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Tatiana Proskouriakoff was the first one to notice the foreign influences in the Maya
Lowlands, in her book Maya History, edited posthumously, she called this chapter The
Arrival of Strangers2. It was a title which David Stuart paper later borrowed for his inno-
vative article on the identity of Teotihuacan presence in Tikal. Clemency Coggins sug-
gested, based on her analysis of Teotihuacan iconography in Tikal, that there was a
change of power. She introduced the term New Order, a Central-Mexican power Teo-
tihuacan entering Tikal, and the intruders brought with them new calendrical rites3.
Simon Martin kept using this notion of the New Order while elaborating on the Teotihua-
can influences in his later Tikal work4.
Stuart started out his article, organizing the different views on the Teotihuacans influ-
ence on Tikal. He distinguished grosso modo two approaches, divided between what
he called the internalist and externalist view. The internalists are sceptical about any
invasion or other type of take-over of Tikal by foreign power. They rather prefer to inter-
pret the Teotihuacan iconography and personel presence, as the ruling Tikal dynasty
simply emulating the discourse and iconography of power, of this western metropolis.
In contrast, the externalists believe there was efectively some sort of a military incur-
sion and political domination of Teotihuacan in Tikal. Martin is among them: While the
precise nature of Teotihuacans intervention in the Maya Lowlands will continue to be
debated, recent epigraphic discoveries broadly support long-held ideas for a physical
intrusion, even a political takeover in 3785. Stuart himself puts himself among the ex-
ternalists. To him the personages mentioned in the various texts in and outside of Tikal
were historical people from Teotihuacan and came to dominate the region6.
More scholars joined the discussion. To mention a few, Erik Boot took an intermediate
position, claiming that Siyah Kak may be a Teotihuacan ambassador but all the others
mentioned in the game were local nobles who received from Siyah Kak the Teotihua-
can paraphernalia of power. He compared the Tikal case with other historical examples
1 Akkeren 2012.
2 Proskouriakoff 1993.
3 Coggins 1990: 96; 2002: 48, note 41; Fash & Fash 2002: 437-438.
4 Martin 2003.
5 Martin 2003: 17
6 Stuart 2002: 506.
Nielsen used the information on the New Fire ceremony in the Mixtec and Zapotec area,
marshalled by Michel Oudijk and by Maarten Jansen & Gabina Jimnez, to introduce a
new term: Coming of the Torch8. To him, what happened in Tikal was a take-over by
Teotihuacan, that is, an interference in the continuity of the old dynasty, which was
subsequently legitimized by a New Fire ceremony. Tikals iconography shows that Yax
Nuun Ayin is bringing in the torch. It makes Nielsen an externalist
Bill and Barbara Fash and Alexandre Tokovinine have a somewhat similar view. Accord-
ing to these scholars, the founder of the dynasty of Copan experienced a first invest-
ment as a legitimate lord in the city of Teotihuacan, and later had another accession
moment in Copan itself, in a building marked by New Fire iconography, called the Wi Te
Naah, interpreted by by Stuart as a Foundation House. This practise is very similar to
what we learn from indigenous documents of Guatemala or the aforementioned Mixtec
codices in which aspirant lords travel to a place called Tullan to receive the legitimate
paraphernalia of lordship9.
All these explanations, each in its own way, are describing an historical picture. Yet,
they fail to explain why and how people and their ideology would move from Central-
Mexico to the Maya area and back. William Ringle, Toms Gallareta and George Bey
have tried to fill this gap with their article The return of Quetzalcoatl, in which they
paint a Mesoamerican network of shrines connected to each other by the cult of Quet-
zalcoatl. This cult went hand in hand with a military ideology. Of course, this was during
the Epiclassic, but the subtitle of their essay Evidence of a Second Spread of a World
Religion during the Epiclassic Period implies there existed an earlier network, created
by Teotihuacan where the Quetzalcoatl cult blossomed for the first time10.
Clemency Coggins embraced the idea about the spread of the Feathered Serpent cult,
while building her theory on Mesoamericans ideology which se called Toltec. To her
the ideology was born in the first Tullan, Teotihuacan, from which the Toltec ideology
spread through Mesoamerica:
All evidence suggests the Teotihuacanos who traveled abroad were lone warriors and mer
chants who married foreign women [..]. Thier heraldry, regalia, and symbolism combined the
ancestral Tlaloc religion, which became a lineage cult in Maya territory11
This thesis of the spread of the Quetzalcoatl cult sounds like a joint effort of religious
proselitism and military conquest. But why would a power like Teotihuacan put vast
amounts of manpower, money and time in an endeavor that was bound to fail. It would
In this sense, I agree with Susan Kepecs who writes in a reaction on the article of Ringle
et al.:
These authors marshal an impressive corpus of data on the iconography of Quetzalcoatl, drawing
parallels between devotes of the plumed serpent and medieval Christians and suggesting that
military motifs shared by Tula and Chichn were emblems of religious crusades. I suspect they
are right, but only partially so; I disagree with their conclusion that an overarching religious sys-
14
tem subsumed economic relations ... .
The regular transfer of surplus among polities creates systemic interdependence between them
[...]. Participating units share not only labor but also structures of accumulation as communica-
tions and transportation networks. The state cult of Quetzalcoatl is a case in point. Public build-
ings a both Chichn and Tula were emblazoned with
symbols promoting warfare, and military motifs are
present at virtually all of the Epi/EPC cores15.
I have suggested that the Kanek are the forefathers of the Kaweq, the authors of the
Popol Wuj and thus of the Xibalba myth, perhaps Mesoamericas most vivid expres-
sion of the merchant ideology. In an article that awaits its publication, I show that other
Mesoamerican calpultin express similar conduits, like the Toj-Atonal, the chinamit17 or
calpulli which introduced the Tojil cult into the Guatemalan Highlands, and which appear
as lords, priests and traders along the Pacific trade-routes from El Salvador all the way
to Central-Mexico18. In this article I will propose that the founders of Tikal are affines of
the merchant calpulli Tzonmolco of Teotihuacan.
That is about the actors. Polities along the network shared the structures of accumula-
tion, as Kepecs remarks, meaning the infrastructure like routes, stops and tamemes or
porters, but also the ideology. That is the complementary topic of this article. I will pro-
pose various new ideas about the merchant ideology, in which Quetzalcoatl is only one
part of the story, perhaps the more visible one because of its connection with military
pomp. The other, complementary deity at home that is, in Teotihuacan is Xiu-
hteuctli, in charge of the New Fire ritual. As for the infrastructure, the route they walked
was conceived off as a serpent, which they traveled from the center to the outpost,
two opposite poles presided by Xiuhteuctli on the one hand and Quetzalcoatl on the
other, an emblem that adorns the famous Temple of Quetzalcoatl in Teotihuacan. The
men on the ground were merchant calpultin organized in guilds, with their shrines scat-
tered along the serpent road, the so-called Wi Te Naah, the Temple of Xiuhteuctli.
In his article The Coming of Strangers Stuart reiterates his identification of the logo-
gram PU as the Classic Maya name for Tullan. He further elaborates on the fact that in
Mesomerica the image of Tullan represents a place of origin, a city blessed with a high
degree of civilization, where many aspirant lords would recur to, to be invested, a com-
plex he calls the Tullan paradigm19. There have been more cities in Mesoamerica with
this title, but his final conclusion is: Many Tulas are known from later Mesoamerica,
but my own Maya perspective leads me to agree that Teotihuacan was held as the first
ideal city, the primordial Tollan20.
