Classic period hieroglyphic texts are one important source of information for the existence of a political administration, whether or not the administration is bureaucratic. Several subsidiary titles have been identified to date: sajal, ajk’uhuun, yajawk’ahk’ (Sharer and Golden 2004; Inomata 2001a; Houston and Stuart 2001; Houston 1993; Grube in Coe and Kerr 1997; Jackson and Stuart 2001), lakam (Lacadena 2008), and chak tok wayaab’ (Beli-aev 2004; Estrada-Belli et al. 2009) (Figure 5.1). However, yajaw k’ahk’ and chak tok wayaab’ may be purely religious offices.
The title sajal (Figure 5.1c) refers to a subsidiary noble who governed a secondary center, so the title can be translated as provincial governor. The depiction of sajals in battle scenes suggests that they also fulfilled military roles as commanders (Webster 2000). The second title, ajk’uhuun (Figure 5.1d) has been interpreted variously as “keeper of the sacred books,” “royal scribe,” “keeper of tribute” (or of sacred/special objects), or “venerator” of specific rulers (Jackson and Stuart 2001). Although the specific meaning of this title has been debated, scholars agree that the contexts where the title of ajk’uhuun appears indicate that they are “owned” by their superior
Figure 5.1. Classic Maya political titles: a. kaloomte (after Coe and Van Stone 2005, 76); b. emblem glyphs for k'uhul ajaw of Tikal, Yaxchilan, and Palenque (after Coe and Stone 2005, 69, 70); c. sajal (after Miller and Martin 2004, Figure 12); d. ajk’uhuun (after Miller and Martin 2004, Figure 12; and Zender 2004, Figure 28); e. yajawkahk’ (after Miller and Martin 2004, Figure 12; and Zender 2004, Figure 36); f. ti’sakhuun (after Zender 2004, Figure 38; and Houston and Inomata 2009, Figure 6.6); g. lakam followed by an emblem glyph (after Lacadena 2008, Figure 8). All drawn by Evalynn Rosado.
Lord, the k’uhul ajaw, and that this ownership continues beyond the death of the particular k’uhul ajaw (ibid.; Houston and Inomata 2009). The common portrayal of ajk’uhuuns in court or palace scenes painted on polychrome vessels (including the Ik’ Style polychromes produced at Motul de San Jose) suggests that they had multiple and central roles. Maybe they were the Maya version of the Near Eastern scribe who was the quintessential administrator (Coe and Kerr 1997; Halperin and Foias 2010). The third title, yajawk’ahk’ (Figure 5.1e), can be translated as “the fire’s lord” and may be a religious rather than an administrative position (Houston and Stuart 2001; Sharer and Golden 2004). Hierarchical ordering of these positions were sometimes made among these titles, for example, using the modifier ba (“first” or “head of”) in terms such as ba-sajal (“first governor”) (Sharer and Golden 2004; Houston and Inomata 2009).
Two additional titles have been more recently deciphered: lakam (Figure 5.1g) and chak tok wayaab’. The administrative title of lakam, which appears in only a few polychrome vessel texts from Peten, may have applied to nonelites. The duties of this office possibly involved the collection of tribute and military contingents from intrasettlement districts or neighborhoods (Lacadena 2008). Finally, Beliaev (2004) and Estrada-Belli et al. (2009) have translated another title, chak tok (or sometimes k’an tok) wayaab’, as “red cloud [or yellow cloud] dreamer/priest” (246-48). Whether this is purely a priestly position or may have had dual civil-religious duties remains to be seen (ibid.; Beliaev 2004).3 This title appears in the Usumacinta Basin and at Tikal, Holmul, and Naranjo (Estrada-Belli et al. 2009, 246-48; Beliaev 2004). The holders of this title were clearly of high rank because they commissioned “palaces, temples, ball courts, and monuments, albeit in the presence of a higher political authority” (Estrada-Belli et al. 2009, 246). Beliaev (2004, 127) notes that in the Usumacinta region, chak tok (or k’an tok) wayaab’ is a title carried by nonroyal nobles, most commonly by the sajals, suggesting a combination of civil with religious roles. If the colors in the wayaab’ titles are indeed associated with the cardinal colors, it is possible that there were four such wayaab’ title holders, which reminds us of the quadripartite organization recorded in some Postclassic Maya states, such as the Itza kingdom. Beliaev theorizes that this title may have marked a particular elite rank rather than an actual position in a priestly institution.
