Creation, Cosmos, and the Imagery of Palenque and Copan Linda Schele and Khristaan D. Villela University of Texas, Austin At the 1992 Texas Meetings, Schele published in Schele (1992) and Freidel, (1992) presented a new interpretation of the Schele, and Parker (1993), we discuss here creation myth and the imagery associated only the main features of the story and its with it, as they are recorded in Classic Period association to astronomical phenomena. inscriptions. There is continuing debate The story of creation on Quirigua about some of the details in this reconstruc- Stela C (fig. 1) gives us the most detailed tion, but various researchers (Schele, Grube, information about the first moment. The text Nahm, R. Johnson, and Quenon) have tested describes the first event as the “appearance some of its patterns and found them to be or manifestation of an image” (halhi productive. This new reconstruction resulted k’ohba). Here the image that appeared was from the decipherment of texts at Quirigua, of three stone-settings (u tz’apwa tun), Palenque, and elsewhere, relating the events described as a jaguar throne stone placed by of creation and associating them with the Paddler Gods at a place called Na-Ho- various constellations, the Milky Way, and Chan, ‘House (or First or Female) Five- their movement through the sky. Since a Sky’; a snake throne stone set up by an detailed discussion of the creation story is unknown god at Kab-Kah,1 ‘Earth-town’; Fig. 1. The Creation Passage from Quirigua Stela C. 1 a. A council of gods aiding in the setting of the jaguar throne. Here the main actor is God L, while the Jaguar Paddler, who is named in the Quirigua text, sits at the head of the upper row of gods. b. A god being born at Na-Ho-Chan-Witz-Xaman, “First-Five-Sky-Mountain-North.” The twisted cords with the snake heads are the Classic-Period version of the kuxan-sum, the living cords,” that form the sky umbilicus. Fig. 2. The Pot of the Seven Gods and the Na-Ho-Chan Pot. 2 and a water or ocean throne stone set up by Oxib’ Xk’ub’, ‘three hearthstones’ and Itzamna. Nebula M42 is Q’aq’, ‘fire’. Schele (1992, One of these throne placings appears Freidel et al. 1993) believes this association on the pot of the Seven Gods (fig. 2a), where to be a very ancient one that identifies the God L sits on a jaguar throne facing six other First-Three-Stone-Place as these three stars gods. The text narrates that “on 4 Ahaw 8 in Orion (fig. 3c). Kumk’u it was set in order, Black-is-its- The cosmic hearth was not the only Center,” (Chan Ahaw Waxak Kumk’u tzakhi image generated by creation according to the Ek’-u-Tan). The name of the location, Ek’-u- ancient texts. Another inscription (fig. 3a) Tan, refers to the state of the pre-creation published in Mayer (1991) says that “on 4 universe as black because the sky had not yet Ahaw 8 Kumk’u, was seen the first image of been lifted away from the Primordial Sea. the turtle, the great divine lord” (Chan Ahaw Another creation pot (fig. 2b) shows the Waxak Kumk’u ilahi yax k’oh Ak Chak Ch’u location Na-Ho-Chan-Witz-Xaman, “Female Ahaw). This turtle is the double-headed Five-Sky-Mountain-North,” the location turtle that cracks open for the rebirth of the named in the Quirigua scene for the jaguar- Maize God (fig. 3b), and like the cosmic throne setting. Here the background is also hearth can be found in the sky. Lounsbury (in dark, but we have in addition, snake-headed Miller 1986) identified the turtle in Room 2 cords that are the Classic-period version of of the Bonampak murals as Gemini or Orion the kuxan sum, the “living cord” or umbili- (fig. 3d). Because the three stars on the cus famous in the legends of Yukatan. turtle’s back match the belt of Orion, Schele At Quirigua, Palenque, and other (1992) believes the turtle to be located there.2 sites, the scribes specified further that the She also associates the copulating peccaries place where these stones were set was in the opposite cartouche with Gemini, “Lying-down Sky First Three-Stone-Place,” because, as Lounsbury pointed out, ak is the (Ch’a-Chan-Yax-Ox-Tunal). Barbara word for turtle, peccary, and dwarf. An ak MacLeod and Schele recognized several ek’ can be a ‘turtle star’, a ‘peccary star’, or years ago that this First-Three-Stone-Place a ‘dwarf star’, and we have good evidence had to refer to the three thrones, and she that images of peccaries and turtles substitut- (MacLeod 1991) further associated these ed for