So far a brief summary of the book. A second remark is about my interpretation of the
Classic Maya pantheon. The reader will notice that I am mixing up deities that scholars
have labeled different gods. I have been living and working with Maya people for some
twenty years now. I have recorded a great number of prayers and myths in various
Maya languages. The single most important deity to ancient and modern Maya is what
they call Lord Mountain-Valley, Dios Mundo or Rajawal Juyubal Taqajal in Kiche, Qawa
Tzuul Taqa in Qeqchi, or Tiuxhil Witz, Tiuxhil Tchaqaala, Tiuxhil Xolwitz23 in Ixil, to
name some examples. He is further known as Mam or Grandfather. He is the guardian
of the mountain and has his residency inside of it. Every hill or mountain has his own
custodian, so there are many Lords Mountain-Valley.
Lord Mountain-Valley is the all-embracing divinity, and he has countless aspects, which
have led Mayanists myself included - to think they are different gods24. They are not.
22 I found that one can reduce both mythological corpuses to only two complementary Maya glyphs: kin, sun,
which is white and masculine, and kan, 'yellow', the color of the corn, which is feminine (Akkeren 2012).
23 God Mountain-God Plain-God Valley (Akkeren 2005b).
24 Scholars may come up with technical terms like theosynthesis or theopolymorphosis for this cluttering of deities (Grofe
2009: 6). But the point is that they are not different deities; they are different aspects of the same deity, much as no
There is also a hierarchy in the mountains and the highest mountain of them all usually
is the supreme Lord Mountain-Valley, which scholars have called God D. As inhabitants
of caves they are the lords of the underworld or Xibalba as well, the ones mentioned
in the Popol Wuj, and the supreme Lord Mountain-Valley is God L. Lord Mountain-Valley
has many nawales as well, one of
them being the Ajaw Chan, the
snake we see on many classic
scenes. Then there is his
personification as a tree crowning
the top of a mountain, in Kiche
called Kutam or Trunk, which
scholars have called the Pax God.
One could continue mentioning
aspects of Lord Mountain-Valley,
and some others appear in
Xibalba y el nacimiento del
nuevo sol.
Catholic would call the Child in the Manger, the Sacred Heart, the Crucified Jezus, the Resurrected Christ, the Mes-
siah, the Lamb of God, or Corpus Christi different deities.
25 Lpez-Austin 1994: 184-186.
26 Confer the dance-drama texts in Xajooj Keej. Baile del Venado de Rabinal, (Janssens & Van Akkeren, 2003).
27 When in the Qeqchi myth The Hills and the Corn the Lords Mountain-Valley rejoiced the fact that the corn is re-
stored to its original place inside the store rooms of Xucaneb the highest mountain in Alta Verapaz - they put on a
lightening show with their thunderbolts (Burkitt 1920). When in La historia de Sol y Luna, Balam Qe y Qana Po, the
main Lord Mountain-Valley has his daughter kidnapped by Balam Qe, he sent his brother after them, called Qawa
Kaaq or Seor del Rayo, the Classic Chaak (H.Q. Dieseldorff 1966).
28 Tamoanchan y Tlalocan (Lpez-Austin 1994: 175-181).
29 Lpez-Austin 1994: 181. Braakhuis 2009; Chinchilla 2011.
Spearthrower Owl
Back to the intrusion of Teotihuacan in Tikal. The facts are more or less known. On
January 16th 378 a high official named Siyah Kak, Born in Fire, arrived in Tikal, proba-
bly in the company of a Teotihuacan lord dubbed Spearthrower Owl. Less than a year
later a son of Spearthrower Owl, called Yax Nuun Ayin took the throne to become Ti-
kals 15th lord31. Still, it appears that Siyah Kak remained a liege of the man who was
quite young at the time of his accession, that is, a 1
katun lord. Siyah Kak remained in the area for at least
another 22 years acting as a dominant sovereign
directing various other local Maya lords32.
30 Codex Borbonicus folio 7; Seler 1963 TII: 189-191. The lightening-wielding Tlaloc has similar aspects as the Xiu-
hteuctli priest on folio 30 of the same codex (Lpez-Austin 1994: 182, 189).
31 Martin 2003: 39.
32 Martin 2003: 12-13. Recently, a new reference to Siyah Kak came to surface in the city of La Sufricaya (Estrada
it is worth investigating if the proper Classic name of God L was not Bolon or Bahlun Okte Ku but rather Bolon
Tzite Ku, since in neighboring highland languages tzi is the common lexeme for dog. The word ok appears to be a
loanword from Mixe (Boot 2009: 140).
From the Codex Dresden folios 49 and 60 we may deduce that B'olon Okte Ku was
the equivalent of the Central-Mexican god Xiuhteuctli, as scholars have showed. That is
very helpful in defining the nature of God L or Bolon Okte Ku. In Central-Mexican cos-
movision Xiuhteuctli, Lord of Fire, is the creative principle. He was the oldest god in the
pantheon, known as Huehueteotl. He was considered the father of the gods (Teteo
Inta), as such coupled with the Moon Goddess, Tlazolteotl called mother of the gods
(Teteo Innan). His place was the center of the earth (tlalxicco) where one pictured the
terrestrial Hearth, the center of fire (tlexicco).
37 The title Yellow Face coincides nicely with him being made of the tzite tree. In an interview with Vicente Asig,
Qeqchi Maya of Cahabn, I learned that they used to paint the walls of their school yellow with the bark of the
tzite. They would strip the stem of its bark and the inside gives off a yellow color.
38 Limn Olvera, 2001: 88, 95-96, 105.
marker excavated at Group 6C-XVI of Tikal. His nominal phrase consists of three picto-
graphic elements: the stylized mouth of Tlaloc, symbolizing a cave, with three hearth-
stones above it; a hand holding an atlatl or spearthrower, and an owl. I argue in
Xibalba y el nacimiento del nuevo sol
that those are Central-Mexican ele-
ments of the god Xiuhteuctli, as proves
the image of the Tree of Tlalocan in
Tepantitla40. There has been quite
some discussion about this over-
whelming image of a bust sitting on
top of a cave stored with seeds and
other goodies. However, about one
thing scholars have agreed: the dia-
mond-shaped eyes are those of Xiu-
hteuctli, similar to the ones found on
many sculptures featuring the old de-
ity41. The glyph for the cave is the
same as the one on the Marcador, and
it also has the hearthstones on top of
it. In addition, the rich headdress has
the head of an owl, just like God L. I
point out that in the Xibalba myth the
owl allies of the lords carry the highest
military title, rajpop achij. It may allude
Tikal: the collocations D2-C4 feature the handglyph of taking a torch, followed by the readings CHAN-na and KIN-
ni, and his name Yax Nuun Ayin.
The Tajal Chaak may recall the name of another Classic Maya lord, Taj Chan Ahk, whom I have identified as a fire-
priest as well (Akkeren 2012: 197-198).
As said, the high priest of Xiuhteuctli was in charge of the drilling of New Fire at the end
of the 52-year period. These moments were conceived as the beginning of a new era,
generating myths like those of the birth of the sun49. As is well-known, the Central-
Mexican myth of the origin of the sun, related in the Leyenda de los Soles or the Flor-
entine Codex, situates his birth in the divine oven (teotexcalli) of Teotihuacan. It nar-
rates the story of the Sun Hero, Nanahuatzin, who throws himself into the blistering
flames to transform into the sun of the new era. The story tells that, to prepare himself
for the sacrifice, the gods built a hill with a temple on top, the place we now know as
the Pyramid of the Sun. It is the Lord of Fire, Xiuhteuctli, who arranges the oven for the
heroic deed of Nanahuatzin.
But there is more, Xiuhteuctli is not just the Lord of Fire, he is fire50. In his body of
flames the terrestrial fire the new, celestial fire is born, which is the sun, and sun is
time. Indeed, Mayan languages dont have a term for time; they use a variation of the
word for sun. Thus, with the birth of the sun, new time and calendrical cycles are cre-
ated. Thats why Bolon Okte Ku or Xiuhteuctli presence was indispensable at the be-
ginning of new cycles. He supplied the medium for the sun and time to be born51.
We then understand that, unlike in Christian religion, the underworld or Xibalba plays a
crucial role in the creation of the new era, the era of sun and corn. Without terrestrial
163; 167).
50 As shows the image of this deity on folio 46 of the Codex Borgia.
51 Akkeren 2012: 166-167.
Rabinal. Fash, Fash and Tokovinine recognized the couple in the iconography of Temple 16 in Copan: iconic repre-
sentations of both the Sun God and the Storm God, in a sense presaging the later Posclassic Twin Temples of
Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc (Fash et al. 2009: 211).
To the Maya the Jaguar God of the Underworld was the god in
charge of making fire. We will deal with the Jaguar God of the
Underworld later and demonstrate that in Teotihuacan a similar
creature was involved in fire-making rituals. The nine jaguars
that archaeologists have located among the
debris of the temple, are hence further
proof that it was indeed the temple of
Xiuhteuctli58. Thus in the hearth at the bot-
tom, the sun was born, whose temple must have crowned the top,
according to the Florentine Codex. Still as it appears, Xiuhteuctli
also had its place in that sanctuary, as of writing these lines, news
broke that Mexican archaeologists excavating the top of the
Pyramid of the Sun, uncovered a 58 cm tall sculpture of the Lord of
Fire59.
Thus, the Pyramid of the Sun was the place where time and sun
was born. As said in the first paragraph, the mercantile ideology
was a mix of two bodies of mythology: Tullan and Tzuywa. The con-
tribution of the Tullan paradigm, in Stuarts words, is the concept
of the New Fire. Tullan was called Pu in Maya. I explain in Xibalba y el nacimiento del
nuevo sol that Jun Ajpu foremost means First of Tullan, a name that likely was forged in
the mercantile ideology. I found that the Xibalba myth of the Popol Wuj was born in
the southern Peten and northern Alta Verapaz, and that the historical oven of Xibalba
seems to have been situated in Machaquila. Machaquila formed part of the network of
the new mercantile elite, either coming from Chichen Itza or directly from the Gulf
Coast. It is called Pu on stela 8 of Ceibal, and its most prominent feature is a cuadripar-
tite plaza which, according to archaeologist Alfonso Lacadena, proves to have been the
scenery of an inmense fire. I argue that the peculiar shape of the plaza is intentional 60.
Junajpu61 is the last day-sign in the row of twenty. Its Central-Mexican equivalent is
Xochitl, Flower, the shape of the plaza. Eric Thompson was perhaps the first one to note
that the Maya glyph KIN, sun, represented a flower.
Writing about the meaning of Tikals Emblem Glyph, Simon Martin pondered:
While the root term mut refers to the tied knot of hair depicted in the famous bundle hiero-
glyph T596, its deeper meaning as a place-name is currently lost to us68.
Nontheless, I will offer a reading for this deeper meaning. I propose in this article that
Tikals Emblem Glyph expresses a pictographic reading of a Central-Mexican calpulli
named Tzonmolco: from tzontli, hair, molli, derived from the verb to stir, turn, fold,
bend, and co, being a locative, resulting in the reading Place of the Bended Hair69.
True, it is not a seamless reading of Tikals Emblem Glyph, but the the idea did not
originate with the name, rather with the iconography, and subsequent circumstancial
evidence, as we will see. Regardless, it implies that the calpulli Tzonmolco is somehow
connected to the origin of Tikal.
Our knowledge about the calpulli Tzonmolco almost only comes from Aztec sources. It
was a calpulli with ancient roots. It did not belong to the original seven calpultin of the
Aztecs, but dated back to Toltec origins, and perhaps even to the time of Teotihua-
can70. This corresponds with the antiquity of their titular god, Xiuhteuctli, called Father
of the Gods and Old God or Huehueteotl. Sculptures of this deity are already found in
the pre-Teotihuacan culture of Cuicuilco71.
Tzonmolcos temple, dedicated to the god Xiuhteuctli, stood in the barrio of Copolco, in
the northwestern part of Tenochtitlan. From its members the calpulli recruited the high
priest in charge of the drilling of the New Fire72. The precinct of Xiuhteuctli in Tenochtit-
lan was very prestigious: Tzonmolco harbored one of the seven Calmecac or elite
schools, and in the barrio of Copolco they used to bury the ashes of the Aztec lords,
huey tlatoani. In Book 1 of the Florentine Codex we may read that Motecuhzoma
danced each four years as an impersonator of Xiuhteuctli at the temple of Tzonmolco73.
Tzonmolco is called a calpulli, certainly alluding to a double descent kinship group, but it
included also non-consanguinal affiliates that became family because of similar inter-
El barrio de los amantecas y el barrio de los pochtecas estaban juntos, y tambin los dioses de
los amantecas y de los pochtecas estaban pareados, el uno se llamaba Yiacatecutli [sic] que es
el dios de los mercaderes, y el otro se llamaba Coyotlinual, que es el dios de los amantecas,
por esta causa los mercaderes y los oficiales de la pluma se honraban los unos a otros.
Y cuando se sentaban en los convites de una parte se sentaban los mercaderes y de la otra
parte los oficiales de pluma. Era casi iguales en las haciendas, y en el hacer de las fiestas, o
banquetes: porque los mercaderes traan de lejas tierras las plumas ricas; y los amantecas las
labraban y componan, y hacan las armas y divisas y rodelas de ellas, de que usaban los
seores y principales ... 78.
74 According to Van Zantwijk, the six calpultin were divided in two cosmovisionally related groups headed by the
Pochteca and Oztomeca (1977: 123-125).
75 Zantwijk 1977: 123.
76 Zantwijk 1977:123+ Davies 1977: 177.
77 Sahagn 1982: 517- 519.
78 Sahagn 1982: 519.
79 Angulo, 1998.
During the Epiclassic Cacaxtla, just like its close neighbor Cholula, was an Olmeca-
Xicalanca site. The Olmeca-Xicalanca, also called historical Olmecs, came from the Gulf
Coast . The ethnic term Xicalanca is derived from the famous port of trade Xicalanco,
which lay in the Usumacinta delta, although we know that in Aztec times, the Gulf Coast
from Coatzalcoalcos to Campeche was referred to as Anahuac Xicalanco, Xicalanco
Coast. In an earlier writing I have identified Xicalanco as the Tzuywa of the Maya
sources81. The Cacaxtla of the Olmeca-Xicalanca formed part of the international trade
network that grew in the aftermath of Teotihuacans decline. Many scholars have
pointed out at the Mayan style of its murals. Olmeca-Xicalanca are hard to distinguish
from another ethnic group, Nonoalca, which I mention hear because we will come back
to the Nonoalca82.
A second example of God L and the knot of bended hair, is found on the bas-relieves of
the Lower Temple of the Jaguar, as part of the Great Ballcourt complex of Chichen Itza.
Chichen Itza and its ballcourt
complex is key in the new
mercantile ideology of the
Epiclassic, and I have
interpreted its iconography
lengthily in Xibalba y el
nacimiento del nuevo sol. The
inner temple is covered with
processions of warriors.
Although the wall is divided in
several registers, one on top of each other, it is clear from the position of the people
that they are all watching the central scene. There we have the high priest of the
80 Grofe, 2009:10.
81 Akkeren 2006b.
82 Davies 1977; Kirchhoff et al 1989; Foncerrada 1993; Ringle et al. 1998; Pohl 1999; McCafferty 2002.
The name also appears on the bench walls of the ballcourt, as the beheaded person. Six snakes plus the Tzuywa vine
squirting forth from his neck, which counts for the seventh snake as we know from other images. It is a picto-
graphic reading of the name Chicome Coatl. In Central Mexican cosmology Chicome Coatl is the Maize Goddess,
although there have been discussions about her gender (Seler 1963 TI: 119; Zantwijk 1977: 139). Still, Chicome Coatl
is the mother of Cinteotl, the young Maize God. I show that in the Maya area Seven Serpent appears to be the name
for the young Maize God, as shows, for example, stela 13 of Ceibal, a contemporary monument of the ballcourt of
Chichen Itza (Akkeren 2012). It is interesting, that the Xiuhteuctli character carry this name. From Gulfcoast my-
I have shown that the most important deity of the postclassic Guatemala Highland, Tojil,
is also a Fire God. When, as narrated in the Popol Wuj, the Kiche and their allies are
grouped together in the mountains, dying of cold, with every fire extinguished, it is Tojil
who drills new fire. In an article that awaits its publication, I make an effort to trace back
the origin of Tojil, a cult introduced by the Toj lineage. I show that the Toj the ruling
lineage in Rabinal and authors of the Rabinal Achi - was originally a Mexican lineage,
which at the end of the Classic migrated from the Pacific Coast into the Highlands, get-
ting mayanized in the process and changing their Mexican name into a Maya one. The
original name of the Toj was Atonal. Toj is the equivalent of the day-name Atl, and
atonal is a contraction of atl-tonalli, Atl-Day. The patron saint of the day Atl is, again,
Xiuhteuctli, who in Central-Mexican pictorials is commonly portrayed together with Ix-
tapal Totec, the personified Flint Knife. I quote quite a few references from indigenous
documents which prove that Tojil was also conceived off as a sacrificial knife87.
thology we know that it was the Maize God who bestowed the Fire Serpent thunderbolt to the lords of Tlalocan,
Lords Mountain-Valley (Braakhuis 2009: 14; Akkeren 2012: 132, 203).
One of the few examples in Classic Maya iconography where God L ostentates a torch,
is painted on a Chama vase (K702). The reason for this late appearance, as I explain in
my book, is that the Central-Mexican mythological corpus which I have dubbed Tullan
including imagery and personages, only make its entrance in the Maya area at the
end of Classic94. Chama is in the heartland of the Xibalba area95. Chama is also close
to Salinas de los Nueve Cerros, an important trade-center for its salt, ruled by the Ka-
nek family, as we explained. The Kanek were co-founders of Chichen Itza and tutors
never recognized by its translators. According to the document, the entrance to the underworld was in Nim Xol
Karchaj. Santo Tomas Nim Xol turns out to be a barrio from Coban and Karchaj refers to San Pedro Carcha. A
historical analysis of the peoples reduced by the dominicans in the colonial towns of Coban and Carcha, shows that
many of them came from what we now call the Franja Transversal del Norte. It is in the piedmont of northern Alta
Verapaz, a place where caves abound, among them the second largest cavernal system of the Maya world, La Cande-
laria. Its inhabitants were predominantly Chol-speaking Maya.
All these examples of God L, some of them closely related to a Central-Mexican origin,
have the knot of bended hair as a major attribute. Again, it is located in a position
head or headdress which is usually reserved by Mayan painters for historical informa-
96 In this context it is worth mentioning that the term Chamak is actually used in the Marcador text of Tikal, as if
referring to a Teotihuacan origin (Boot 2004: 229-230).
97 Although, scholars have dated Chama pottery to the VIIIth century, new investigations and archeaological findings
in the Classic Maya area. He is known for its torch, and he is the deity of the center, par excellence, tlexicco and
tlalxicco, much like Xiuhteuctli in Central Mexico (Akkeren 2012).
99 One may recall how the rabbit in the ballcourt of Xibalba plays a trick on the Lords of Xibalba by bouncing
away as a ball.
To close this paragraph, there is a large fragment of a tripod in the museum at the site
which might represent an example of the knot of bended hair in Teotihuacan style. The
fragment displays five personages, three on the lower part and two on top. The bottom
three all sport a type of hair with a bound knot on the front, the same place where God
L used to have his bended knot of hair. The middle of the three appears to be the prin-
cipal character since he has the speech scroll coming out of his mouth. Just like in later
Aztec codices the cover page of the Mendoza, for example the one with the speech
scroll is the one who rules (tlatoani).
One may make a point that in his
headdress are the usual two sticks
with which the New Fire is drilled,
characteristic of Central-Mexican im-
ages of Xiuhteuctli. Their are further
two goggles with the squinted eyes
on the same headdress, also tipically
of Tlaloc-Xiuhteuctli. Although Taube claims he is pointing his finger like a ruler, this
seems to be incorrect if we count the number of fingers100. To me, his right hand holds
a sacrificial knife, another symbol of Xiuhteuctli as we saw. Thus, perhaps we are look-
ing at a few members of the Tzonmolco calpulli on this tripod.
On Lintel 2 of Temple IV , built by Jasaw Chan Kawils son and sucessor Yikin Chan
Kawil (Ruler B), we anew encounter the giant titular god, this time in his traditional out-
fit of the Jaguar God of the Underworld107. We have Yikin Chan Kawil sitting on his
throne with the colossal feline overlooking the Tikal lord. The deity wears his common
scruller and, in addition, sports the number seven written on his cheek, and the head-
band with the three Jester Gods, representing the three hearth-stones.
The last carving commented is Lintel 2 of Temple 3, also the last great building erected
in Tikal. The stela and altar at is base conmemorated the katun change of 810. The
principal dignitary on this lintel probably is a lord dubbed Dark Sun. Like his forefathers,
he worshipped the Jaguar God of the Underworld. He is dressed in the skin of an enor-
mous big-bellied jaguar, while holding a stick commonly used for fire-drilling and a so-
called nuckle-
108
duster . Dark
Suns companions
hold the same
sticks and sacrificial
knife. They have
incredible hairdos
of bound and put-
up hair and
interesting
pectorals. One
wonders if the pectoral which looks like a whirl of hair was another portrayal of the
Tzonmolco name-glyph. They are identical to the
pectorals worn by the persons displayed on K4598
which are, as we have seen, without doubt fire-
priests.
Other examples
of Tikals titulary
god are found
on the
Buenavista
Vase, excavated
in Buenavista
del Cayo, Belize
(K4464). It
features the Maize God carrying a exuberant plumed
backrack, serving as a portable niche for the image
A jaguar as the personification of the Lord of Fire is an image not only restricted to the
Maya. The Central Mexican equivalent of the day akbal - as we saw, a day ruled by the
Jaguar God of the Underworld is calli which had Tepeyollotl as its patron. Tepeyollotl,
literally, Heart of the mountain, is of course an apt name for Lord Mountain-Valley who
resides in a cave inside the mountain. As show various Mexican codices, Tepeyollotl
had the appearance of a jaguar. In his commentaries on the Codex Borgia, Seler ex-
plains that the jaguar is the animal of the earth and the darkness and thus a proper in-
carnation of Jaguar God of the Underworld109. Interesting is also the link of Tepeyollotl
with the teccistli or conch shell, which in Teotihuacan as well as Maya was the symbol
of the cave, and recalls the Maya God N110.
