·     The no-face flint variant is not the last historically attested form in the Late Classic – there was one later form with the smaller element more complete and independent of the bottom.

AT-E1168-lecture4.t0:07:40

·     All sub-variants of this variant share a “face” (= three non-touching dots in a triangle pointing left, with the dot at the point of the triangle optionally touching the left end of the flint (= “face on the left; mouth optionally touching left wall”).

Sub-variants (2)

·     A. Comb:

o The non-face end has a “comb”.

o Just the teeth of the comb can be attached directly to the right wall.

o The comb can also be a 90-degrees counter-clockwise rotated-U with cross-hatching inside.

·     B. Crossed bands:

o The non-face end has crossed bands instead of the “comb”.

o This sub-variant is common in QRG:

§ The comb sub-variant is also common in QRG.

§ But there are many occurrences of the crossed bands sub-variant in QRG, and most of the existing occurrences are from QRG (perhaps even only restricted to QRG?).

·     Characteristics:

o A worm half sticks out from the mouth of the bird.

o Forehead ornament: a scroll / left feeler with protector and dotted reinforcement.

·     In modern Q’eqchi’ and Mopan, the word for the bat falcon (Falco rufigularis) is liklik, a bird which eats snakes (Hull, explained during MotT 2019 glyph workshop, devoted to the acrophonic origin of syllabograms)

·     A. Simple: perhaps a helmet(?) with two leaves under it, or a snail shell, with the snail’s two feelers sticking out?

·     B. Double: might be a “doubled” version of the single, with a mirror image added to the right (but without repetition of the dotted section on the right of the simple form).

Notes:

·     This is a rare but interesting variant of li.

·     A search on “blcodes contains ZD6” yields 5 hits. Extending the domain of the search to “All - Blocks” (i.e. including the Codices) does not yield any additional hits.

·     Of those 5 hits, 4 are on vessels and 1 is on a monument (NAR Stela 32).

·     Despite the very small number of occurrences, this glyph can be read with confidence. This is because:

o It occurs as the “simple” sub-variant in K8393 PSS D-G, in the context of the standard formulaic word utz’ihbal  = “it is the painting of”, at the position where li is expected.

o It occurs as the “simple” sub-variant in NAR Stela 32 in the name pa-pa-ma-li-li è Papmalil. This is a name known from monuments elsewhere (CRC Altar 12, CRC Altar 13, and IXL Altar 1) where the name is spelled with very well-established variants of pa, ma, and (in particular) li. I.e., there is a substitution of this “helmet” variant for the other well-known forms of li.

o It occurs as the “double” sub-variant in 'Lagartero Vase' PSS C-E, in the context of the standard formulaic word utz’ihbal  = “it is the painting of”, at the position where li is expected.