PARIOnline Publications A Note on the Inscription of Ixtutz Stela 4
MARC ZENDER University of Calgary
Introduction of the Southeast Petén from the point of view of one particular Although Ixtutz was first Ixtutz monarch. discovered by Colonel Modesto Méndez and Eusebio Lara in 1852, Ixtutz Stela 4 once stood in the explorers only published a brief Group A at the base of the and largely inaccurate description platform of Structures 9, 10 and along with two fanciful drawings 11. According to Graham (1980: of its stelae, and so the site soon 181), the stela was carved on its descended again into obscurity and front side only, and this seems to was lost for over a century (Ritter be borne out by its glyphic text, 1853; Blom 1940). The first reliable which shows every sign of being description had to await three complete and makes no mention visits by Merle Greene Robertson of any accompanying figure. The in 1970-1971 and the publication by inscription on the stela’s face is 14 her of a site map and photographs glyph-blocks long—incorporating and rubbings of its monuments some 85 individual signs—and (Robertson 1972). Later years saw arranged in typical double- the publication of a synthesis of column format. On the whole, what was then known of the site the inscription is excellently (Mayer 1976) and the visits of Eric preserved, owing no doubt to Von Euw and Ian Graham in 1972 its having fallen face-down in (Graham 1980: 171-2). Von Euw and antiquity. That said, the lower Graham discovered the inscription half of the monument has been on Ixtutz Stela 4, and they also substantially eroded due to water- published a site map, as well as and root-action, causing the photographs and drawings of all porous limestone to spall, and this the Ixtutz monuments then known has greatly reduced the legibility (Stelae 1-4 and eleven fragments of of the final four glyph-blocks. Panel 1) (Graham 1980: 171-184). Since then some further fragments of Ixtutz Panel 1 have surfaced, Comments on the Inscription and eleven fragments of Ixtutz In Table 1, on the following page, Panel 2 were discovered by Juan I present a full transcription, Pedro Laporte and Carlos Rolando transliteration and translation Torres during their important of the inscription, keyed to regional survey of the Dolores Graham’s (1980: 181) numeration Valley, Guatemala (Laporte and of the text. Some comments Torres 1987: 11-12, fig. 9; see also and clarifications seem in order, Escobedo 1991). In this note, I build however, and so are added here. on these previous studies with a consideration of the inscription There seems little doubt that the on Ixtutz Stela 4. This unique, all- opening date, 12 Ahau 8 Pax (at glyphic monument presents an A1-B1), refers to the ‘lahuntun’- interesting characterization of the ending of 9.17.10.0.0, or November Late Classic political landscape 28th, A.D. 780 (Escobedo 1991; Grube and Schele 1995: 145). As 2002 A Note on the Inscription of Ixtutz Stela we will see below, the following The PARI Journal 4. Originally published in verbs confirm this as a period- 2(4)/3(1):17-27. Electronic edition. Mesoweb: Stela 4. Rubbing by Merle Greene Robertson. www.mesoweb.com/pari/publications/ ending date and one that is also journal/204/Ixtutz. restated as the probable dedication
1 A Note on the Inscription of Ixtutz Stela 4
