CMGG entry for chan3      (This article is part of the Learner's Maya Glyph Guide and Concordance.)

Alternative readings: KAN
Translation: Number “4”
Part of speech: Noun

Logogram spellings of chan3

                                                                                                    

K&H.p48.pdfp50.#5.2 = 25EMC.pdfp40.#3.4                     TOK.p25.r1.c2                    25EMC.pdfp40.#3.3

CHAN / KAN                                                                              “4”                                        CHAN

 

                

MHD.SN4a.1&2                                       T1010

CHAN / KAN                                              -

 

·     No glyphs given in K&L, BMM9.

·     AT-E1168-lecture6.t0:48:13-49:36 (which he admits is speculation): So the sun in Maya in terms of Maya cosmic vision has four roads. And it’s just shared by many other cultures in Mesoamerica – many other pre-Columbian cultures in the Americas. Because, when you think about it, the sun… it’s the two solstices and the two equinoxes. So the sun crosses the universe in four roads, creating the cardinal directions. The sun is this “cosmos-making thing” – its motion creates the cosmos. And in terms of how Mesoamerican people orient themselves in space, they look towards the sun. So in our West and Northern European backgrounded culture, we look towards the Polar Star – we look North. In Mesoamerica, in terms of how your body orients in space, you look East and up. So [in] all the maps, East is the upper part of the map. In the traditional Mesoamerican cosmology you follow the sun – you follow the road of the sun. So in Mayan languages, right is South: so “right” and “South” is the same word, actually – so Nojol. And then in the language of the Aztecs, North is actually left. So the patron god of the Aztecs is the “Hummingbird of the Left”. It’s not about his left-handedness, it’s the fact that he comes from the North. So, four roads of the sun.