·     The boulder outline has two infixed elements (a “necklace” and “blades of grass”) in common with a number of other glyphs. The list below shows the unique element infixed in the top which distinguishes them from one another: 

o ba: LEM-like element.

o ma: right-side-up AJAW-face.

o t’u: KAWAK.

o tz’e: a slightly curved, bold V with “dot protector” underneath (the “dot protector” replaces the “necklace”, and the bold V can sometimes be non-bold).

o tz’u: K’IN.

o HA’: cross-hatched circle.

o “IMIX”: cross-hatched circle or LEM-like element (usually distinguished from HA’ by the blood cartouche).

·     Sub-variants (2):

o Abstract: - vertically elongated rectangle / boulder outline, with:

§ Top: a “LEM”-like element, with a “dot necklace” underneath.

§ Bottom: blades of grass or double blades of grass.

§ Optional arc of touching dots along the bottom, outside of the boulder outline, larger dots than in the case of the “dot necklace”.

Do not confuse this variant of ba with the visually similar boulder variant of HA’ = “water”:

§ ba has an infixed (round) “LEM”-like element.

§ HA’ as an infixed cross-hatched circle.

Part of the confusion arises because the dot necklace and the (double) blades of grass are common between the two of them.

o Head: the distinctive elements of the abstract sub-variant enclosed in an anthropomorphic head.

·     This glyph is also logogram BAAH = “gopher” (used as a rebus for “image”, “head”). The syllabogram usage is obviously derived from the earlier logogram usage.

·     A. KAWAK with “skull-with-jagged-outline”.

o The order the two components may be somewhat free, as TOK.p36.r1.c4 has KAWAK-skull while MHD.SD6 has skull-KAWAK.

o K8393 PSS D-G is one real-life example. This is how we know with confidence that it’s read as ba, as it occurs in a context of the standard formulaic word utz’ihbal  = “it is the painting of”, at the position where ba is expected.

·     B. KAWAK with IX.

o K530 PSS E-H is one real-life example. This is how we know with confidence that it’s read as ba, as it occurs in a context of the standard formulaic word utz’ihbal  = “it is the painting of”, at the position where ba is expected.

·     C. KAWAK with boulder-variant of ba.

·     TOK (2017) doesn’t assign a reading to this glyph. Bonn (>2022) gives the reading ba not in brown, which implies that it’s since been deciphered with a high degree of confidence.

·     TOK.p36.r2.c2 is clearly the equivalent of Bonn’s 1767bh, which Bonn reads as ba. For this reason, TOK.p36.r2.c3 is included here as an example of ba.