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It is also noteworthy that the wife of Pakal the Great is referred to as being a Toktan noble. On the left above is the name glyph for Pakal's wife, Lady Tz'akb'u Ajaw, from D16 of the Palace Tablet. On the right is the partially eroded glyph for Toktan Winik, "Cloud Center Person" (D17). The left half of the glyph block is to over ko over TAN. The right half is WINIK, over the phonetic complement -ki.

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Note: Schele and Mathews consider "Cloud Center" to be a place name and associate it with the valley in which the Group of the Cross and other structures are built. As Schele explained to the 1993 Maya Hieroglyphic Workshop, "This is where we believe the first king of Palenque lived and that is somewhere near Temple 18A. I believe that when the archaeologists go back into that area they are going to find a lot of other Early Classic tombs and perhaps even the Founder himself (Schele and Mathews 1993)."

Ed Barnhart of the Palenque Mapping Project offers a different suggestion:

"The heart of the Picota Group is the irregularly shaped Picota Plaza. [map] The irregular shape is caused by the protrusion of structures P23, 24 and 25 into the plaza, creating two distinct sections of plaza space. The western part of the plaza contains the La Picota Stela (the feature for which the area is named), the Picota aqueduct, and a well-preserved staircase climbing nine steps up from its southern boundary. Towering above the Picota Plaza to the south are a series of three terraces topped by structure P14 and its associated courtyard group. Structure P12, located five meters to the southeast of P14 has an area of collapse in its top revealing a subterranean tomb chamber below.

"In form and geographic placement, the line of temple-like structures running from the structure P14 eastward to the Group I platform are reminiscent of the line of structures in Palenque's primary center created by Temple XII, XIII and the Inscriptions. Both areas have temples built into the hillside overlooking a plaza. Acknowledging that XII, XIII and the Inscriptions are funerary monuments, a similar function is suspected for these southern temples of the Picota Group. Collectively, the presence of a large plaza, a stela, an elaborate aqueduct and a line of funerary temples along the south edge give the Picota area a distinctly "central precinct" character. The large nearby structure designated the Escondido Platform further supports that conclusion. Palenque appears to have had not one, but two "centers". ...

"The discovery of this second center at Palenque leads to a hypothesis with potential to answer a growing question regarding the members of Palenque's early royal lineage. Despite decades of excavation in Palenque's central precinct archaeologists have found little evidence of royal family activities earlier than the time of Pakal. The exceptions, the XVIIIa tomb (Berlin 1943b) and the Reyna Roja (Gonzalez Cruz 1998), are still under debate as to the antiquity of their time periods. David Stuart has read Palenque hieroglyphic texts referring to a place named "Tok Tan" as the origin place of the Palenque lineage, a place he believes to be separate from the primary center (p.c.). Could the Picota Plaza be the center of the dynasty's original family members? Its size, suspected age, and obvious association with the site's residential community make it a possibility worthy of further archaeological investigation (Palenque Mapping Project 1999 Field Season Report, submitted to FAMSI)."

As we will consider in connection with another inscription, Toktan may have been the original seat of the Palenque dynasty, which was subsequently moved to Lakam Ha' (in all probability the area surrounding the Palace) by the fourth Palenque ruler B'utz'aj Sak Chiik. The area around Temple 18A, proposed by Schele and Mathews as the location of Toktan, is very close indeed to Lakam Ha', and it would hardly seem to have warranted an inscription recording such an insignificant move. Even the La Picota Group is only a ten minute walk from the Palace.