 Biologia Centrali-4Americana:.Archaeology. 5 vols. Porter and Dalau, London.
Palacios, E. J.
1937 Mas gemas del arte maya en Palenque. Anales del Museo Nacional de Arqueologla, Historia y Eth-
nografiia. Epoca 5, vol. II, pp. 193-225. Mexico, D.F.
Riese, B.
1984 Hel Hieroglyphs. In Phoneticism in Mayan Hieroglyphic Writing, edited by J. S. Justeson and L.
Campbell, pp. 263-286. Publication 9. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, State University of New York,
Albany.
Schele, L., and P. Mathews
1979 The Bodega of Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.
Smith-Stark, T. C.
1984 Notes on the Number "One" in Mayan Hieroglyphic Writing. Paper presented at the Colloquium on
the Language of Writing in the Mayan Region, University of Chicago.
Thompson, J. E. S.
1960 Maya Hieroglyphic Writing. ,4n Introduction. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Villacorta C., J. Antonio, and C. A. Villacorta
1976 Codices mayas. Tipografia Nacional, Guatemala.

This content downloaded from 193.104.110.128 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 15:46:53 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions