·     YAX Lintel 23 (front) A2:

o K&L.p38.#3.2 is the same glyph-block with superfluous information removed.

o It is not entirely clear where the TUUN is. The element at the very top is probably not an unusual form of TUUN, but rather an unusual form of LEM, which K’AL often has above it. We know a TUUN must be present from the context of the inscription, where the verb k’al tuun is required.

·     Features:

o Right hand viewed from the back of the hand, with fingers outstretched, pointing right.

o Thumb horizontal.

o Optional: a “LEM” above the hand (MC.p164.r2.c7 has no “LEM”).

·     Note that QRG Stela J F4 is known to be K’AL and not CH’AM:

o This is because K’AL (and not CH’AM) is the verb which is expected to go with the … huun tu’ baah … which occurs soon after at E6-F6.

o This shows that the essential difference between K’AL and CH’AM is actually (respectively) the horizontal vs. vertical thumb, rather than “right or left hand”, or “fingers pointing right or left”.

·     Do not confuse this with the homonym K’AL meaning “20”, for which the glyph is a moon glyph, with a circle in the bay.

·     Do not confuse this with the visually similar K’AB meaning “hand”, which is just the hand alone, with no “LEM”-like element above it.

·     As a general rule, K’AB has no LEM, and K’AL has a LEM, but see K’AB for more information.

·     The meaning assigned in the past was “to tie” / “to bind” / “to close”, but now considered to be “to present”.

o In particular, k’al-huun tu’ baah is not the old image of “(someone else) tying the headband onto/around the head (of the ruler)” but rather “(the ruler himself) presenting the headband (to the audience), once it had been put on/around his head”.

o This is despite the fact that there are existing images from the time showing stelae bound up in rope (e.g. the carved peccary skull of CPN Burial 1) or wrapped in cloth (CPN Altar X or Y, CPN Stela F). These were the images which initially gave rise to the translation “to tie”, “to bind”.

·     k’al, na’, and t’ab are translated as “to present” in English, but they are quite different types of “presenting”:

o k’al: a ritual object (e.g. a headband or stela) is the object of k’al.

o na’: a human being (e.g. a bride or prisoner) is the object of na’.

o t’ab: a ceramic (or perhaps the inscription / painting on the ceramic) is the object of t’ab.