·    Variants (2):

o A. Abstract:

§ Top: to-like element (but not to).

§ Bottom: abstract variant of PIK.

§ Optional: ● three small dots at the bottom of boulder-outline glyphs. It is shown as a blue dot ● in the transliteration. This element is pure decoration and doesn’t contribute to the reading of the text (IC.p16.pdfp20.#6.1, PAL TI WT C12, PAL TI WT F11).

o B. Head:

§ Top: to-like element (but not to).

§ Bottom: head variant of PIK (bird-head with hand-jaw).

·    This is the 6th unit in the LC and one calendar unit above the PIK/PIH, i.e. it consists of 20 PIK’s. It is known that this calendar unit is not pronounced piktun – that is just a name used by epigraphers for convenience. While it’s not entirely clear whether it is of itself a logogram or if it’s a compound with PIK/PIH as part of it, the structure of the three higher units (piktun, kalabtun, and kinchiltun) – all with PIK/PIH at the bottom – suggests that it’s the latter.

·    What distinguishes piktun from pik is the element at the top, which resembles the reduced variant of to. However, it is not to:

o Instead, it’s a left and right feeler or flames or a small shrub (for example in K&L.p61.#4.1), with a single dot protector.

§ In contrast, each of the feelers of to generally has its own protector, even if there is sometimes a single, overarching protector for the protectors themselves).

§ Furthermore, the feelers of to are very similar to one another – just a single vertical part and a round curl – and they either face in the same direction or are mirror images. In contrast, the “flames” or “leaves” of the element at the top of piktun are different from one another, with the left scroll “curled in” and the right scroll more of a “wave” – more like the scrolls of K’AHK’ and with a single protector for the whole element.

o This was assigned the code T42 by Thompson.

§ T42 corresponds to MHD.1G8 and Bonn’s 0042bt/0042bv.

§ Both MHD and Bonn do not assign a reading to this glyph.

§ See T42/MHD.1G8/0042bt/0042bv for more information.

·    Boot-THHiCMHW.p23.pdfp23.para4 (on the head variant): This is the celamorphic [head] variant of the calendrical period piktuun (or «pictun») in the Initial Series (Thompson 1950: Figure 27, Nos. 1-2; compare to Thompson 1950: Figure 26, Nos. 8-14); its original Classic Maya name is unknown, as the superfix T42 remains without a decipherment.