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This came about when close attention was paid to the hieroglyphic expression for the verb "to die". Sometimes referred to as the "wing-death phrase", the two glyphs above are read together as K'A'-yi-ya 'u-SAK-NICH?-IK'-li, k'a'ayiiy 'usak nich? ik'il, "his white flowery? breath was extinguished." Ik' means "wind", which in the context is "breath". This is a current reading by the hieroglyphics experts (although David Stuart doubts that the Ajaw face should be read as "flower"), and note that here T503 is read as IK' despite the fact that it is not surrounded by the day-sign cartouche. This is a highly unusual situation, as we shall see. Incidentally, in this metaphor for the departure of the soul, the "wing-glyph" (top left in the illustration) was once read erroneously, but understandably, as "flown away".
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