Classic Maya Directional Glyphs

Abstract

The Classic Maya living in Southern Mesoamerica during the first millennium A.D. used a hieroglyphic writing system that included four directional glyphs. Scholars have differed with regard to the specific readings of these glyphs as well as on the question of whether they refer to the sun's path (east, zenith, west, nadir) or instead to the cardinal directions (east, north, west, south). Evidence bearing on the latter question is presented here, and a resolution proposed that in Classic times alternative programs of directional symbolism—one based on the sun's path, and another on the cardinal directions— were employed in Maya script and iconography. The unmarked normal referents of the "north" and "south" glyphs were zenith and nadir respectively, while the direction zenith also implied north and nadir also implied south. There was nonetheless a glyph referring specifically to "north," but not one referring specifically to "south." As part of the evidence for this resolution, new readings and interpretations based on a Cholan Mayan language are introduced for the Classic Maya directional glyphs. The proposed readings of these glyphs are *xin chan "zenith, north," *nahal ajaw "north," *mal puy "nadir, south," *hok' k'in "sunrise, east," and *k'ah k'in "sunset, west."

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