**Antes que nada comentar a título personal
que la noticia para mí está confusa. Deben faltar datos o algo se le ha
escapado a quien firma el artículo porque aunque es verdad que el
desciframiento de los glifos en La Corona están dando lugar a una
reinterpretación de la "actividad política" de los mayas del periodo
Clásico y, sobre todo del Clásico Tardío, desde que se identificó con el
antiguamente llamado Sitio Q, en esta noticia en particular no se
presenta nada "nuevo". Sí, en la parte final se vuelve a repetir los
hallazgos del equipo de Stuart y Saturno en Xultún que nos hablan de un
calendario que va más allá del conocido como Bak'tún 13 (y por cierto
aunque creo que no se menciona en la noticia, el posible desciframiento
por otro investigador del raro ciclo de 819 días registrado también en
Palenque y Yaxchilán).
Lo novedoso que
aquí presentaban es otra relación de la fecha del 21 de Diciembre de
2012, el 13.0.0.0.0 4 ajaw, 8 kumk'u, fecha era maya, registrada en La
Corona y que la relacionaba con Calakmul y con un hecho fundamental para
el contexto histórico de las Tierras Bajas mayas, la muerte del k'uhul
ajaw, Yuhkno'm Yich'aak K'ahk, conocido como Garra de Jaguar o Garra de
Fuego, de Calakmul. Si bien, yo, leyendo la noticia, no pude encontrar
ese vínculo entre el Bak'tún 13 con el título que se le otorga en el
monumento al ajaw de Calakmul de: "señor de 13 k'atunes", al referirse a
un evento ocurrido en un K'atún 13, ni tampoco encontré novedoso que se
explique que dicho ajaw, posiblemente, no murió en Tikal o debido al
enfrentamiento contra Tikal del 695 d.C., como se afirmaba en tiempos de
L. Schele...puesto que el descubrimiento de la Tumba 4 de la E.II de
Calakmul por el equipo del PAC dirigido por Ramón Carrasco puso en duda
dicha afirmación al descubrirse, entre otros restos de ajuar, un plato
que acompañaba al cuerpo en el que se podía leer: u-lak yukhno'm
yich'aak k'ahk'--> "es el plato/su plato de...".
Ahí van mis dudas que
supongo que son debidas a una mala traducción del artículo o peor, falta
de datos en la noticia...sin embargo es de interés por los hallazgos
que en La Corona se están realizando y que gracias a la financiación de
la Tulane se seguirán realizando. Y por supuesto, lo más importante y
novedoso y que debía resaltar en la noticia es el descubrimiento de un
nuevo monumento que nos habla del k'uhul ajaw de Calakmul ejerciendo su
poder al visitar La Corona (29 de enero del 696 d.C.) en una fecha que
va más allá de la que hasta ahora teníamos como último registro, 9.13.2.17.1, 3 Imix, 19 Kumk’u, que equivale a 9 de febrero de 695 d.C registrada en Uxul.
La noticia se acompaña de un video que podeis ver siguiendo el enlace que he añadido en la parte inferior de la misma.
A publishing and entertainment empire has arisen around the
supposed Mayan “end date” of December 21, 2012. But a second reference
to the date, discovered only recently in Guatemala by a team including
UT’s David Stuart, further debunks the theory that the Maya expected the
world to end. In this slideshow, including images from National
Geographic, see the discovery at La Corona and read how the Maya used
the date simply as “a literary device.”
Archaeologists working in the jungles of Guatemala have discovered an
ancient Maya text that refers to the so-called end date of the Maya
calendar, Dec. 21, 2012. The hieroglyphic inscription was unearthed in
April at the ruins of La Corona, located in the dense rainforest of
northwestern Guatemala, and deciphered by
David Stuart of The University of Texas at Austin during his research at the site in May.
The text is one of many found this year by an international team led
by archaeologists from Tulane University and the Universidad del Valle
de Guatemala. Among their discoveries are portions of the longest text
ever discovered in Guatemala, carved on multiple staircase steps and
recording 200 years of La Corona’s history, now being closely studied by
Stuart and his colleagues. The discovery, perhaps the most significant
hieroglyphic find in decades, was announced at a news conference held
this morning at the National Palace in Guatemala City.