We mentioned that God L had all kinds of jaguar aspects, wearing ears, paws and claws
of that animal, or he simply wore the entire skin. And if he did not carry the skin his
throne was covered with its hide, including head and paws. Now, it seems he had this
in common with Xiuhteuctli, as we may read with Sahagn. When commenting the an-
nual Xiuhteuctli festival in the last month of the Aztec calendar, Izcalli, he writes:
Estaba sentado [sic] esta estatua en un trono de un cuero de tigre que tena pies y manos y ca-
beza natural, aunque estaba seco, esta estatua as adornada no lexos de un hogar que estaba
delante della. Y a media noche sacaban fuego nuevo, para que ardiese en aquel hogar, y sac-
banlo con unos palos, uno puesto abaxo, y sobre l barrenaban con otro palo, como torcindole
entre las manos con gran priesa, y con aquel movimiento y calor se encenda el fuego. Y all lo
tomaban con yesca y encendanlo en el hogar.111
109 Tepeyollotl appears in the sections dedicated to the 20 daynames, as the patron of the day Calli
and to the 20 trecenas, the latter as patron of the trecena 1 Deer.
110 Seler 1963 TI: 73-75.
The similarities are astonishing. Both images have the same headdress, with the feath-
ers attached in a way that they fall backwards like a cascade of hair. The front part of
the headdress on stela 31 represents the head of a jaguar, with a large round eye and
squarish ears, and a
blunt snout with fangs
which resembles in
every detail the jaguar
head in the
Techinantitla mural.
The necklace of beads
and shells is exactly
the same, with the
spondyles shells, as is
the tail arrangement
and round knot. They
both sport the loincloth
and similar knee
adornments. The
sandals of Yax Nuun
Ayin have been eroded but we can still see the square upperpart, just like the ones
worn by the Techinantitla Jaguar. But perhaps the most important element of our ar-
gument here is the fact that the Techinantitla jaguar is hurling fire with his claws
whereas Yax Nuun Ayin features the fire torches in his headdress. There can be little
doubt that they both impersonate fire-making priests, dressed as a jaguar113.
With this new insight it is convenient to reassess Yax Nuun Ayins headdress on Stela
4, which has also been called a Fire Serpent. We established already that he carries the
head of the Jaguar God of the Underworld in one hand probably the same regal article
that Siyah Chan Kawil bears on stela 31 and a torch in the other. I claim that his
headdress on stela 4 is the one of the fire-hurling Jaguar, that it is, in fact, a frontal ver-
sion of his headdres of stela 31. To prove so, we have to shift our attention to the
complex of the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan.
Recall how the Fashes and Tokovinine have argued that the temple on the Adosada at
the foot of the Pyramid of the Sun, was the Early Classic sanctuary where the New Fire
was drilled. The iconography of its columns revealed a temple with a cruller in the mid-
dle, a tipical item of the Jaguar God of the Underworld. To these scholars, it served as a
name tag, identifying the temple as the New Fire shrine. It turns out that the platform of
the Adosada was also decorated with jaguars. According to Batres they were painted
with black spots. Fash, Tokovinine and Fash already suggest that the feline is a Teoti-
Fash, Tokovinine and Fash compare this jaguar to a more pristine version they un-
earthed in the Xalla complex, which features the animal with the extended claws much
like the one on the Techinantitla mural114. The same way Tepeyollotl is depicted in the
Codex Borgia. The extended claws perhaps defines
the jaguar as a fire-maker, which brings us back to
Lintel 2 of Temple 1 of Tikal where we have the giant
jaguar in a similar position. He is the Waterlily Jaguar
acting as the Lord of Fire. His name is Nuun Balam
Chaaknal115.
Returning to our argument, if the Tikal dynasty had its origin in a calpulli of fire- making
priests, Tzonmolco, its titular god, the Jaguar God of the Underworld, seems to fit the
hypothesis. Additionally, this mythological animal is already present as a fire-maker in
Teotihuacan.
Nonoalca
Our knowledge about the origin of the Tzonmolco calpulli is not very ample. We already
explained that it did not belong to the original seven Aztec founding calpultin, and that it
at least seemed to go back to Toltec times. As for Teotihuacan, we lack the sources to
establish that, but if our hypothesis is correct, they were among the highest nobility in
that city. Still, there are some indications which, put together, prove to be fruitful.
We should start out with a suggestion that Coggins makes about the name of Yax Nuun
Ayin. She remarks that the part nuun is perhaps alluding to his foreignness, him being
that he carries in his paws. The three flowers seem to express the three hearth-stones. It may be compared to the
central tree on the Tablet of the Cross, Palenque, with the three hearth-stones, as flowers, at the end of each branch.
Many new ideas emerged while writing this article. One wonders if the net-element on the famous netted jaguar, are
just stylized version of the Ollin symbol, since the sun of the new era was born on 4 Ollin.
117 Cited in Fash et al. 2009: 209-210.
There has been quite some discussion on the etymology of the term nonoalca. Davies
brings up the suggestion of earlier authors to derive it from nontli, dumb or poor-
speaking, but gives other suggestions as well123. However, I have argued that the
Memorial de Solol seems to offer the solution. In this kaqchikel document nonoalca
appears with its poetic complement xulpiti. Xulpiti is derived from the Nahuatl xolopitli,
stupid, idiot, mad124. Ever since, I have come upon other references to groups of
Nonoalca, most of all on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala, of which some call themselves
in Spanish Ideotas corruption of Idiotas which confirms the argument125. Nonoalca
did not speak Nahuatl, and to a Nahuatl ear they sounded garbled and dumb, much as
the term barbaros onomatopoetically evokes the image of babbling, that is, a person
speaking a non-Greek language. Thus Nonoalca seemed to be what one calls an ex-
onym, an ethnonym created by outsiders.
If nuun is a Nahuatl loanword into Classic Chol it implies that the term already existed
in the IVth century, that people from Teotihuacan spoke Nahuatl, and that the lineage or
calpulli of Yax Nuun Ayin, Tzonmolco, was originally neither Nahuatl nor Maya-speaking,
and probably Nonoalca. In this context, it is worth recalling the name of the giant jaguar
on Lintel 2 (Temple 1), Nuun Balam Chaaknal, perhaps another indication of the
Nonoalca origin of the calpulli of Tikals fire priests and rulers. The title Nuun was subse-
quently used by various other lords of the Tikal dynasty126.
In his book Toltecs, Davies scrutinized the colonial Mexican documents on the
Nonoalca, and they all coincide in that they came from the Gulf Coast, the legendary
Tlillan Tlapallan, Land of the Black and Red, that is, the area of modern state Tabasco
and its inmediate neighbors. To name a few of the sources, Torquemada writes: the
Lands of Onohualco, which are situated by the sea, and are this which today we call
Yucatn, Tabasco and Campeche; the natives in pre-Christian times called them
Onohualco. Ixtlilxchitl notes that the Gulf Coast was inhabited by coatzaqualcas,
We know that in Tula there were two ethnic groups constituing the confederation of
Tullan-Xicocotitlan: Tolteca-Chichimeca and Nonoalca130. Reconstructing the origin of
the Toltec confederation, Davies describes the migration of the Nonoalca started in the
IXth century from the Gulf Coast, which brings them to Tullantzingo control of the
Pachuca obsidian and a little later to Tula, Hidalgo. This way the Nonoalca became one
of the two moieties of Tullan Xicocotitlan, the Tolteca-Chichimeca being the other.
As for the ethnicity of the Nonoalca and the language they spoke, scholars have come
up with a mix of Mazateca, Popoluca and, later of course, Nahuatl131. Davies further
states, it is hard to distinguish the Nonoalca from another ethnic group active at the
time: the Olmeca-Xicalanca. The latter derive part of their name from the town of Xi-
calanco, evidently Nonoalca area. Olmeca-Xicalanca conquered the Cholula area, includ-
ing Cacaxtla, at the time of the Nonoalca migration to Tula. The Maya inspired murals of
Cacaxtla are contributed to them. Davies does not want to go so far as to postulate
Olmeca-Xicalanca and Nonoalca to be one and the same,
yet it is still quite difficult to point out their differences132.
