A Phonetic Glyph for Zenith: Reply to Closs

Abstract

The recently discovered Tomb 12 at Rio Azul contains some evidence in support of my "zenith" reading for one of the collocations Closs reads as xaman, "north." A positionally literal reading of the astronomical glyphs associated with the directional collocations on the walls of that tomb is consistent with a directional system based on zenith and nadir, but not one based on north and south. Furthermore, Closs's reading does not account for the demonstrable na reading for the prefix in that collocation. On the other hand, his evidence for reading the second collocation as xaman is compelling, and the polyvalency of T566 seems well established.