The stone referring to the year 2012 was carved to commemorate a
royal visit to La Corona (which the ancient Maya called Saknikte’) by
the ruler Yuknoom Yich’aak K’ahk’ from the great Maya capital of
Calakmul on Jan. 29, 696 A.D. Before the discovery, this ruler was
thought by scholars to have been killed in battle, when Calakmul was
defeated by its great rival, Tikal. But the new find makes it clear that
Yuknoom Yich’aak K’ahk’ was visiting allies — such as La Corona — in
the wake of this defeat, possibly soothing their fears after such a
significant military loss.
Why the reference to the year 2012? “The reason mostly has to do with
the cosmological dimensions of ancient Maya politics and kingship,”
says Stuart. “Calakmul’s king had only recently celebrated an important
ending of 13 K’atun calendar cycle, in the year 692 (9.13.0.0.0), and in
this text he is called a “13 K’atun lord.” The scribe has used this
important ritual fact to project forward to when the next higher period
of the Maya calendar will also reach 13 — a sacred Maya number — which
will come on Dec. 21, 2012 (13.0.0.0.0).”
It is in this context that we have only the second reference to the
“end date” in the entire corpus of ancient Maya writing, according to
Stuart. This text uses the 2012 date to put this king’s troubled reign
and accomplishments into a larger cosmological framework.
“This new evidence suggests that the 2012 date was an important
calendrical event that would have been celebrated by the ancient Maya;
however, they make no apocalyptic prophecies about it whatsoever,” says
Marcello Canuto, director of Tulane’s Middle American Research Institute
and co-director of the excavations at La Corona. Since 2008, Canuto and
Tomás Barrientos of the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, have
directed excavations at La Corona. Stuart was part of a 1997 expedition
that first explored and documented the ruins, when he named it La Corona
(“The Crown”) after a distinctive building seen in the forest there — a
line of five closely spaced small pyramids.
Stuart’s decipherments at La Corona come shortly after another
significant find announced earlier this year — the discovery of a
painted structure at the ruins of Xultun, Guatemala, containing what is
thought to be the work space of a scribe or calendar priest. Stuart
collaborated with William Saturno of Boston University, who directs the
Xultun excavations, to decipher the unique paintings found on the walls
of the small structure.
“I was at the ruins of Xultun when the paintings were initially
discovered in 2010 and also during spring break this year,” Stuart says.
“As the paintings were being uncovered in 2011, I was sent scans and
photographs of the images and began deciphering the mathematical and
astronomical tables last summer.”
The structure is covered with tiny red and black numbers and
hieroglyphs, unlike any seen before at other Maya sites. These appear to
be notations, written by the scribes as they were working and carrying
out calendrical calculations, similar to a modern mathematician’s office
whiteboard. Some numbers appear to represent the various calendrical
cycles charted by the Maya — the 260-day ceremonial calendar, the
365-day solar calendar, the 584-day cycle of the planet Venus and the
780-day cycle of Mars, reports lead excavator Saturno. Saturno and
Stuart reported their findings in a paper they co-authored for the
journal Science titled, ”Ancient Maya Astronomical Tables from Xultun, Guatemala.”
Stuart’s main contribution was to read and reconstruct the numbers,
many of which were poorly preserved. He also identified the nature of
the tables as ancient tools for calendrical calculations, including
lunar cycles. Finally, he carefully copied the texts so colleagues and
future scholars can also study them. His field time in March involved
working directly with the paintings and texts before they were closed
and eventually reburied — the best means of ensuring their preservation
in the remote jungle.
“It was incredible being in an ancient room where scribes and
calendar priests were once working on their calculations, perhaps even
discussing them,” says Stuart. “The day after I reconstructed the very
damaged lunar table from Xultun, I shared the exciting news with
undergrads who were in the UT study abroad program in Antigua,
Guatemala.
“As a fun exercise, I had the students figure out the how the ancient
Maya would have written each column in the table, using bars and dots.
On the whiteboard in our classroom we wrote the table as it would have
originally looked — 27 columns of Maya numbers. It was the first time it
had ever been reconstructed visually, and it was a really special
moment.”
Stuart is the David and Linda Schele Professor of Mesoamerican Art
and Writing at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of
the popular book on the Maya calendar,
“The Order of Days: The
Maya World and the Truth about 2012.” Stuart’s research is supported by
the Schele research fund from the
College of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin and through the
Casa Herrera research facility in Guatemala, where he does much of his work throughout the year.
