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K’inich Muwaan Jol II, who ruled from 628 to 650 CE, might be the previously missing twenty-third or twenty-fourth ruler in the dynastic sequence of Tikal. He has also been identified as the father of Tikal ruler Nuun Ujol Chaak, also known as ‘Shield Skull’, and ‘Nun Bak Chak, who ruled from 650 to 679 CE.
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Puh: The original name of Teōtīhuacān is unknown, but appears in hieroglyphic texts from the Maya region as Puh or “Place of reeds’. In the Sisimito Series, Teōtīhuacān is called Puh. The name Teōtīhuacān was given byb the Nahuatl speaking Aztec centuries after the fall of the city. The term has been glossed as ‘birthplace of the gods’, reflecting Nahua creation myths that were said to occur in Teōtīhuacān. Nahuatl scholar Thelma D. Sullivan interprets the name as ‘place of those who have the road of the gods.’ This is because the Aztecs believed that the gods created the universe at that site.
Teōtīhuacān was a pre-Columbian Mesoamerican city located in a sub valley of the Valley of Mexico, located in the State of Mexico, 30 miles (48 km) northeast of modern day Mexico City, known today as the site of many of the most architecturally significant Mesoamerican pyramids built in the pre-Columbian Americas. Apart from the pyramids, Teōtīhuacān is also anthropologically significant for its complex, multi-family residential compounds, the Avenue of the Dead, and the small portion of its vibrant murals that have been exceptionally well-preserved. Additionally, Teōtīhuacān exported a so-called “Thin Orange” pottery style and fine obsidian tools that garnered high prestige and widespread utilization throughout Mesoamerica. The city is thought to have been established around 100 BC, with major monuments’ continuously under construction until about AD 250. The city may have lasted until sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries AD, but its major monuments were sacked and systematically burned around 550 AD. At its zenith, perhaps in the first half of the 1 st millennium AD, Teōtīhuacān was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas, with a population estimated at 125,000 or more, making it at minimum the sixth largest city in the world during its epoch. Teōtīhuacān began as a new religious center in the Mexican Highland around the first century AD. This city came to be the largest and most populated center in the New World. Teōtīhuacān was even home to multi-floor apartment compounds built to accommodate the large population.
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Ixlu is a small Maya archaeological site that dates to the Classic and Postclassic Periods. It is located on the isthmus between the Petén Itzá and Salpetén lakes, in the northern Petén Department of Guatemala. The site was an important port with access to Lake Petén Itzá via the Ixlu River. The site has been identified as Saklamakhal, also spelt Saclemacal, a capital of the Kowoj Maya.
The site has over 150 structures, the majority of which in the site core display typically Postclassic characteristics. The site was briefly investigated by Don and Prudence Rice in 1980.
Ixlu is located approximately 23 km (14 mi) east of the departmental capital of Flores and 275 km (171 mi) north of Guatemala City. Ixlu is approximately 28 km (17 mi) south of the ruins of the major Classic Period city of Tikal.
Ixlu Stela 1 bears the date 879 AD, in the Late Classic Period, and depicts a ruler who used the Tikal Emblem Glyph and the K’ul Mutul Ahaw title (“Holy Lord of Tikal”).
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Motul, now known as Motul de San José, is an ancient Maya site located just north of Lake Petén Itzá in the Petén Basin region of the southern Maya lowlands. It is a few kilometres from the modern village of San José, in Guatemala‘s northern department of Petén. A medium-sized civic-ceremonial centre, it was an important political and economic centre during the Late Classic period (AD 650–950).
The site was first settled between 600 and 300 BC, in the latter portion of the Middle Preclassic period, when it most likely was a fairly small site. This Maya city then had a long and continuous occupational history until the Early Postclassic, up to around AD 1250, with peaks in the Late Preclassic and Late Classic periods. Motul de San José had begun to refer to Tikal as its overlord in the late 4th century AD; by the 7th century it had switched its allegiance to Calakmul, Tikal’s great rival, before returning its allegiance to Tikal in the early 8th century. In the late 8th century Motul de San José appears to have been conquered by Dos Pilas, capital of the Petexbatún kingdom.
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Ha ‘ Ta Itza: Ha’ is Maya for ‘lake’ or ‘pond’. Ta Itza means ‘At the place of the Itza (people)’. The lake being referred to here is Lake Peten Itza.
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The Holmul River is a river in northeastern Guatemala that flows through the Petén Basin region in the department of El Petén towards the border with Belize. A number of significant pre-Columbian Maya sites lie along or near the course of this waterway, including Tikal, Nakum, Holmul, Naranjo, Yaxha and Witzna.
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Siyaj K’ak’ (Fire is Born) was the overlord (yajaw) of the king of Pa’ Chan (El Zotz). This general was implicated in a major Teotihuacan-backed military intervention in the central Peten during the fourth century AD.
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Yuknoom Head’s, also known as Cauac Head, accession was in 630 CE. He was followed by Yuknoom Ch’een, also known as Yuknoom the Great, whose accession was on April 28, 636. Yuknoom Ch’een II reigned for 50 years, dying in 686.