Table 1: Analysis of the Text case the medial -o- in the verb chok “to throw” (at B2) (Wald 1994). The LOC.: TRANSCRIPTION TRANSLITERATION names and titles of the grammatical A1: XII-’AJAW lajchan-’ajaw subject of both verbs (tz’ap and B1: VIII-TE’-PAX-xi-la waxak-te’-pax-iil chok) follow immediately on the A2: ‘U-tz’a-pa-wa-TUUN-ni ‘u-tz’ap-aw-Ø tuun heels of this second verb, and take B2: ‘U-CHOK-ko-wa-ch’a-ji ‘u-chok-ow-Ø ch’aaj A3: ‘a-ya-YAX-ja-la ‘a[j]-(ya)yax-j-al up the next four glyph-blocks (A3- B3: B’AAK-GOD b’aak-GOD B4): A4: ‘U-CHAN-na-b’o-b’o ‘u-chan b’o[h]b’ B4: K’UH(UL)-lu-V-KAB’-’AJAW-wa k’uhul ho’-kab’ ajaw ’a-ya-YAX-ja-la B’AAK-GOD A5: yi-’ILA-’a-K’UH(UL)-MUT-la-’AJAW y-ila’-Ø k’uhul mutuul ‘ajaw B5: yi-’ILA-’a-VIII-WINIK-ki-’AJAW-TAAK y-ila’-Ø waxak-winik-‘ajaw-taak ’U-CHAN-na-b’o-b’o K’UH(UL)- A6: *IV-HAAB’-*ji-*ya-’u-*ti-*ya-II-’AJAW-?-? *chan-haab’-j-iiy ‘u[h]t-iiy-Ø lu-V-KAB’-’AJAW-wa cha’-‘ajaw *waxak-*k’anasi B6: ‘i-*u-ti-XII-’AJAW-VIII-PAX-xi ‘i-u[h]t-i-Ø lajchan-’ajaw ’a[j]-yax-j-al-b’aak-GOD ’u-chan waxak-[te’]-pax-[iil] b’o[h]b’ k’uhul-ho’-kab’-’ajaw A7: ?-?-?-?-?-’a? ? ag.-GREEN/BLUE-inch.-nom.- B8: *OCH-K’IN-ni-?-?-b’i ‘och-i-k’in? ?-*nib’? BONE-GOD 3sE-MASTER TRANSLITERATION AND FREE TRANSLATION: COYOTE HOLY-FIVE-EARTH- LORD lajchan-’ajaw waxak-te’-pax-iil ‘u-tz’ap-aw-Ø tuun ‘u-chok-ow-Ø ch’aaj ‘a[j]-(ya)yax-j-al b’aak-GOD ‘u-chan b’o[h]b’ “Aj Yaxjal B’aak GOD, the Master k’uhul ho’-kab’ ajaw y-ila’-Ø k’uhul mutuul ‘ajaw y-ila’-Ø waxak-winik-‘ajaw-taak *chan-haab’-j-iiy ‘u[h]t-iiy-Ø cha’-‘ajaw *waxak-*k’anasi ‘i-u[h]t-i-Ø lajchan-’ajaw ? waxak-[te’]-pax-[iil] ? ‘och-i-k’in? ?-*nib’? of Coyote, Holy Lord of Ho’ Kab’ (Ixtutz)” “It is 12 Ahau 8 Pax (9.17.10.0.0, November 28th, A.D. 780). Aj Yaxhal B’aak, the Master of Coyote, the Holy Lord of Ixtutz, drives the stone into the ground and throws incense. The Holy Lord of Mutuul witnesses it. Twenty-eight lords witness it also. It had been four years since 2 Ahau 8 Kayab (9.17.6.0.0, December 23rd, Blocks A3-B3 record the proper A.D. 776) when it came to pass on 12 Ahau 8 Pax at the West ?-Place that ... ? ...” name of the text’s protagonist, which incorporates the aj- agentive date of the monument (at B6b). An ’U-tz’a-pa-wa-TUUN-ni prefix (ag.), the colour yax “green/ interesting feature of this restatement ’u-tz’ap-aw-Ø tuun blue”, the -(a)j inchoative suffix -al is the variable representation of the 3sE-DRIVE.INTO.GROUND-tv.-3sA (inch.) and the nominalizing suffix (nom.), all of which are TE’ numeral classifier for counts STONE followed by the noun b’aak “bone” of months. While the sign appears “he drives the stone into the ground” and the portrait glyph of a poorly- in the first occurrence of the date known deity, which I have simply (at B1), it does not reappear in that Note that while the direct object, tuun “stone,” is both explicitly mentioned transcribed as GOD. Taken as a date’s restatement (at B6b). By all whole, then, the sense of the full accounts, however, the numerical and referenced by the -Ø third-person singular absolutive pronoun (3sA), name is “He, Bone-Becoming- classifier is an obligatory feature of Green/Blue GOD”.1 While the language, and so it seems most the grammatical subject is only referenced via the ’u- third-person somewhat uncanny, the name likely that spatial considerations recalls similar glyphic epithets were the motivating factor behind its singular ergative prefix (3sE). This is in fact a typical pattern of verbal for Chaahk, the Classic rain deity, variable presence in the script. That underscoring the supernatural is, while there was plenty of room couplets in the script, and fuller mention of the grammatical subject is nature of the entity in question. to include the TE’ sign in block B1— deferred until after the next transitive Because the final glyph of his name where ‘8 Pax’ fills an entire glyph- verb: remains undeciphered, however, I block—there is far less room at B6b, will hereafter refer to him simply as 2 where essentially the same notation is ’U-CHOK-ko-wa-ch’a-ji Aj Yaxjal B’aak. squeezed into only one quarter of the ’u-chok-ow-Ø ch’aaj space. In such instances, we have the 3sE-THROW-tv.