These administrative titles appear uncommonly, mostly in the western lowlands (Houston and Stuart 2001; see the distribution of these titles in Houston and Inomata 2009, 170, Figure 6.4). The fact that the holders of these titles were closely linked to an individual ruler who owned them (as specified by the possessive prefixes “u-" “ya" or “y-” that precede the title) argues for a tight patrimonial relationship between the ruler and his administrators rather than a more impersonal bureaucratic connection (Houston 1993; Stuart 1992; Jackson 2004; Houston and Inomata 2009). We know that this relationship continued beyond the death of the ruler or patron, because several texts refer to these officials as owned by a ruler who had already died (Houston and Stuart 2001; Zender 2004; Houston and Inomata 2009). Golden (2003) stresses that the k’uhul ajaw and the sajal were not completely interchangeable posts because the position of the divine ruler was much more complex than the administrative position of the sajal (see also discussion in Houston and Inomata 2009, 174). Jackson (2004), Zender (2004), Houston and Inomata (2009, 174) all add that hieroglyphic texts that record accession to these various titled positions make clear that they were recognized as formal offices. In contrast, additional titles appear in the Bonampak murals but do not correlate with accession, suggesting honorifics rather than actual positions: baah took’ (“head person of the flint”), baah pakal (“head person of the shield”), baah tz’am (“head person of the throne”), and baah te’ (“head person of the tree-staff”; “head bailiff”)(Houston and Inomata 2009, 182-87, Figure 6.13; Houston 2008, 2012). Houston and Inomata (2009; Houston 2012) believe that although the functions of these four titles are not clear, the first two may relate to military officials, and the second two to poorly known functionaries or courtiers in civil service. The problem is that these titles appear so rarely and it is hard to decipher their meaning (Houston and Inomata 2009; Houston 2008, 2012).
Recently, Zender (2004) has re-translated the most common of these administrative titles, the ajk’uhuun title, as a priestly position of high rank. This new translation strongly supports the interpretation that the Classic Maya political administration was a theocratic one. Zender identifies three priestly offices in a “ranked ecclesiastical bureaucracy” (78-79) (with ties to secular administration): 1) ajk’uhuun, the “worshipper” of deities (priest), keeper of codices, and/or court chaplain; 2) yajawk’ahk’, or “fire’s vassal,” a warrior priest in charge of incense ceremonies;4 and 3) ti’sakhuun, “speaker of the white headband,” a prophet, oracle, or speaker for the king (see Table 4.1 and Figure 5.1 in this volume).
Zender draws upon ethnohistorical documents from Late Postclassic Yucatan to decipher the roles of these Classic Maya priests. As mentioned in Chapter 4, the ruler in Late Postclassic Yucatan kingdoms (called the halach uinic) was at the top of a three-level political hierarchy, followed by secondary elites (who were the regional or municipal governors, called batabs) in the second level, and the priesthood who acted as advisors in the third level. These priests “had by all accounts a great degree of influence [because of] . . . their role as producers. . . of written documents, teachers, community leaders, and intermediaries between humans and the gods” (80). The ajk’uhuun5 title has been identified in Late Classic inscriptions on stone monuments and on pottery from various sites, including Comal-calco, Copan, Palenque, Piedras Negras, Tonina, Yaxchilan, and Motul de San Jose (Zender 2004). These inscriptions highlight the importance of high-ranking priests during the earlier Classic period.
