Variant: “ajaw”-face

·    Features:

o All manner of variation on the AJAW-face, which is three small dots in a triangular formation (“eyes” and “mouth”), with an additional circle around the “mouth”, and a V-shaped element on the latter circle for a “nose”.

o The “nose”:

§ May degenerate into a single line (MHD.ZA2.1&3, MHD.ZA2.2) and:

·      The single line may extend all the way to the boundary of the glyph (MHD.ZA2.2), or

·      It may even be a double line extending all the way to the boundary of the glyph (MHD.ZA2.4).

§ May lose its sharp point (T178c, T178e).

o The circle around the mouth may be bold (T178bcd).

o As can be seen from the examples (also for other “variants”), the boundary between different “variants” (or “subvariants” within a “variant”) can sometimes be quite subjective.

·    Subvariants (3):

o A. Single AJAW-face:

§ Single upside-down AJAW-face.

o B. Double AJAW-face:

§ Two touching, upside-down AJAW-faces.

§ Bonn has a form with three AJAW-faces in a row (0178mp).

o C. Double AJAW-face with dots:

§ Two single upside-down AJAW-faces separated by three dots.

§ The three dots in a triangular formation, touching, triangle pointing down.

§ MHD has a form with only two dots between the AJAW-faces (MHD.ZA2.2); Bonn has forms where either the right or left AJAW-face is suppressed (0178bl, 0178br) – perhaps hidden “behind” another glyph to the right or left ,respectively (or conflated with another glyph).

Variant: no-“ajaw”-face

·    Subvariants (3):

o A. Five dots:

§ Two larger dots, one at each side.

§ With three smaller touching dots in a row, in between.

o B. Three dots:

§ Three non-touching equal-sized small dots in a row.

§ The whole row not touching the main sign. (If they touch the main sign, or are slightly larger dots, or touch one another, then this would be more likely to be ma – but small size of the dots, non-touching, and away from the main sign are distinguishing characteristic of this form of la). However, MC.p83.r1.#2 is a form where the three small dots do touch the main sign!

o C. Many more dots:

§ A small dot on the left and one on the right, with many tiny dots in between (T140b).

·    Here too, the arbitrariness of some of the boundaries between “variants” can be seen. This grouping of forms without the AJAW-face could simply be considered minor subvariants of those with an AJAW-face – they merely have the facial features erased. In particular, they show the same variation of the three smaller dots being either in a row or in a triangle formation as in the case with the forms with AJAW-face.

Variant: two na-outlines

·    The variants with a na/YAX-outline or cross hatched are older forms.

Variant: inverted skull

·    Features:

o Top: An inverted skull (could it be a Waterlily Serpent – there seems to be a mouth tendril or fang in 0178hp? The bone-jaw is quite a strong indication of “skull”).

o Bottom: An upside-down AJAW-face.

·    Caution: the presumed la in YAX Lintel 44 A5a has a right-side up skull, with what could be an eroded, right-side up AJAW-face above it. One should not be too hasty in equating the right-side up and upside-down versions of a glyph. For example, the right-side up bat head is SUUTZ’ and the upside-down one is TZUTZ – semantically (and phonetically?) unrelated to one another. However, here AJ-SAK-la-ka-la è Aj Sak Lakal seems so obvious a reading that one is tempted to assume that the right-side up skull, with the AJAW-face above it, also forms a la. This all the more so in the light of the comments below.

·    MHD statistics (2025-08-25). A search in MHD on “blcodes contains SC3” yields 14 hits, writing the words:

o lak = “plate”: 9 hits.

o lakal = “grasshopper?”: 1 hit.

o lat = “later”: 2 hits.

o patlaj = “made/built”: 1 hit.

o yehmal = “below?”: 1 hit.

·    We are rather fortunate that lak, lat, and patlaj (and even, to a lesser extent, yehmal) are (very) well known from other inscriptions, there written with the well-known variants of la. From these substitutions (see the ceramic examples and CLK HB and PAL T18 Stucco Bodega 174 above), we can read la for this inverted “la plus skull” glyph with confidence.