·     EB.p53.pdfp58.#8: chiwoj n. tarantula » chi-wo-jo > chiwoj “tarantula” PNG Stela 12: R2.

·     EB.p254.pdfp59.#7: chiwoj tarantula chi-wo-jo, chi-wo.

·     Length of the vowel in the second syllable:

o The word appears to have a short-o – chiwoj – but a long-o is given in Stuart-ACS.p4.para3 (in discussing YXH Stela 31): K’inich Lakamtuun is far more than an armed warrior; he displays the features of the Jaguar God of the Underworld, and his massive headdress looms above, replete with cosmological and ancestral imagery. The three large hieroglyphs at the very bottom of the scene emphasize the ruler’s divine attributes, stating that the capture “is the work of Chak ? Ik’ Chiwooj?,” a name that corresponds nicely with the jaguar attributes of the portrait.

o We cannot tell if EB intends a long-o or a short-o, as EB never writes long (or any other complex) vowel.

·     There may be some connection between Chuwaj = “JGU” and chiwoj = “tarantula” – see also Chuwaj.

·     It has been retained in all the derived descendants of EB (K&H, K&L, BMM9, CMC4) but with the addition of the spelling chi-wo-ja. The EB spelling chi-wo is apparently from CHAK-chi-wo, which is given in all these later dictionaries.

·     PNG Stela 12 has only four columns of glyphic text A-D (for the narrative), and about 20 individual tags all through the iconography (to label the individuals portrayed). Presumably, Boot is using a system of glyph-block labels where the letters E, F, G, etc are used for the tags to the iconography. There are easily enough tags for the “column” letter to get up to “R”. In Teufel-PhD the tags are given individual glyph-block numbers which run from “1” to “55” (though multiple runs of glyph-blocks form one individual name, so there are fewer than 55 individuals tagged). This is the reason for the parallel system of referencing glyph-blocks: glyph-block #42-#43-#44 / R2.

·     In PNG Panel 3, the main text ends with column X, but the names of the kneeling ajaws follow two slightly different glyph-block labelling conventions. These columns either:

o Continue after X with Y, Z, A’, B’, C’, or

o Start a new series from A’, B’, C’, etc (hence not using Y and Z at all).

The name Chak Chiwoj occurs either at Z1 or B’1, depending on which convention is being followed.

·     As is the case for quite a number of animal names, this word probably occurs in Classic Maya inscriptions more often as part of a personal name (human or god) than as a reference to the actual animal itself. Here it occurs as part of the name of a captive carver on PNG Stela 12 and of a young vassal ajaw on PNG Panel 3.

·     This word occurs very rarely in the corpus – PNG Stela 12 and PNG Panel 2 were the only two occurrences I was able to track down, but the fact that there are three different spellings listed in EB and the descendent dictionaries indicates that there are more instances of it.

·     It also appears to be the word for “tarantula” in modern Yucatec (and many other modern Mayan languages). Lacadena&Wichmann-OtRotGSiMW.p142: chi-wo-ja / chi-wo, chiwo’j ‘tarantula’, cf. CHL chiw-oj ‘tarántula’ (Schumann 1973:78), ch’iwo’ [sic!] ‘tarantula; tarántula’ (Josserand and Hopkins 1988b), CHN ajchiwo’ ‘araña’ (Keller and Luciano 1997: 13), MOP chiwoj ‘tarántula’ (Schumann 1997: 257), ITZ chiwoh ‘tarántula/tarantula’ (Hofling and Tesucún 1997: 207), YUC x chìiwoh ~ x chìiwol ‘tarantula’ (Bricker et al. 1998: 71), chiwoj ‘tarántula’ (Bastarrachea et al. 1992:83). The form may have been borrowed into Yucatecan (after the loss of the glottal stop), since Yucatec has the alternative form kowoj ‘tarántula’ (Bastarrachea et al. 1992: 96). [Sim: I wonder how confidently the link between the Classic Maya glyphs and the meaning of chiwoj as “tarantula” really can be made – I can’t find a paper providing this decipherment and the connection looks as if it might be made on the grounds of phonetic similarity and semantic plausibility.]

·     There is a passing reference to the instance on PNG Stela 12 in Stuart-AUotTC. One of the readers (Cliff Richey) replied: The top-most glyph over the captive’s chest, though damaged, is surely his personal name. Although it remains a little murky in the photo. I think it likely to be that of a captive otherwise familiar in other Tonina texts whose name is spelled 4-ma-su, possibly for Chan Maas, “Four Crickets(?)” (ancient Maya personal names can sometimes be very odd-sounding; I’m reminded of a somewhat similar and bizarre name cited at Piedras Negras, Chan Chiwoj, “Four Tarantulas”!).