Maya Hieroglyphics on Sabana Piletas Staircase Decipheredmiércoles, 10 de diciembre de 2008
More than 130 hieroglyphics, most of them still legible, inscribed on the Sabana Piletas staircase, located in northeast
Campeche, is the most extensive reported Maya inscription of Yucatan Peninsula. According to recent studies, rulers
could have used the Glyphs Building staircase to celebrate sacrificial rituals. According to archaeologists Antonio
Benavides Castillo and Sara Novelo Osorno, from National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) Center in
Campeche, the text is exceptional due to its extension and conservation state. As part of the Non-Open to Public
Archaeological Zones Maintenance project MANZANA), several constructions at Sabana Piletas - occupied from 600 to
1000 AD - have been consolidated between 2007 and 2008, among them, the Glyphs Building staircase, due to its
historical importance. The eastern staircase of the Glyphs Building had ten steps, being the first and fourth which count
on inscriptions. There are 34 panels, each with 4 hieroglyphics, summing 136. Each panel was adorned with triangles
that evoked serpent designs. Epigraphists Nikolai Grube, of the University of Bonn, Germany, and Carlos Pallan Gayol,
member of the INAH Maya Glyphic and Iconography Heap (AGIMAYA), made preliminary deciphering, which allowed
understanding the general structure of the mentioned staircase. Deciphering revealed that the date inscribed in the
first eight glyphs of both steps corresponds with December 18th or 25th of 858 AD. According with another epigraphist
interpretation, Dr. David Stuart, from the University of Texas at Austin, USA, would be equivalent to 864 AD. For
Antonio Benavides and Sara Novelo, this confirms that Sabana Piletas participated in the political panorama of western
Yucatan Peninsula during 9th century of the Common Era, at the Late Classic period. Another important discovery is a
glyph which phonetic meaning (kikel) is translated as “ball”; it seems to refer to the rubber ball used in the
ritual game. Another inscription (pitzil-na) alludes specifically to the ball game, meaning this could be a “sacrificial
staircase”. It is known that Maya greatest rulers celebrated sacred ball games at staircases, where they
recreated the “Other World”. “Evidence of a fine blue stucco covering, a color that frequently
appeared in rituals and sacrifices, supports this theory. The presence of two monolithic phalluses, located near Glyphs
Building, reinforces this hypothesis”. “It is possible that a ball game court existed in Sabana Piletas, but
we still have to verify it”, concluded archaeologists Benavides and Novelo.
Bienvenido al INAH
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