-3sA INCENSE To move on to Aj Yaxjal B’aak’s testimony of the surviving languages “he throws incense” titles, block A4 provides the that -te’ would have been pronounced well-known and much-discussed in the reading of the passage, Here the active transitive declarative “captor” compound. We now regardless of whether it was recorded suffix (tv.)—canonically of the form know that the possessed noun or not (Thompson 1950: 55-57; Macri cha’an (here seen in its somewhat -V1w which, as we have seen, was 2000: 13-15). The two main verbs of expressed as -aw in the inflection later form chan) meant “master” the monument follow next (at A2-B2) of the tz’ap verb above (at A2)—is or “guardian”, and that it was and are very typical active transitive now expressed as -ow, reflecting the often employed as a lordly title, declarative constructions (see Wald important consideration that the making specific reference to 1994). The first can be analyzed as vowel of this suffix always echoes individuals captured on the field follows: the vowel of the verb-root, in this of battle (Alfonso Lacadena,
2 A Note on the Inscription of Ixtutz Stela 4 personal communication 2000). Guenter, personal communication Aguateca.7 Indeed, this passage is Here, Aj Yaxjal B’aak takes the 2001). Unfortunately, the text very much akin to sublord-overlord title “Master of B’ohb’,” and breaks off almost immediately after texts known from the Petexbatun thereby claims to have captured an this passage, and it is therefore region proper, especially those from individual of unknown affiliation impossible to confirm whether its Dos Pilas itself (e.g. DPL Panel 19: who was probably named B’ohb’ or mention of the same date is truly F-G in Houston 1993: 115). Like “coyote.”3 Interestingly, this portion significant. those texts, an important foreign of Aj Yaxjal B’aak’s title-string also lord is present at the Ixtutz period- appears on one of the fragments The next passage (A5-B5) contains ending events, and he brings with of Ixtutz Panel 1 (Graham 1980: a very interesting verbal couplet. him twenty-eight other prominent 183, fragment XI: 1-2), which was Typically involving transitive nobles. Whether these conspicuous found by Merle Greene Robertson roots, these ‘secondary verbs’ nobles are from the foreign lord’s amidst the rubble on the south side are always of dependant status, polity, from territories surrounding of Structure 1 (Robertson 1972: referring back to the action of a Ixtutz, or lords allied to both 94). This conspicuous mention previous verb. As Barbara MacLeod polities is unfortunately unsaid, of Aj Yaxjal B’aak, then, may (personal communication 2001) has though the latter possibility seems suggest that he was responsible demonstrated, such constructions the most likely. Most interesting, for commissioning much of the are most often employed in Mayan however, is the consideration surviving monumental art of the monumental rhetoric to introduce that the Mutuul king is here main plaza.4 new agents, individuals who are unnamed, being referred to only thereby understood to have been by his emblematic title. This may At B4, of course, is the so-called involved in “overseeing”, in some well have something to do with Ixtutz ‘emblem glyph’ (Escobedo manner, the events of