One may contemplate the idea that the ethnonym Ol-
meca-Xicalanca existed as an endonym, that is, was the
ethnonym defined by the ethnic group itself, whereas the
same group was called Nonoalca by outsiders.
As said, Xelhuan is the head of the Nonoalca, but he is also related to the Olmeca-
Xicalanca. In fact, he is considered to be a mythical ancestor of the area. Torquemada
narrates a legend in which Xelhuan survived the deluge by hiding out in the cave of the
mountain Tlaloc. To show his gratitude to the gods he built an inmense pyramid in Cho-
lula, that almost reached the clouds and sky, such that it provoked the anger of
Tonacateuctli who threw an enormous toad from the heavens to block any further
contruction. This is a proper image of the pyramid depicted in the Historia Tolteca-
Chichimeca. We know that its first three Classic phases of construction show influences
both from Teotihuacan and the Gulf Coast, and that in the Late Classic (700-900), ac-
cording to the ethnohistorical sources, the site was taken over by Olmeca-Xicalanca137.
134 On the days 1 Tochtli, 1 Rabbit, and 1 Itzcuintli, 1 Dog there were special feasts in honor of Xiuhteuctli. Both
merchants and Amanteca came to the temple of Tzonmolco to offer goods, throwing copal and paper covered with
pieces of jade and feathers into the fire. The ceremony was called Nextlahualli, meaning Payment. I have suggested
that Tojil, another Lord of Fire, in fact took his name from this ceremony, because it also means Payment (Zantwijk
1977: 137-139, Akkeren in press).
135 Seler 1963 TI: 60 y TII: 177.
136 In Teotitlan converged two main Mesoamerican trade-routes, one coming from Tochtepec and the Mixtequilla
region, Anahuac Xicalanco, and another coming from the Pacific coast of Anahuac Soconusco and beyond.
137 McCafferty 1996; 2002.
Serpent Road
In the introduction we mentioned the fact that the polities participating in the Meso-
american network of trade, shared the structures of accumulation of wealth, including
the infrastructure and its ideology. Although, in this context I would prefer to descend
from the level of 'politiesto that of the mixed consanguinal-corporate groups -
calpultin or chinamital - of which Mesoamerican societies were made up consanguinal-
corporate groups like calpultin, but still they partook in these elements. In these last
paragraphs I want to draw attention to various aspects of the mercantile infrastructure
and its symbols, since they entered Tikals cosmovision with the entrance of Siyah
Kak and Spearthrower Owl.
I have proposed in Xibalba y el nacimiento del nuevo sol that the long-distance mer-
chants who marched to all
corners of Mesoamerica,
considered their road to be
a serpent: they called it Ce
Coatl Otlimelaoac One
Serpent Marching Road140. A
proper image of that route
as I already hinted at earlier
is found on the murals of
Cacaxtla. We see God L, the
patron of merchants stand-
ing on a serpent-route
covered in blue feathers. It
is a continuous road that
includes hills and water. I
have further suggested that
the constructors of the
Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl in
Teotihuacan had a similar concept in mind for its faade, the famous undulating serpent
with the two tenoned masks. Like the mural in Cacaxtla it has the watery symbols un-
derneath the undulating ophidian body. The first mask is the head of the Feathered
I differed with his interpretation and rather identified the other as the deity Xiuhteuctli,
Lord of Fire. Indeed, the masks includes the Central-Mexican year sign, the trapeze and
ray motif, xihuitl, cast in a familiar Teotihuacan mosaic style of turquoise, again xihuitl,
evoking the part xiuh of his name142. Taube had already identified the instrument on top
of the year sign as a torch, to which I agree with him. The mask is sitting on the tail-end
of the ophidian body, which is quite significant143.
In this article I
want to add two
more suggestions
for the
identification of
the mosaic mask
as a Xiuhteuctli. It
appears that the
year sign is cast
in the form of a
Recently Nielsen & Helmke identified on a mural of Atetelco a reference to a place they
baptized Spearthrower Owl Hill, in which the head of the owl is actually a spearthrower
and his eyes are the two finger-holes. For the analysis they assembled a number of
Teotihuacan style spearthrowers; various images feature a cage with a tapering end,
much as the one shown on the Xiuhteuctli mask145. They muse in their essay about the
name Spearthrower Owl, suggesting that it must have been an important being or
mythological
person146. In-
deed, that was
my conclusion as
well in Xibalba y
el nacimiento del
nuevo sol: it is
the title of the
high priest of
Xiuhteuctli. In an
intent to situate
this toponym,
Spearthrower Hill
Owl, they suggest
it might be the
Pyramid of the Moon, but I would rather opt for the Pyramid of the Sun, where the New
Fire was drilled by the priest of Xiuhteuctli. The Temple of Quetzalcoatl is another op-
tion, although there he has to share the hill or pyramid with the Feathered Serpent.
As for the image of the animal below the spearthrower, it has always been interpreted
including by myself as a snake, hence its cualification as a War Serpent. But now that
we have found the image of the fire-hurling jaguar, one begins to waver. The beast
could as well be a copy of the creature that sits in the headdress of Yax Nuun Ayin,
which we have identified as a jaguar. The eyes and the spiraled eyebrows seem snake-
like, but the snout definitely differs with that of the ophidian next to him, and is called
muzzlelike by Taube147. To me it looks more like the blunt snout of a jaguar, similar to
the jaguars that once adorned the Temple of New Fire, on the Adosada. Moreover, if we
compare Yax Nuun Ayins on stela 31 with the Xiuhteuctli mask, there is also a similar-
145 The mural is from Portico 1 on patio 3 of Atetelco (Nielsen & Helmke 2008: 465).
146 Nielsen & Helmke 2008: 476.
147 Taube makes a similar comparison of the Xiuhteuctli mask with Yax Nuun Ayins headdress but comes to a dif-
ferent conclusion; to him they are both examples of the Teotihuacan War Serpent helmet (2002: 272).
The ideogram fits seamless in Mesoamericans cosmovision, of the two poles: the con-
cept of the center, the fireplace in a house, and of the outer wilderness. The first one is
ruled by the father, the head of the household, still it is the female domain, because it
is the place where food is made, and the father is the provider of brides151. The wilder-
ness is the territory of the young hunter and warrior, the male domain. The central
mountain and its terrestrial fire, is the place of origin, as well of the celestial fire, be-
cause the sun is born in its hearth. But once born, the sun begins to roam around the
center, in the periphery. In many contemporary Maya myth this hunter of the wilder-
ness is called Kiche Winaq, Man of the Wilderness, and it is no coincidence that the
Kiche Maya used this concept as the name for their confederation: they became the
sun of the new era after the Classic. In the ideogram on the Temple of Quetzalcoatl,
Xiuhteuctli symbolizes the center, the divine hearth, and Nacxitl-Quetzalcoatl, the war-
rior. Indeed, there are versions of the myth of the birth of the sun in Teotihuacan, in
which Nanahuatzin is called another Quetzalcoatl152.
ste fue tambin el sol de Topiltzin de Tollan, de Quetzalchuatl. ste, cuando no era sol, se llamaba Nanhuatl, y
su morada estaba en Tamoanchan (Tena 2002: 181).
Wi Te Naah
As is well known, time and space was highly entwined in Mesoamerica. In Xibalba y el
nacimiento del nuevo sol I revived an idea that I already published some years ago,
about the merchants and their special calendar. They divided the year in nine times 40
days plus the Wayeb which they subsequently projected on the road they walked.
This idiosyncratic calendar resulted in a route divided in stops that were called Nine
Place or Forty Place153.
This mercantile calendar of nine times forty days may have elicited a title like Bolon
Okte Ku. One of the more outstanding images of this deity can be found in the Tem-
ple of the Cross, in Palenque, which features the god and his
merchant path, including nine footsteps, probably referring
to these nine stops. His Central-Mexican name was probably
Chicnauhyoteuctli, Lord of Nine Times, another nickname for
Xiuhteuctli154.
