Ajaw or Ahau ('Lord') is a

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

Maya Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a popul ...

political title attested from

epigraphic Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

inscriptions. It is also the name of the 20th day of the ''

tzolkʼin Tzolkʼin (, formerly and commonly tzolkin) is the name bestowed by Mayanists on the 260-day Mesoamerican calendar originated by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The tzolkʼin, the basic cycle of the Maya calendar, is a preemi ...

'', the Maya divinatory calendar, on which a ruler's ''

kʼatun A ''kʼatun'' (, ) is a unit of time in the Maya calendar equal to 20 ''tuns'' or 7200 days, equivalent to 19.713 tropical years. It is the second digit on the normal Maya long count date. For example, in the Maya Long Count date 12.19.13.15.12 (D ...

''-ending rituals would fall.

Background

The word is known from several

Mayan languages The Mayan languagesIn linguistics, it is conventional to use ''Mayan'' when referring to the languages, or an aspect of a language. In other academic fields, ''Maya'' is the preferred usage, serving as both a singular and plural noun, and as ...

both those in pre-Columbian use (such as in

Classic Maya A classic is an outstanding example of a particular style; something of lasting worth or with a timeless quality; of the first or highest quality, class, or rank – something that exemplifies its class. The word can be an adjective (a '' ...

), as well as in their contemporary descendant languages (in which there may be observed some slight variations). "Ajaw" is the modernised

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...

in the standard revision of Mayan orthography, put forward in 1994 by the

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Hon ...

n ''Academia de Lenguas Mayas'', and now widely adopted by

Mayanist A Mayanist ( es, mayista) is a scholar specialising in research and study of the Mesoamerican pre-Columbian Maya civilisation. This discipline should not be confused with Mayanism, a collection of New Age beliefs about the ancient Maya. May ...

scholars. Before this standardisation, it was more commonly written as "Ahau", following the orthography of 16th-century Yucatec Maya in Spanish transcriptions (now ''Yukatek'' in the modernised style). In the

Maya hieroglyphics Maya script, also known as Maya glyphs, is historically the native writing system of the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica and is the only Mesoamerican writing system that has been substantially deciphered. The earliest inscriptions found which ...

writing system A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable fo ...

, the representation of the word ''ajaw'' could be as either a

logogram In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced '' hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, ...

, or spelled-out syllabically. In either case, quite a few

glyph A glyph () is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface, of an element of written language. A g ...

ic variants are known. Not surprisingly, a picture of the ruler sometimes substitutes for the more abstract day sign.

Meaning

''Ajaw'' denoted any of the leading class of nobles in a particular polity. It was not limited to a single individual, with a meaning variously rendered as "leader", "ruler", "lord", "king", or "queen", depending on the individual. Since the ''ajaw'' performed religious activities, it also designated a member of the

Maya priesthood Until the discovery that Maya stelae depicted kings instead of high priests, the Maya priesthood and their preoccupations had been a main scholarly concern. In the course of the 1960s and over the following decades, however, dynastic research ca ...

. The variant ''kʼuhul ajaw'' ("divine lord") indicates a sovereign leader of a polity, although the extent of the territory and influence controlled by an ''ajaw'' varied considerably, and ''kʼuhul ajaw'' could also be applied to persons who, in theory, recognised the overlordship of another person, dynasty, or state. When the title was given to women rulers, such as K'awiil Ajaw (640-681 AD) of

Coba Coba ( es, Cobá) is an ancient Maya city on the Yucatán Peninsula, located in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The site is the nexus of the largest network of stone causeways of the ancient Maya world, and it contains many engraved and sculp ...

, the term was sometimes prefixed with the sign Ix ("woman") to indicate their gender.

Earliest evidence

The archaeological site of

Kʼo Kʼo is one of several Mayan ceremonial center sites around and associated with the Classic Mayan city of Holmul located in modern-day Guatemala. Currently, the site boasts what may be the royal tomb of the earliest known Mayan ruler. Geography T ...

, associated with the Classic

Maya city Maya cities were the centres of population of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica. They served the specialised roles of administration, commerce, manufacturing and religion that characterised ancient cities worldwide.Sharer & Trax ...

of Holmul located in modern-day

, boasts what may be the royal tomb of the earliest-known Mayan ruler. This tomb has been dated to 350-300 BC. It contains the earliest evidence of the institution of ajaw in the Maya Lowlands.John Tomasic and Steven Bozarth (2011)
''New Data from a Preclassic Tomb at Kʼo, Guatemala.''
Kansas.academia.edu

References

* * *

External links

'AJAW'
sound file and syllabic glyph example at John Montgomery's ''Dictionary of Maya Hieroglyphs,'' published online at FAMSI {{Maya Maya inscriptions Maya calendars Noble titles

Background

Meaning

Earliest evidence

See also

References

External links