the previous the political fragmentation of the 1991; Stone 1995: 179, figs. 7-28, clause: Petexbatun region at this time, f-h). Syntactically, this is really only with no less than four kings from a title identifying Aj Yaxjal B’aak yi-’ILA-’a-K’UH(UL)-MUT-la- four different sites laying claim as the reigning lord of his city, ’AJAW yi-’ILA-’a-VIII-XX-ki- to the Mutuul emblem glyph and which seems to have been named ’AJAW-TAAK the legacy of Dos Pilas (Martin ho’-kab’ in ancient times.5 To date, y-ila’-Ø k’uhul mutuul ’ajaw y-ila’-Ø and Grube 2000: 64-5). Perhaps the unfortunately, only five certain waxak-winik-’ajaw-taak6 Ixtutz king considered it unwise examples of this rare ‘emblem 3sE-SEE-3sA HOLY-MUTUUL- to tip his hand by naming any one glyph’ are known. Three are from LORD 3plE-SEE-3sA of the competing Mutuul kings Ixtutz itself (IXZ St.4: B4, IXZ Panel TWENTY=EIGHT-LORD-pl outright. 1: frag. II: 3 and IXZ Panel 2: frag. “The Holy Lord of Mutuul witnesses 5: 2), all clearly couched in local it. The twenty-eight lords witness it Sadly, four badly eroded glyph- references, while two others appear [also].” blocks follow. While both verb and in the Late Classic painted texts of subject (at A7-B7) are too damaged Naj Tunich, a large cave complex This passage is a fairly clear to be confidently read, the surviving located just 35 kilometers southeast acknowledgement of the political portions of the distance number of the city (Stone 1995: 222, subordination of Ixtutz to a higher- (I, II, III, or IV-HAAB’ at A6a) and drawings 68-69). It is admittedly order center named Mutuul. calendar round (II-‘AJAW III or VIII- odd that no clear mention of Ixtutz This is without doubt one of the ? at A6b) allow us to confidently is made in any of the surviving Petexbatun hegemons, and most reconstruct the calendric portion of inscriptions from Ixkun and Sacul, likely either Seibal/La Amelia or the passage as follows: neighbouring sites just 10 and 20 kilometers away, respectively. That said, many of the inscriptions of these sites are badly eroded, and so may well have once made mention of Ixtutz. Indeed, Ixkun St. 12 also makes reference to the 9.17.10.0.0 ‘lahuntun’-ending, and this may suggest some connection between the two closely spaced sites (Grube and Schele 1995: 145; Stanley Map Courtesy of Mesoweb.
3 A Note on the Inscription of Ixtutz Stela 4
no doubt exacerbated by the fall of the Petexbatun 9.17.10.0.0 12 Ahau 8 Pax (Nov. 28, A.D. 780) hegemony of Dos Pilas less than two decades earlier - *4.0.0 [DN] (Martin and Grube 2000: 63-7). In seeming defiance of 9.17. 6.0.0 2 Ahau 8 *Kayab (Dec. 23, A.D. 776) the increasingly volatile political climate, Aj Yaxjal B’aak celebrated the period-ending at his own center of Ixtutz, Thus, the text seems to refer back to the events of a date in the Great Plaza of Group A, where he erected his stela some four years prior to the period-ending discussed and scattered incense before the watchful eyes of a new above. Without mentioning the events or actors of that overlord whose name he did not even deign to record. earlier date, the text then returns to the 9.17.10.0.0 12 By all accounts, the foreigner was one of a number of Ahau 8 Pax opening date. Given the lack of information petty kings striving for the rapidly diminishing glory of regarding the 9.17.6.0.0 2 Ahau 8 Kayab date, we can the crown of the Petexbatun. probably assume that it referred in some manner to Aj Yaxjal B’aak, and that he was in power at this time.8 Twenty-eight other lords—both local and foreign to the As regards the latter date, it is most