each other in several contexts, includ- stones with the descriptions of the creation in ing images of these constellations. the Book of the Chilam Balam of Chumayel. The story of creation continued past David Freidel and Schele, who were working the initial centering events on 4 Ahaw 8 on these concepts, immediately presumed Kumk’u. The text from the Temple of the that the three stones referred to the stones of Cross relates that 1.9.2 or 542 days after 4 a Maya hearth. Not only does a hearth Ahaw 8 Kumk’u, Hun-Ye-Nal (GI the father) always have three stones in it, but they are entered the sky (och ta chan) (fig. 4a). This arranged in the same triangular pattern as the event also appears on the Blowgunner Pot glyph for Yax-Ox-Tunal. Furthermore, as (fig. 4c) where the great bird named Itzam- Matt Looper pointed out, Dennis Tedlock Ye lands in the World Tree. David Freidel (1985) had identified the lower triangle of first suggested that the scorpion at the base stars in Orion—Alnitak, Saiph, and Rigel— of this tree can be identified as a constella- as the three stones of the hearth. At the 1992 tion based on the appearance of a scorpion in Workshop on Maya Hieroglyphic Writing, the zodiac of the Paris Codex. Schele (1992) Barbara Tedlock further added that the followed up on his suggestion and identified K’iche’ call Orion Je Chi Q’aq’, ‘dispersed the tree as the Milky Way. fire’. The three hearth stars are called the Sinaan, the word for ‘scorpion’ in 3 Fig. 3. The Appearance of the First Image of the Turtle and the Hearth. 4 Fig. 4. The World Tree and the Milky Way. 5 Yukatek and many other Mayan languages, reiterated in the text of the Tablet of the is identified as a constellation in the Motul Cross with a repetition that gives different dictionary without specifying where it was information about the action (fig. 4b). The seen in the sky. We accept David Kelley’s text reads “On 13 Ik’ end of Mol, it was (1976) zodiacal identifications that associate made proper, the Six (Raised-up) Sky, the our constellation Scorpius with the scorpion Eight-House-Partitions, its holy name, the of the Paris codex and with the name house of the north,” (Oxlahun Ik’ ch’a Mol, sinaan.3 In 1992, Grube and Schele gathered hoy Wakah-Chanal, Waxak-Na-Tzuk, u ch’ul significant evidence from Mayan speakers k’aba, Yotot xaman). Thus, we learn that the that supports this identification. At San Juan ‘entering into the sky’ formed a house named Chamula, upon seeing the drawing of Wakah-Chan and that it had eight partitions. Scorpius in Schele’s field book, a Chamula These correspond to the four world direc- identified the constellation, which was visi- tions and the corners between them. The ble in the sky at the time, as tz’ek, the Tzotzil Popol Vuh calls them the ‘four sides (or par- term for ‘scorpion’. This information was titions); four corners’, kan tzuq kan xuk. volunteered and unsolicited. In Tix Kakal Moreover, since each of the sanctuaries in Guardia, the Cruzob ceremonial center in the Group of the Cross was named for the Quintana Roo, Agapito Ek’ Pat, the son of central image on its inner panel, we know Juan Ek’, told Nikolai Grube that sinaan was that the tree on the Tablet of the Cross was a constellation high in the sky, and at those called the Wakah Chan. And since wakah is latitudes, 18° north, it does rise high into the ‘raised up’ as well as ‘six’, this event was the southern sky. He also said that sinaan and ak, raising of the sky and the establishment of the constellation of the turtle, are nach’ti ‘far the tree at its center. This great central axis is away’ from each other. Scorpius and the the Milky Way as it arches through the sky Orion-Gemini nexus are opposite to each from south to north. other, so that when one sinks the other rises. The Classic-period names for north Finally, he said that sinaan is visible until and south make sense in light of this cosmol- early November when it disappears for a ogy. Based on phonetic evidence, Schele time. Scorpio disappears from the evening (1992) has proposed the Classic-period sky at the end of October, and cannot be seen terms for north were na or nal, ‘house’, and until about fifteen days later when it appears xaman, a term that still resists analysis. above the eastern horizon just before dawn. Villela has suggested that nohol, ‘south’ is We believe the scorpion on the not ‘right hand’ as it is often explained, but Blowgunner pot is Scorpius.