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Yuself is Kriol for ‘yourself’.
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Juk is Kriol (vulgar) for ‘to have sex’. Jukin is ‘having sex’ or ‘having sex with’.
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Sweethaat is Kriol for ‘sweetheart’.
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Palitiks is Kriol for ‘politics’. May refer to a happening one does not want to associate with as it could be unpleasant.
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Foklik is Kriol (vulgar) for ‘beat’ as in ‘fighting’.
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Slop Jockey is the military slang for ‘chef or cook’.
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Ala is Maya for ‘boy’.
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Centehua is a Nahuatl female name meaning ‘only one’.
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Icnoyotl is a Nahuatl unisexual name meaning ‘friendship’.
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Nakbé is one of the largest early Maya archaeological sites. Nakbé is located in the Mirador Basin, in the Peten region of Guatemala, approximately 13 kilometers south of the largest Maya city of El Mirador. Excavations at Nakbé suggest that habitation began at the site during the Early Formative period (c. 1400 BC) and continued to be a large site until its collapse during the Terminal Formative period (100-200 BC). The fall of Nakbé and El Mirador took place at roughly the same time. A causeway system linked important features of the city to one another and later linked Nakbé with other sites.
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Masuul is the ancient name for Naachtun, situated at the northeastern perimeter of the Mirador Basin region in the southern Maya lowlands. The site served as a link between Tikal and Calakmul, that were the superpowers in the Classic, and in constant wars between them, perhaps using Massul as a “Neutral Talk Place”. It is quite large, with several
Pyramid temples and Acropolis, linked by sacbeobs, as well as 2 ballcourts.
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Tinimit Saatal is Maya for Lost City. Tinimit (noun) is Maya for ‘region, city, town, village’. Saatal (adj.) is Maya for ‘lost’. The site being referred to is now known as El Mirador. It is truly the lost Mayan city, a huge site (some say the largest Mayan city in existence) in the jungle of northern Guatemala. It is in the Mirador Basin, a vast area of virgin rain forest which also contains dozens of Mayan ruins including several large cities, the largest of which is the one known as El Mirador (which means “The Lookout”). The site is known as the cradle of Maya civilization and is home to several huge structures and many square miles of unrestored mounds and pyramids in the jungle, covered in vegetation. It has been called the oldest and most extensive May
a site in the world, covering 38 square miles, larger than the city of Los Angeles. El Mirador flourished as a trading center from around 200 BC to 150 AD during what is known as the Maya Pre-Classic Period. Thus, it is a very early Mayan settlement. With a population as high as 100,000, it was one of the first large cities in the Americas, but then lost its population and was perhaps even abandoned. It later regained some population, but finally was abandoned for good in about 900 AD in the great Mayan collapse. There is no permanent population today. The city’s main group of buildings covers two square kilometers and many were built on a grand scale, such as the “El Tigre” complex and the “La Danta” complex. El Tigre rises to about 180 feet tall, and its base covers 14 acres. The La Danta complex has a base that would cover 35 football fields. On top of this base is a series of plazas, temples, pyramids and other structures reaching to a total height of 230 feet, making it one of the tallest of all Mayan structures. The view from the top of El Tigre is mostly of jungle and other ruins, such as Calakmul and Nakbé in the distance. However, any mound or group of mounds that you can see as far to the horizon are former cities.
An additional feature of El Mirador is the quantity and size of causeways, connecting important points within the city and also extending out to other major cities within the Mirador Basin. The causeways (known as sacbeobs) are raised stone causeways rising 2 to 6 meters above the level of the surrounding landscape and measuring from 20 to 50 meters
wide. (From Mayan Ruins a directory of the Maya ruins in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Central America.)
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T’ix is Maya for ‘tapir’ or ‘mountain cow’, Tapirus bairdii.
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Baläm is Maya for ‘jaguar’.
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Ikaj is Maya for ‘axe’, also ‘stone axe’.
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Bajibal tuunich is Maya for ‘hammerstone’. Bajibal is a Maya noun for ‘hammer’ and tunnich for ‘stone’.
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Uyeh is Maya for ‘blade’.
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Chun is Maya for ‘lime’ and ‘limestone’.
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Jun, ka’ib‘, oxib are Maya for ‘one, two, three’.
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Tenoch is a Unisexual Nahuatl name. The meaning is unknown.
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Tzitzimitk: The female form of Sisimito (Mahanamatz) is Sisimita. There is no English translation and it appears that Sisimita comes from the Nahuatl word Tzitzimitl. InAztec mythology, a Tzitzimitl (plural Tzitzimimeh) is a deity associated with stars. They were depicted as skeletal female figures wearing skirts often with skull and cross- bone designs. In Post-conquest descriptions, they are often described as “demons” or “devils”, but this does not necessarily reflect their function in the prehispanic belief system of the Aztecs. The Tzitzimimeh were female deities, and as such related to fertility, they were associated with the Cihuateteo and other female deities such as Tlaltecuhtli, Coatlicue, Citlalicue and Cihuacoatl and they were worshipped by midwives and parturient women. The leader of the Tzitzimimeh, the Goddess Itzpapalotl, was the ruler of Tamoanchan, the paradise home of Tzitzimimeh.