likely to have been Dolores Valley—attended the festivities and watched the actual dedication date of the stela in question, and I the sacred calendar rites. Some of them were almost would hazard a guess that the missing glyphs (A7-B7) certainly the heads of local city-states like Ixkun and provided some further information about the location and Sacul, who probably watched Aj Yaxjal B’aak of Ixtutz purpose of the dedicatory rites conducted on that day.9 with envious eyes. Why had the new Petexbatun ruler chosen to attend the festivities at Ixtutz and not at their Concluding Remarks centers? What was Aj Yaxjal B’aak planning? Other visitors were almost certainly allies of the Ixtutz king, To the extent that we can rely on the testimony of local who watched the Mutuul lord, his Petexbatun retinue records, Aj Yaxjal B’aak seems to have been a ruler of and the lords of the local city-states warily. How many some prominence. Most of the surviving texts make men had each of these visiting lords brought? Were all of reference to his success in warfare, and there can be little them present and accounted for? doubt that he commissioned much of the monumental art of the Group A Plaza. He seems in any event to have Keeping watch on the participants and all of their erected Stela 4 alongside a number of other carved machinations and intrigues was the seemingly mute and uncarved monuments at the very end of the rainy slab of stone now known as Ixtutz Stela 4. Little did any season in A.D. 780. Comparison with the royal histories of the guests suspect that it would still bear witness to of other centers demonstrates that this was a time of the political climate of the Late Classic Southeast Petén great regional political instability (Escobedo 1991), some twelve hundred years later.
THE RUINS OF IXTUTZ
Group A, Ixtutz. After Graham (CMHI 2:173) and Robertson (1972).
4 A Note on the Inscription of Ixtutz Stela 4
Transliteration and free translation: “It is 12 Ahau 8 Pax (9.17.10.0.0, Graham, Ian November 28th, A.D. 780). Aj Yaxjal 1980 Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscrip- lajchan-’ajaw waxak-te’-pax-iil ’u-tz’ap- B’aak, the Master of Coyote, the tions, Volume 2, Part 3: Ixkun, Ucanal, aw-Ø tuun ’u-chok-ow-Ø ch’aaj ’a[j]- Holy Lord of Ixtutz, drives the stone Ixtutz, Naranjo. Peabody Museum of yax-j-al b’aak-GOD ’u-chan b’o[h] into the ground and throws incense. Archaeology and Ethnology, Har- b’ k’uhul ho’-kab’ ’ajaw y-ila’ k’uhul The Holy Lord of Mutuul witnesses vard University, Cambridge, Mas- mutuul ’ajaw y-ila’ waxak-winik it. Twenty-eight lords witness it also. sachusetts. ’ajaw-taak chan-haab’-j-iiy ‘u[h]t-iiy-Ø It had been four years since 2 Ahau cha’ ’ajaw waxak-k’anasi ‘i-u[h]t-i-Ø 8 Kayab (9.17.6.0.0, December 23rd, Grube, Nikolai and Linda Schele lajchan-’ajaw waxak-te’-pax-iil ? och-i- A.D. 776) when it came to pass on 12 1995 The Last Two Hundred Years of k’in?-?-nib’? Classic Maya History: Transmission, Ahau 8 Pax at the West ?-Place that Termination, Transformation. In ... ? ... “ Notebook for the XIXth Annual Maya Hieroglyphic Forum at Texas, pp. 87- Acknowledgments 210. Maya Workshop Foundation, University of Texas, Austin. I would like to acknowledge the support of an Izaak Walton Killam Hofling, Charles A. and Félix Fernando Memorial Scholarship for the Tesucún 2001-2002 academic year, without 1997 Itzaj Maya-Spanish-English Diction- which this note could not have been ary. The University of Utah Press, written. I would also like to thank Salt Lake City, Utah. Ian Graham, who kindly allowed me to reproduce his excellent