[This article is part of the Learner's Maya Glyph Guide.]
CMGG entry for "BT"

Translation: “bone throne”
Part of speech: Noun

Logogram spellings of "BT"

                                                                               

TOK.p18.r3.c1               JM.p248.#2                    MHD.1B7.1&2                                         0150st                                            T150b                                     T150c

?                                      TZ’AM                              -                                                                  -      -                                               -

 

                                                                             

Teufel-PhD.p375.pdfp375                         Teufel-PhD.p375.pdfp375                            Teufel-PhD.p374.pdfp374                        

PNG Stela 12 D9a                                        PNG Stela 12 D18b                                         PNG Stela 12 #22 / K2                                          

“BT”.<SUUTZ’:?>                                         “BT”.SUUTZ’                                                    “BT”.SUUTZ’

 

                                                                 

Looper-LW.p12.pdfp25.fig1.11                Looper-LW.p12.pdfp25.fig1.11                Looper-LW.p12.pdfp25.fig1.11

QRG Stela C B9                                            QRG Stela C B11                                          QRG Stela C A13                                           

<HIX:“BT”>.<TUUN:AJ>                              <CHAN:“BT”>.<TUUN:ni>                          <HA’:“BT”>.<TUUN:ni>

 

·    No glyphs given in K&H, K&L, BMM9, 25EMC.

·    The iconographic origin of this glyph might be bones bound together and covered in cloth, forming a “platform” for sitting on. Hence the description “bone throne”. Looper-LW refers to them as “platforms”. This distinction might be more due to Western European conceptualizations of these two words than to an actual difference in the nature of the object referred to.

·    Thompson grouped T150a and T150b together as variants of T150. T150a is now considered to be a variant of TAJ = “torch” – a bunch of long parallel sticks bound together, with flames at the end (but then with T150a being a variant without the flames). In contrast, T150b is a similar bunch of long parallel bones bound together. These (T150a and T150b) have now been (correctly) separated out into TAJ and “BT” respectively.

·    Pronunciation:

o JM.p248.#2 (2002) gives the pronunciation as TZ’AM.

o PNG Stela 12 D9a, D18b, and #22 are parallel bands to the left of a bat-head glyph (see examples above).

§ Teufel-PhD.p375.pdfp375 and Teufel-PhD.p374.pdfp374 (2004) (which have the drawings) corresponds to Teufel-PhD.p370&p371&p372 (their transliterations). In all three cases, they are considered to be T150b and are read as TZ’AM.

§ MHD (2022-date) using a different system of glyph-block labelling for the tags (but not for the main glyphic text) reads them as 1B7, i.e., as “BT”, with no known pronunciation.

o TOK (2017) gives the pronunciation of TOK.p12.r3.c1 & TOK.p12.r3.c2 (“cushion throne”) as TZ’AM vs. TOK.p18.r3.c1 (“bone throne”) as “?”.

This suggests that quite early after Thompson, TAJ and “BT” were known to be different glyphs, but that for some time (JM and Teufel-PhD), “cushion throne” and “BT”/“bone throne” were both considered glyphic variants of the same word, read as TZ’AM. That is no longer the case and TZ’AM is now only the reading for the “cushion throne”, with no known reading for “BT”.