The Tzitzimimeh were also associated with the stars and especially the stars that can be seen around the Sun during a solar eclipse. This was interpreted as the Tzitzimimeh attacking the Sun, this caused the belief that during a solar eclipse, the Tzitzimime would descend to the earth and devour human beings. The Tzitzimimeh were also feared during other ominous periods of the Aztec world, such as during the five unlucky days called Nemontemi which marked an unstable period of the year count, and during the New Fire ceremony marking the beginning of a new calendar round; both were periods associated with the fear of change. The Tzitzimimeh had a double role in Aztec religion: they were protectresses of the feminine and progenitresses of mankind. They were also powerful and dangerous, especially in periods of cosmic instability.
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Ho’ k’áal tun is Maya for ‘one hundred years’.
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Ho’ toq tun is used here to mean ‘five hundred years’. Ho’ is ‘five’, tog is ‘hundred’, and tun is ‘year’.
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Hun bak tun is Maya for ‘four hundred years’.
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Poj Sug is used here for the city of El Tintal. Poj is the Maya noun for ‘hill’, and suq for ‘swamp’. It is located in the north of the department of Peten, in a remote area still covered by virgin rainforest and only accessible by mule trails. The site occupies a hill, with four swampy areas within the site core. The swamps of the Mirador Basin appear to have been the primary attraction for the first inhabitants of the area as evidenced by the unusual cluster of large cities clustered around them. El Tintal was a satellite city to the capital of the Kingdom of Kan, El Mirador. Tintal was the second largest site in the Mirador basin, after Mirador itself.
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Ajk’ay is Maya noun for ‘seller’ or ‘vendor’. Ajk’ay is used here for the city of La Venta, a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Olmec civilization located in the present-day Mexican state of Tabasco.
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Xjos is Maya for small sickle, used for cutting grass. It could also be used as a weapon.
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Chaa Nim’ja is used here as the name of the Chaa Creek ruins. Chaa Creek is a tributary of the Macal River in the Cayo District in Western Belize. One of the official gauging stations of the Macal is located near the confluence with Chaa Creek. There are also Maya ruins that remain largely unexcavated in the Chaa Creek catchment basin; certain early research was conducted on the archaeology at Chaa Creek in 1997 by Harvard University. Significant pottery finds and other artifacts have been recovered at the Chaa Creek site, which is posited to be a satellite site of Xunantunich. The Chaa Creek Nature Reserve is a noted area in western Belize for birding and other natural history study. The underlying geology of this watershed can be characterized as limestone associations of foothills of the Maya Mountains. (Wikipedia)
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Cahal Pech is a Maya site located near the Town of San Ignacio in the Cayo District of Belize. The site was a palatial, hilltop home for an elite Maya family, and though most major construction dates to the Classic period, evidence of continuous habitation has been dated to as far back as 1200 BCE during the Early Middle Formative period (Early Middle Preclassic), making Cahal Pech one of the oldest recognizably Maya sites in Western Belize. The site rests high above the banks of the Macal River and is strategically located to overlook the confluence of the Macal River and the Mopan River. The site is a collection of 34 structures, with the tallest temple being about 25 meters in height,
situated around a central acropolis. The site was abandoned in the 9th century CE for unknown reasons.
The name Cahal Peck, meaning “Place of the Ticks”, was given during the first archaeological studies in the 1950s, led by Linton Satterthwaite from the University of Pennsylvania Museum. (Wikipedia)
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Tlanextic is a Nahuatl male name meaning ‘light of dawn’.
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Tlazohtlaloni is a Nahuatl male name meaning ‘one who is loved’. It is the masculine form of Tlazohtzin.
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Huitzilihuitl is a Nahuatl male name meaning ‘hummingbird feather’.
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Milintica is Nahuatl male name meaning ‘he is waving’ or ‘fire’.
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Cuetzpalli is a Nahuatl male name meaning ‘lizard’.
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Ixkun is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site, situated in the Peten Basin region of the southern Maya lowlands. It lies to the north of the town of Dolores, in the modern-day department of Peten, Guatemala. It is a large site containing many unrestored mounds and ruins and is the best known archaeological site within the municipality of Dolores. Ixkun is located 35 kilometres (22 miles) southwest of the ruins of the major Maya city of Caracol (Ox Wit
z Ha), in Belize.
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Chaq’ab is Maya for ‘night’. Q’eq Warriors of the Chaq’ab means ‘Black Warriors of the Night’.
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Ulew-q’a’m is Maya for ‘isthmus’ or ‘land-bridge’
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Laguna Sacnab is approximately 6.38 miles long. Laguna Yaxha is approximately 11.23 miles long
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Baird’s tapir, Tapirus bairdii, also known as the Central American tapir, is a species of tapir native to Mexico, Central America and northwestern South America. It is one of four Latin American species of tapir.
In Belize, where the Baird’s tapir is the national animal, it is known as the mountain cow. In Belize, the hunting of this animal is illegal.
Sisimito III--Topoxte Page 80