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However, this inscription recorded by Maudslay on the westernmost pier of the Temple of the Inscriptions designates Pakal's son, K'inich Kan B'ahlam, as the "10th Successor". The glyphs read (left-to-right, top-to-bottom) B'AAK[WAY]-AL K'INICH-KAN[B'ALAM]-ma 10-*u-*TZ'AK-b'u K'UH-B'AAK-la-AJAW-wa, b'aak(el) wayal k'inich kan b'ahlam 'u lajuun tz'ak'b'u' k'uh[ul] b'aakal ajaw, "The Spirit-Companion's Own Bone, K'inich Kan B'ahlam, 10th-Ordered-Thing, Divine Palenque Lord". (The translation is by Marc Zender. "The Spirit-Companion's own bone" is a known title or preaccession name of Kan B'ahlam II.) It was Werner Nahm who interpreted the partially effaced glyph as a formula for counting rulers seen at other sites such as Tikal (Simon Martin, personal communication, 2000). What this means is that K'inich Kan B'ahlam considered himself the tenth ruler in the line beginning with K'uk' B'ahlam I. And the only way to make Pakal's son the tenth ruler is to refrain from counting Lady Yohl Ik'nal and whoever might have ruled while Pakal was coming of age.
Stanley Guenter (personal communication, 2003) begs to differ and agrees with those who see wayal (or waywal) as a word for "shaman, wizard". Pointing out that the head variant of this glyph is a human wearing an assortment of decorations including semicircular facepainting around the eyes and mouth, he sees this clearly functioning as a title and asserts that if way is "dream" or "alter ego", then waywal should be someone who dreams or transforms into his alter ego. |