Altun Ha and the Water Scroll Emblem Glyph
Ancient Mesoamerica, 29 (2018), 113–135 Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2018 doi:10.1017/S0956536117000256 KINGS OF THE EAST: ALTUN HA AND THE WATER SCROLL EMBLEM GLYPH Christophe Helmke,a Stanley P. Guenter,b and Phillip J. Wanyerkac aInstitute of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, Karen Blixens Plads 8, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark bFoundation for Archaeological Research and Environmental Studies, 164 W 400 N, Rupert, Idaho 83350 cDepartment of Criminology, Anthropology, and Sociology, Cleveland State University, 2121 Euclid Ave. RT 932, Cleveland, Ohio 44115 ABSTRACT The importance of emblem glyphs to Maya studies has long been recognized. Among these are emblems that have yet to be conclusively matched to archaeological sites. The Water Scroll emblem glyph is one such example, although it appears numerous times in the Classic Maya written corpus between the sixth and the eighth centuries. These many references are found at a variety of sites across the lowlands, attesting to the importance of this ancient kingdom and the kings who carried this title. In the present paper, we review the epigraphic and archaeological evidence and propose that this may be the royal title of the kings who reigned from Altun Ha, in the east central Maya lowlands, in what is now Belize. In so doing, we also begin to reconstruct the dynastic history of the Water Scroll kings, from the vantage of both local and foreign sources. INTRODUCTION transport and trade inland to the central lowlands. This connection is made clear in the realm of ceramics, for many of the Late In 1965, while excavating at the northern Belizean site of Altun Ha, Classic forms and decorative modes found at Altun Ha are identical David M.
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