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, th ...
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 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 ''c ...
), 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 mos ...
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 H ...
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.
Mayan ...
scholars. Before this standardisation, it was more commonly written as "Ahau", following the orthography of 16th-century
Yucatec Maya
Yucatec Maya (; referred to by its speakers simply as Maya or as , is one of the 32 Mayan languages of the Mayan language family. Yucatec Maya is spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula and northern Belize. There is also a significant diasporic commu ...
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 form ...
, 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, as ...
,
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, 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
Holmul is a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Maya civilization located in the northeastern Petén Basin region in Guatemala near the modern-day border with Belize.
Location
In spite of its relatively modest size, Holmul was important t ...
located in modern-day 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 H ...
, 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
See also
*Halach Uinik
Halach uinik or halach uinic ( Yucatec Maya:'real man') was the name given to the supreme ruler, overlord or chief, as they were called in the colonial period of a Maya '' kuchkabal''.
Most ''kuchkabal'' were run by a halach uinik, who ruled on ...
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