|
We don't have a birth date for Lady Yohl Ik'nal, because the Temple of the Cross Tablet, from which we derived the birthdates of previous rulers, stops with her father, Kan B'ahlam I. We do have her accession date however. This passage of the Temple of the Inscriptions East Panel counts forward 12 days, 14 months, and 9 tuuns from her seating (L3) with the royal headband (K4) until the "tying" of the tuun (L5). This last glyph shows a flat hand holding a kawak symbol (here read TUUN and not ku because of the ni suffix). This must refer to the k'atun ending of 9.8.0.0.0 because of the calendar round 5 Ajaw 3 Ch'en (K6-L6). The next three glyphs (L7-K8) read ya-k'a-wa 'u-PIK 'u-K'UH-li, yak'aw 'upik uk'uhil, "she offered it, the skirt of her gods". Her name follows at L8, with the Palenque emblem glyph at K9. (Her name and emblem glyph also appear at L4-K5 in connection with the accession verb.) Note that the 'OHL element of Lady Yohl Ik'nal's name is here conflated with the IX', for a spelling transcribed as IX'['OHL]-NAL-IK'-la. As discussed previously, the possessive y- must be inferred. |
| Note: Epigraphers had previously read Lady Yohl Ik'nal's period-ending offering as pih "bundle", specifically the bundle of years represented by the 9.9.0.0.0 period ending itself. But Marc Zender (personal communication 2003) points out that the sign in question elsewhere means "8,000" (the number of years in a piktun), and only pik means "8000" in Ch'olan (from Proto-Mayan *peek "8,000"). That pik also means "skirt" (from Proto-Mayan *pik "falda") works well in the deity-dressing ceremonies of the inscription, alongside "earspool" and "necklace". |
