·    Variously transliterated as AHIIN, AHIN, AJIIN, AYIIN, AYIN, AIN.

·    Variants (2):

o Features in common on both variants:

§ A large round eye, divided into two halves by a horizontal line:

·      Top half: a few vertical ticks along the floor.

·      Bottom half: crossed bands in an X.

§ (Optionally) one to three “bony plates” = ovals with three non-touching dots in the middle of the long axis of the oval.

·      25EMC, K&L.p17.#1.1&5, MHD.AL7.1, MHD.ALA have no bony plates.

·      All the other examples have one to three.

o A. The head of a crocodile with jaws closed:

§ A “scrolly” nose, curling upwards.

§ Two or three fangs.

§ While most instances are squarish with curved corners, there is a sub-variant which is much more rectangular (e.g., K&L.p17.#1.5).

o B. The head of a crocodile with jaws open:

§ The jaws are wide-open (90-degree angle, forming an L-shape).

§ Two fangs.

§ (Optionally) a “reptile scroll” inside the head, on the bottom middle to right, to the right of the end of the mouth (MHD.ALA).

The open jaws cause the eye to be rotated by 90 degrees clockwise, making the top and bottom half of the eye into the left and right half.

·    Reading:

o The closed-jaw variant has long been recognized as a crocodile, with a reading of AHIIN (and several very similar alternatives).

o The open-jaw variant has lagged behind for quite a long time.

§ For many years MHD tentatively assigned the reading of AHIIN? (with a question mark) to MHD.ALA while Bonn refrained from assigning 1614st a reading.

§ In the course of 2025, MHD tentatively assigned the reading of AHIIN? / AIN? (still with a question mark) to MHD.ALA while Bonn assigned the reading AHIIN? (showing similar hesitation) to 1614st.

This shows a gradual acceptance (but still with some hesitation) that the open-jaw glyph also represents a crocodile, read AHIIN.

·    Helpful diagnostic: while not always guaranteed to be present, the “crossed bands in the lower half of the eye” element is very often present. This can help to distinguish AHIIN from:

o XOOK = “shark” (with which it can share the characteristics of an upturned nose and/or two or more teeth) – XOOK doesn’t have crossed bands in the eye, can have a scroll instead.

o CHAPAAT = “centipede” (with which it can share the characteristic of two fangs) – CHAPAAT doesn’t have crossed bands in the eye. The eye of CHAPAAT is, optionally, a crescent with the tips pointing towards the top of the head (which means the tips point, in effect, to the right, because of the 90-degree clockwise rotation of the eye, due to the open jaws of the centipede). Some examples can have a scroll, when the eye isn’t a crescent.

o CHAN = “snake” – CHAN has a scroll in the eye.

·    The divided eye with crossed bands should probably be seen as a more important diagnostic than the bony plates, for reading this open-jaw reptile head as AHIIN:

o The MHD Catalog example of MHD.ALA has no bony plates at all. Some glyph occurrences in monuments that MHD reads as ALA do have them (though this is not a large percentage – most do not have the “bony plates").

·    MHD statistics (2025-10-30) – a search in MHD on “blcodes contains”:

o AL7: 57 hits.

§ Usage: mostly personal names, some monument and deity names, some toponyms.

o ALA: 26 hits.

§ Usage: All 26 are Glyph-X (adding an additional clause “blsem contains Glyph X02a” gives exactly the same number of hits), read as MIH K’UH AHIIN.