153 On the route of the Valley of Guatemala to the Valley of Mexico, through the Usumacinta corridor I have located
sofar: Chinautla = Kaminal Juyu (9) Kawinal (40) Beleju (9) Kawinik (40) - Salinas de los Nueve Cerros (9)
Chiconautlan Tulapan (9) Chiconautla in Teotihuacan (9) (Akkeren 2003b, 2012)
154 Limn Olvera 2001: 104.
155 Freidel et al., 1993; Boot, 2004: 118, 245-246.
156 Anahuac may either be the coast of Xicalanco or Soconusco, although in this text it rather refers to the latter.
In Xibalba y el nacimiento del nuevo sol I suggest that the temple-pyramids on the
trade-route are the so-called Wi Te Naah. Epigraphers have interpreted the glyph for this
building, T600, as a Foundation House, for it appears that rituals in the Wi Te Naah of-
ten involved the founding or re-establishing of a dynasty.158 However, the one does not
exclude the other. The ritual of the New Fire at the end of a Calendar Round, was often
used for political reasons, as shown many Central-Mexican documents159. I have been
confirming similar practices in the indigenous documents of Guatemala, ever since I
published Place of the Lords Daughter Rabinal, its History, its Dance-Drama in which I
show that the Rabinal Achi was created to mark the transition of the Calendar Round,
probably the one starting in 1478160. The same transition date was used by the
Kaqchikel to inaugurate their new capital Iximche.
1507 (Akkeren 2000, 2007, in press). In Xibalba y el nacimiento del nuevo sol I dedicate a paragraph to New Fire cere-
mony as a political instrument (Akkeren 2012: 190-192).
Apart from Tikal, they are mentioned in other Maya cities. An exhaustive analysis falls
beyond the scope of this article, we will only offer some examples. In Copan there are
quite some references to the Wi Te Naah. Fash, Tokovinine and Fash put forward the
idea that Temple 16 where the founder of the dynasty, Yax Kuk Mo and his wife lie
buried, is a Wi Te Naah. Altar Q, at the foot of this pyramid, relates the accession of Yax
Kuk Mo which included rituals in
the Wi Te Naah. The
accompanying iconography fea-
tures the founder with a torch in
his hand. Fash, Tokovinine and
Fash state that Yax Kuk Mo was
invested as a lord in Teotihuacan,
in the primordial Wi Te Naah at
the foot of the Pyramid of the
Sun. To them Temple 16 of
Copan is an imitation of the
Pyramid of the Sun163.
Temple 23 appears to be a proper candidate for the Wi Te Naah of Yaxchilan, given the
particular iconography of its lintels, 25-24-26. In chronological order, we first have lintel
25 in the central doorway
where the T600 Wi Te
Naah glyph is mentioned.
Here we see Lady Kabal
Xook in the presence of a
huge mayanized Fire
Serpent. From its jaws
emerge an ancestor,
wearing a jaguar headdress
with the Mexican year sign,
xihuitl164. The ancestor is
called Ajkak O Chaak.
Ajkak defines him as a fire priest; interestingly the vocal O is an owl feather, which
That Lady Kabal Xooks headdress indeed evokes the Xiuhteuctli fire priest, shows the
text of Copans Temple 26 on top of the Hieroglyphic Stairway165. The inscriptions rep-
resent a rare combination of Maya glyphs and Teotihuacan writing in alternating col-
umns166. Thus we have on the
one side Maya phrases paired
with Teotihuacan writing on the
other. In the central frieze of
the temple there is full figure
glyph of the Mayan och kak
or fire-entering glyph. It is
paired with a Tlaloc, identical to
the one in Lady Kabal Xooks
headdress; before him is a
xiuhmolpilli bundle of sticks with emerging flames, defining him as the Tlaloc of the
center, Xiuhteuctli.
167 Estela 3: C1a-C1b y F5a-F5b (Lacadena, 2006: 111). Here again, we have the combination of the young Sun God
being a PU, the main sign of Machaquilas Emblem Glyph reads as SU.
169 Laporte 2003: 210-113.
Kalomte
The other institution introduced in Tikal together with the Wi Te Naah is the Kalomte
title. According to the narrative of stela 31 and the Marcador, it was employed by
Spearthrower Owl as well as Siyah Kak. From that time on, the Kalomte title was used
by an exclusive number of Maya lords: scholars think it was the highest grade a mon-
173 A short note. Many other scholars have commented on the foreign influences in Ceibal, including ceramics and
iconography from the Gulf Coast, from all the way up to El Tajn. Foreign influences are even present in the texts.
Perhaps it also left its traces in the original name of Ceibal, hidden in its Emblem Glyph. T174 seems to be made of
a configuration of three hearthstones with the logogram for stone in the middle. Epigraphers have found that T174
starts with the phonetic complement tu. According to a colonial Huastec dictionary the word for tenamaste was tut
(Lacadena, 2005: 257; Tapia Zentena, 1767: folio 77). This corresponds with ethnohistoric and ethnographic sources:
in colonial times the Itza of this area were called the Ajtut. In modern days the last name Tut is still common in the
area, all the way to Salinas de los Nueve Cerros, where the same Emblem Glyph has been found on its monuments.
174 Stuart 2002.
175 Fash et al. 2009: 212.
176 Taube 1992; Boot 2004: 235.
This proposal still needs additional research. Why did Teotihuacan lords often carried
the title Ochkin Kalomte, Kalomte of the West in Maya text? Was it simply because it
lay to west of the Maya area as has been suggested, or are there also cosmovisional
reasons at stake. I show in Xibalba y el nacimiento del nuevo sol that to northern Yu-
catan, and probably also to Chichen Itza, the area of the Pasin river, Salinas de los
Nueve Cerros and the Candelaria Caves was considered the west, where they located
the underworld of Xibalba, and the sacred hearth where the sun was born. Maybe Teo-
177 Stuart 2002: 486-487; Martin & Grube 2000: 17; Tokovinine 2010: 20.
178 Although Erik Boot suggest that the root for the expression may be kal- to open; kalomte, as an agentive, may
thus mean opener of trees (Boot 2005: 275-276 Note 19).
179 Akkeren 2012: 218.
180 They were also present as the four Fire Serpents on the outer columns of the Lower Temple of Jaguar.
What was the role of the priests of the four cardinal Kalomtes? Did they also have a
function in the mercantile network? Surely, one of the two guilds was called after a
prominent tree, the pochotl or ceiba, from which the Pochteca took their name. The
other guild, the Oztomeca, also had their sacred tree, the acxoyatl or pine tree. In
Tenochtitlan the head of the Oztomeca was called Acxotecatl, their seat was called
Acxotlan, and they were also known as the Acxoteca181.
It is even possible that the merchants, as I have suggested, apart from the serpent
road, conceived their route as a trip along the axis mundi or tree of the center. The fa-
mous four cardinal akante with their footsteps may be an expression of that concept.
They are an intrinsical part of the New Year pages of the Codex Dresden. Xiuhteuctli, of
course, is also the deity of time and the year. There is linguistic support for that in high-
land Maya languages. In the Rabinal Achi the term for the axis mundi is raqanibal sutz
raqanibal mayul, column of
clouds, column of mist. It certainly
stands for the tree of the center, in
modern Achi cosmovision, it is tree
where the souls of the dead ances-
tors dwell. When Maya priest are
celebrating a ceremony in honor of
them they are asked to come down
from the raqanibal sutz mayul. Yet,
the term raqanibal derived from
aqan, cognate of akan is also
used in expressions of travels
where it refers to a round trip,
very appropriate to a merchant. It
further has a temporal aspect, as in
the kaqchikel expression xukul raqanibal juna, one year has passed. It al befits the
mercantile ideology.
