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The change in formula that we saw in the previous passage signals what Kathryn Josserand has called the Peak Event of an inscription (Linda Schele 1986). The consistent linking of births to accessions in the text up to this point changed abruptly to the tying together of two birth dates. Now the rhythm of the text will be affected again by a change in syntax. Here we see what appears to be a return to the previous pattern of the inscription. A Distance Number of 7 days, 4 months, 8 tuuns, and 2 k'atuns (U11-U12) counts forward from the birth (T13) of Kan B'ahlam (U13) on 9.4.10.1.5 (September 20, 524) 11 Chikchan 13 Ch'en (T14-U14). And then instead of the expected verb for accession, there immediately follows another Distance Number - 2 days, 8 months, and 18 or 19 tuuns (T15-U15) - again apparently counting forward from the birth (T16) of Kan B'ahlam (U16) to the expression for accession - "and then the white headband was tied onto the head of (or held for or by) him" (T17-U17). We know from the East Tablet of the Temple of the Inscriptions that Kan B'ahlam acceded on 9.6.18.5.12 10 Eb 0 Wo, and it turns out that the first of the two Distance Numbers here leads to that date. The other Distance Number leads to no other stated event. As Linda Schele has commented, "...it just hangs there in an incomplete sentence." Schele continues, "In oral discourse peak events are often marked by hesitation, reversals of syntactical strategy, and other kinds of disturbances: here, the hanging sentence may be just such a disturbance. Certainly, it connects to no recorded date in the entire corpus of Palenque" (Robert Wald 1999). Schele has also suggested that the shorter distance number must lead to an important pre-accession event such as an heir designation ceremony that did not have to be stated explicitly to an audience familiar with royal ritual and dynastic history (Wald op. cit.). |