line Houston, Stephen D. drawing of Ixtutz Stela 4 here. 1993 Hieroglyphs and History at Dos Pilas: This paper benefited enormously Dynastic Politics of the Classic Maya. Uni- from the extensive and insightful versity of Texas Press, Austin. comments of Stanley Guenter, Alfonso Lacadena, Joel Skidmore Kaufman, Terrence S. and William M. and David Stuart. In particular, Norman Joel Skidmore has my eternal 1984 An Outline of Proto-Cholan Pho- gratitude for agreeing to prepare, nology, Morphology and Vocabulary. on short notice, the fine map and In Phoneticism in Maya Hieroglyphic accompanying illustrations. Writing, ed. by J. S. Justeson and L. Campbell, pp. 77-166. Institute for Mesoamerican Studies Publication References no. 9. State University of New York, Albany. Barrera Vásquez, Alfredo, et al. 1980 Diccionario Maya Cordemex. Edi- Laporte, Juan Pedro and Carlos Rolando ciones Cordemex, Mérida, Mexico. Torres 1987 Los señorios del sureste de Petén. Blom, Franz Mayab 3(1): 7-23. Sociedad Española 1940 Coronel Modesto Méndez: Explo- de Estudios Mayas, Madrid, Spain. rador del Petén, Guatemala, 1848 y 1852. Anales de la Sociedad de Geografía Macri, Martha J. e Historia de Guatemala 16(3): 167- 2000 Numeral Classifiers and Counted 179. Nouns in the Classic Maya Inscrip- tions. Written Language and Literacy Chase, Arlen F. and Diane Z. Chase 3(1): 13-36. 1983 Intensive Gardening Among the Late Classic Maya: A Possible Exam- Martin, Simon and Nikolai Grube ple at Ixtutz, Guatemala. Expedition 2000 Chronicle of the Maya Kings and 25(3): 2-11. Queens: Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya. Thames and Hud- Escobedo, Hector L. son, London. 1991 Epigrafía e Historia Política de los Sitios del Noroeste de las Montañas Mayer, Karl-Herbert Mayas Durante el Clásico Tardio. Un- 1976 Die Maya-Ruinen von Ixtutz, Gua- Stela 4. Drawing by Ian Graham, published Licenciatura Thesis, Uni- temala. Ethnologia Americana 13(3/4): Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic versidad de San Carlos de Guate- 727-9. Düsseldorf, Germany. Inscriptions (Graham 1980:181). mala.
5 A Note on the Inscription of Ixtutz Stela 4
Pérez Martínez, Vitalino, Federico Endnotes the base of Stela 3, suggesting that they
García, Felipe Martínez and Jeremi- 1 were all put up within a few years of as López. It is possible that the ya- prefix, which one another, and probably all during 1996 Diccionario Ch’orti’, Jocotán, I have taken as a redundant phonetic the reign of Aj Yaxjal B’aak. As David Chiquimula. Proyecto Lingüístico complement to YAX “green/blue,” Stuart (personal communication 2001) Francisco Marroquín, La Antigua, might be morphologically productive, reminds me, however, the name of Guatemala. cueing yayax, a partially reduplicated quite a different king appears on Ixtutz form meaning “rather green/blue.” Panel 2 (Laporte and Torres 1987: fig. Proskouriakoff, Tatiana Reduplication of syllable onsets marks the 9) and we must therefore be cautious 1950 A Study of Classic Maya Sculpture. augmentative in many Lowland Mayan in ascribing to Aj Yaxjal B’aak all of the Carnegie Institution of Washington languages. If this is the correct analysis, credit for Ixtutz Group A. Publication 593, Washington, D.C. the individual’s name may actually have been Aj Yayaxjal B’aak GOD or “He, 5 Literally, ho’-kab’ translates as “five- Ritter, Carl Bone-Becoming-Rather-Green/Blue earth/land” or “five milpas” (cf, 1853 “Über neue Entdeckungen und GOD.” I mention this because it is a valid Chontal kab’ “tierra”, Ch’olti’
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