·     JM gives these are ma rather than MAN with no known meaning. The reading of this glyph as a ma is now outdated.

·     Do not confuse this with the “90-degrees rotated form”, also pronounced MAN, also of unknown meaning (and also used as a rebus to write Naman):

o This glyph has an upright cross-hatched triangle or quadrilateral and no “AK’AB”.

o The “rotated glyph” is basically a rotated “AK’AB”, and has no upright cross-hatched triangle or quadrilateral.

·     25EMC does not distinguish between this glyph and the “rotated” form, while TOK does.

·     Gronemeyer-AFB.p9.para1.l+1: The reading of sign 566 MAN can only be inferred by phonetic complements and its substitution with sign 505 but its meaning is not understood, although the graph icon represents a snake body segment (cf. Kettunen and Davis 2004:4, 10, Jørgensen and Krempel 2014:97). Boot (2009:211) proposed ‘pillar’ as an interpretation, probably based on the Lakantun entry yokman ‘pilar’ (Bruce 1968:144). The presence of just this single attestation in a colonial-period Yukatekan language and the lack of a similar auto-referential term on pilasters or columns in Northwestern Yucatan makes this doubtful. [fn7: There is xa-ma-566-na, xaman ‘north’ on the Palenque Temple XIV Tablet, F4. Additionally, we have IX-na-505-ni-AJAW (e.g., Piedras Negras Stela 3, D3), which substitutes elsewhere with IX-566-ni-AJAW (e.g., Piedras Negras Stela 1, I1) for ix namaan ajaw ‘Lady from Namaan’.]

·     The iconographic origin is probably the body of a snake:

o The plain scales of the underbelly and the more elaborate scales of the upper body.

o The cross-hatched area is part of the body of the snake.

·     Used as a rebus in words like xaman, or the placename Naman, etc.

·     Major variants (3?):

o A. “Belly only”:

§ A boulder outline divided into a top and bottom half by a horizontal line with “bumps” (and short ticks going downwards at the ends of each bump). The boulder outline may be replaced by an outline with a curved top (wavy), symmetrical on a vertical axis running down the middle and with indentations on the left and right sides.

§ In the top half, a cross-hatched triangle (tip of triangle may point either up or down).

§ Dots along the outer edge of the triangle (touching or non-touching, may be reduced to just four dots, two on each side of the triangle).

o B. “Belly-head-and-tail”: the “belly-only” variant with the head and tail of the snake poking out – the head and tail appear under the “belly-only” variant.

o C. “Belly-head-body-and-tail”: the “belly-only” variant with the head and the middle part of the body and the tail of the snake poking out – the head and tail appear under the “belly-only” variant and the middle part of the body appears above the “belly-only” variant.

It’s unclear if “B” and “C” are just variants of the same logogram, three completely separate logograms, or the “belly-only” logogram conflated with an additional logogram.

·     MHD does not equate them, as the “standard” MAN is AD3 (with the reading MAN), while the glyph with the head and tail is AC2, with no reading, and the glyph with the head and tail and body is AD5, also with no reading.

·     Bonn does not equate them, as the “standard” MAN is 0566st (with the reading MAAN), while the glyph with the head and tail is 0554st, with no reading. Bonn doesn’t have a variant with the head, tail, and body (perhaps subsumed under the head-and-tail variant.

·     MHD statistics of occurrences (“B” and “C” are very rare):

o A. AD3 “Belly-only” – 70 hits:

§ Naman – 19 hits:

·       1 from FLD (monument).

·       10 from FLD region (all ceramics).

·       1 from IXK (Ixkun – almost at the Guatemala-Belize border, very far from PNG and FLD).

·       6 from PNG.

·       1 from YAX (YAX Lintel 45, recounting Kokaaj Bahlam III’s capture of Aj Xaak, a yajawte’ of K’ahk’ Ti’ Kuy, the ruler of FLD, the event giving Kokaaj Bahlam III his warrior-name).

§ Tihl Man (K’inich) – 4 hits:

·       3 from the ALH or ALH region (AHL = Altun Ha’).

·       1 from COB.

§ Xaman – 19 hits: on ceramics and monuments, (unsurprisingly) spread over the whole Maya world (TNA, PAL, CRN, BPK, NAR, CPN, QRG, even COB).

§ Yajaw Man – 4 hits:

·       1 from each of CLK, CNC, MRL (Moral-Reforma), TIK.

§ Yook Man Ajaw – 4 hits:

·       All from TIK.

§ Other – 20 hits:

The overwhelming majority of these 70 AD3’s are either naman (19 hits) or xaman (19 hits).

o B. AC2 “Belly-head-and-tail” – only 2 hits:

§ YAX Stela 18 B3b and YAX Stela 18 B4 (shown in the examples above).

§ MHD does not assign a reading to this, not even a tentative MAN?, instead it is listed with just ??.

o C. AD5 “Belly-head-body-and-tail” – only 1 hit:

§ Dumbarton Oaks Unprovenanced Panel 2 (PAL) R1-S1 (shown in the examples above).

§ MHD does not assign a reading to this, not even a tentative MAN?, instead it is listed with just ??.

The examples given for AC2 and AD5 are the only known occurrences in the whole of the MHD corpus.

·     K&L seems to be the only teaching resource which lists a variant with the head, tail, and body (K&L.p19.#1.6, practically identical to MHD.AC2) which it assigns the reading MAN.