If, like the term Wi Te Naah, Kalomte has a Nahuatl origin, it may account for the varia-
tion in cognates in different Maya languages. Given its origin and its calendrical context
there is good reason to believe that the term is related to the Yucatecan festival called
X Kolom Ch, a bundle of songs and dance-dramas, published under the title Cantares
de Dzitbalche. The event describes a period-ending festival which includes a song for
the God of Fire and an arrow-sacrifice of a victim tied a the column, placed in the cen-
ter of the town182. Barrera Vsquez transcribed the title as xkolomche, deriving it from
the yucatec stem kol lastimar, golpear, herir, desollar, suggesting a translation as
tree of wounding183.
In Xibalba y el nacimiento del nuevo sol I prove that this Pax Tree is actually the
equivalent of the Okte, the tree of which Bolon Okte Ku is made, the afore-mentioned
tzite or palo de pito. It is the same wood of which the supreme gods of Xibalba are
shaped. Recall that when the Hero Twins enter the court of Xibalba, the first pair of
lords sitting on a throne, is not One and Seven Death, but two wooden effigies. They
184 The original document has colche, but that is a transcription of Ximnez (folio 52v). Some translators think it is
kiche and transcribe it as qolche, gum or resin tree (Edmonson, Tedlock, Christenson).
185 Akkeren 2000: 325-335.
186 Much like the Jaguar Warrior of Cacaxtla is showing.
187 Akkeren 2000: 326.
188 Taube 1988: 335-7. In Postclassic versions the Pax trunk could be replaced by a tun sign.
189 Janssens & Van Akkeren 2003: 86-89; Akkeren 2012: 149-150.
190 Boot 2006:8.
As a final re-
mark, the tree
of sacrifice in
the Rabinal Achi
stands chuxmut
kaj, chuxmut
ulew, in the
center of the
sky, in the
center of the
earth. The
modern town of
Momostenango
is surrounded by altars linked to day-numbers, the altar of the center, the Six Place, is a
hearth, and is called Pa Klom which seems a corruption of Pa Kolom192. They all coin-
cide in referring to a post or tree of the center, likely similar to the Classic Kalomte.
There has been quite some words devoted to the significance of Emblem Glyphs, ever
since their identification by Heinrich Berlin: whether Emblem Glyphs represent the
name of the city itself, or of the patron deity or ruling dynasty of the city 193. Stuart
and Houston were the first to show that Emblem Glyphs were not the only toponymic
references in Classic texts. Others could exist, even within a polity already defined by
an Emblem Glyph. They were recognized for a certain place name formula194.
Maya are not the only people in the world who employed onomastics, a field which in-
cludes studies like toponymy and anthroponomy, thus it is appropriate to consult these
areas when discussing Emblem Glyphs. Toponomists can explain that toponyms are
derived from landscape features, settlements and its function like farm, market, fort,
finished with the expression chan o kab - chen, sky or earth - cave, a Classic difrasismo, defining it as a toponymic
expression (Stuart & Houston 1994).
Nonetheless, once established, these Emblem Glyphs may begin to define a dynasty,
that is, becoming a patronym a common process in the field of anthroponomy.
Simon Martin tentatively concluded that in essence, these emblem names seem to
label royal houses whose connections to specific territories are less intrinsic than habit-
ual196. Peter Br took a similar stand in his recent article197:
I present a hypothesis about emblem glyph main signs where I argue that they are places of ori-
gin for all titled individuals who claimed descent from a given family and they reflect real or fictive
blood connections. Their reference to territory was not that important and they were shifting on
the political land-scape with the migrations of the families who used them198.
Thus Emblem Glyphs got attached as titles to persons who took them to other places,
as shows the Emblem Glyph of Tikal used in the Dos Pilas area or the Baakel Emblem
Glyph of Palenque also used in Tortuguero and at the end of the Classic, in Comal-
calco199.
In our case the Emblem Glyph alluding to Mutal/Tzonmolco seemed to have started as
a personal name, a patronym referring to a calpulli. Again, these are not unusual dy-
namics in the field of toponomy. There are many other toponyms that developed from
patronyms. It would be helpfull if epigraphers extended their view beyond the Classic
Maya. In the Postclassic, Mayas kept founding towns and naming them, and we have a
score of indigenous manuscripts documenting these historical dynamics. To name a
few examples, we mentioned in this article Kanek Wits as another name for Salinas de
los Nueve Cerros; Chama originally derived from Chamak, Fox, probably the name of a
warrior caste turned patronym; Cotzumalguapa, known in Kaqchikel as Saqbinya, both
referring to the patronym Saqbin, Weasel; Kooja, a Mam patronym and the name of a
rich Mam town in the Quetzaltenango area of which I have suggested that they were
originally from Takalik Abaj and which provided the brides for the supreme Kiche lord
(ajpop); or, for that matter, Tenochtitlan, founded by Aztec ancestor Tenoch.
Thus the bended knot of hair, the Tikal Emblem Glyph, seems a rebus spelling of the
Mesoamerican calpulli Mutal-Tzonmolco. It must have had its origin in a custom prac-
tised by high priests of Xiuhteuctli or Bolon Okte Ku, to bind their hair into a knot on
their forehead. This routine subsequently lent its name to a calpulli of the highest nobil-
ity that would find itself dispersed over Mesoamerica, due to its involvement in trade
and the trade-network.
Our hypothesis is sustained by the identification of Spearthrower Owl as the high priest
of the Xiuhteuctli cult in charge of the New Fire ceremony and likely also as the Teoti-
huacan minister in charge of investing aspirant lords. These services may have taken
place in the compound of the Pyramid of the Sun. He further was the head of the su-
preme sanctuary of the merchant guilds, perhaps the building we have come to know
as the Temple of Quetzalcoatl in the Ciudadela. The identification of Spearthrower Owl is
further supported by the introduction of two other institutions in Tikal, the Wi Te Naah
temple and the Kalomte title, which both seemed to have been part of the merchant
doctrine.
It might come as a revelation to some, but as said, other studies show that there was
surprisingly more interculturality in prehispanic Mesoamerica than until now has been
recognized. I have been investigating Mesoamericas history at the lineage level, or bet-
ter, from the point of view of that typically Mesoamerican mixed corporate and kinship
group, the calpulli. As remarked, another study is about to see the light, in which I
show that the Highland Maya lineage of the Toj, who introduced the Tojil cult into the
Highlands, is originally a Central-Mexican calpulli called Atonal in Nahuatl. I have been
able to trace the calpulli Atonal all the way back to Tula and Cuauhtitlan. They appear in
Mesoamerica in places which when lined together neatly form the trade-route from
Central-Mexico to Soconusco and beyond. Hence, it is fascinating to realize that Tojil,
being a Fire God, is but another exponent of the mercantile ideology 200.
Accordingly, the calpulli Mutal-Tzonmolco seems, just like the Toj-Atonal, an illustration
of the dynamics of interculturality during the Classic and Postclassic: merchant families
driven by trade and spreading along the trade network of Mesoamerica, while marrying
into local social networks. Future research should concentrate more on these mecha-
nisms and its actors, because they seemed to have shaped a considerate part of Meso-
american culture
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This is not yet the final version of the article.
There are various people I would like to thank for their help and the use of the images.
However the final acknowledgements will have to wait.
200As explained, Xiuhteuctli is the patron of the day Atl, its Highland version is Toj. I have shown that the modern
image of San Pablo, patron saint of Rabinal, has his cloak covered with Mexican Atl signs (Akkeren 2000: 174-184).
In this study I mention other calpultin and lineages which follow a similar process (Akkeren in press).
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d=40259
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