The three main priestly titles (ajk’uhuun, ti’sakhuun, and yajawk’ahk’) and two other possible priestly offices (baah ajaw and anab) are ranked in Classic hieroglyphic texts. Although their meanings are still opaque, baah ajaw and anab (phonetically a-na-b’i) appear to be the lowest priestly positions. Yajawk’ahk’ and ajk’uhuun are ranked above these (ajk’uhuun is the more prestigious) and ti’sakhuun is the highest rank (Zender 2004). Such a hierarchical statement is carved on the Group IV head from Structure J1 at Palenque. The head probably depicts the nonregnal lord Aj Sul, who was both a yajawk’ahk’ and an ajk’uhuun. The text begins not with Aj Sul but with the most important event in the life of his superior, the lord K’ab’is Uchih Aj Sik’ab, and the latter’s accession to the priestly position of ti’sakhuun, which in turn is overseen (or sponsored) by a highly ranked noble or royal named Janaab’ Pakal (306, Figure 108). The text then tells us that the new ti’sakhuun K’ab’is Uchih Aj Sik’ab has under his jurisdiction several sajals who became yajawk’ahk’s in AD 610, including Aj Sul (307). (The life story of Aj Sul continues below.) This interweaving of administrative positions with ecclesiastical positions (sajals became yajawk’ahk’s) is similar to the civil-religious cargo system of the Colonial Maya highlands and Yucatan (which continues in some areas into modern times) (Farriss 1984; Restall 1997). Similar to the civil-religious cargo system, Classic Maya lords rose through the hierarchy of positions described above, as a few examples below will show.
The presence of an ecclesiastical hierarchy in which nobles progressed (or were promoted) from a lower to a higher position is clear from the Classic Maya texts. These titles are tied to the verb for accession; thus, individual nobles acceded to these positions under the auspices of a higher lord, but not always the k’uhul ajaw. For example, Aj Sul from Palenque was first a sajal for an unknown length of time, then a yajawk’ahk’ for 44 years. For the last 20 or so years of his life, he was an ajk’uhuun (Zender 2004, 295). Another Palenque noble, Chak Suutz’ was instated as a baah ajaw, then as a yajawk’ahk’ and then as a sajal. Here the order of “promotion” from sajal to yajawk’ahk’ is reversed from the order in which Aj Sul progressed, a fact that suggests that there was flexibility in the civil-religious hierarchy. After he was elevated to the position of sajal, Chak Suutz’ had his own subordinate ajk’uhuuns (300; see also Jackson 2004). We have other evidence that Chak Suutz’ was an important political figure at Palenque: his residential group, Group IV, had a throne room (just like that of the most famous of Palenque’s rulers, Pakal) that included the famed Tablet of the Slaves (Stuart and Stuart 2008, 223). Although the text records Chak Suutz’s successes in battle, the Tablet of the Slaves depicts the Palenque ruler Ahkal Mo’ Nahb receiving the crown, flint, and shield of rulership from his parents (ibid.).
We also need to inquire whether the individuals who held these priestly positions also fulfilled administrative duties beyond religious ones. The actions and events in which these priests are depicted can tell us about their roles in Classic Maya states. Coe and Kerr (1997) first observed that ajk’uhuuns are commonly seen in many scenes on pottery vessels, murals, and (to a much less degree) public stone monuments (see also Zender 2004; Halperin and Foias 2012). Ajk’uhuuns and/or ti’sakhuuns are depicted in scenes of tribute offering, such as the Structure XVI Panel fragment at Palenque (Zender 2004, Figure 120) and Vessel K8089 (ibid., Figure 123). They are also depicted in court reunions, feasts, and dances, all of which may have involved foreign ambassadors or representatives from local subsidiary centers, such as the El Senor del Peten Vase (ibid., Figure 40), the Bonampak Structure 1, Room 1, North Wall, Medial Register (ibid., Figure 44), and the Piedras Negras Panel 3 (ibid., 324-26, Figure 125). Ajk’uhuuns appear to have been scribes, messengers, tribute recorders, and teachers of young nobles (Coe and Kerr 1997; Zender 2004).6
Zender (2004) writes that in contrast to the aj k’uhuuns,
The ti’sakhuun, as the most prominent of the Classic priests, also discharged a series of important political duties. Foremost among these was spokesmanship for the royal family and particularly for its apical head, the k’uhulajaw, and may have included the entertaining of foreign dignitaries to the court (as at Calakmul) and the collection of tribute from dependencies (as at Palenque and Pomona). At a number of sites, ti’sakhuun apparently served as regents for young mon-archs. (374-75)
Moving down the priestly hierarchy, the yajawk’ahk’ was closely tied to the command of the army; they are depicted as warriors, captors, or, in unfortunate cases, captives. So, these priests discharged both civil and religious duties.
World History
