Some questions and epigraphic comment regarding the text from the looted box

Publicado por Nupul Balam el 11 de mayo de 2006:

__The recent looting of this box has made a lot of noise lately. Just a few days ago, Erik Boot sent me (among others) the information through his “Maya News Alert” periodical e-mail. You will be able to find those e-mails on our “virtual library”, I’ll forward them there for the convenience of everybody. You will find two drawings and more information.

__So here is my transcription, as I have one or two differences regarding Camilo’s transcription; and a lot of questions.

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a-LAY T’AB’ yi-chi yu-lu xu?-li/yi u-TUN-ni li chi?-NAH IX-‘MOON SIGN’ 10-20 u-CH’OK?-K’AB’A yu-lu-xi ‘MOON’?-ku/TUN- ?-li ? K’AN-na ch’a-chi

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Alay t’ab[aay] yich ? u tuunlich? naah Ix ‘MOON’ 30 u ch’ok? k’ab’a yuluux ? k’an ch’aach

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“Here was blessed/dedicated the (its) surface of his sculpture: her Tuunlich? House, Moon Goddess 30 (days), her youthful name. It is the sculpture of ? K’an Ch’aach”

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__The translation I propose is highly speculative as it incorporate several problematic compounds:

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%yu-lu-xu?-li/yi

__I really don’t know if the last syllabic sign of this block can be seen as a “yi ». Maybe it is simply an ugly “li”. The thing is that the habitual spelling of “sculpture” is yu-xu-lu(-li), the “lu” and the “xu” being inversed. There are however a lot of cases where the yuxul word is spelled yu-lu-xu, giving normally yulux. This is the case for the looted box. So, what can we do with these controversial spellings? I don’t know…

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%u-TUN-ni li chi-NAH

__The illustration on the box clearly depicts the moon goddess with her rabbit. The name of the box is “the Tuun lich? house of the moon goddess”. This statement is followed by the number 30, certainly an allusion to moon length. The number also appears in the representation, between the rabbit and the moon.

__I don’t know if I understand well the lich compound, if I am right by assembling the “li” sign with the probable “chi” just after. The thing is, if the “li” is a suffix of TUN, then we are left alone with a “chi”…. So, “chi” could be also a suffix, that should be conflated with the “li”, giving u tuun(i)lich, of course, of unknown meaning to me… Maybe the fact that the box is made of stone isn't hazardous....

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% yu-lu-xi

__This spelling of the word based on “sculpt” is new to me. A skull sometimes represents the “xi” syllabogram in other compounds, this is the way I see and read the head. Here it would give “yuluux”, and as I said above, the normal spelling “should” be yu-xu-li; and not yu-lu-xi, if one of the two is “normal”…

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__We should also take in consideration that the object is the lid, the cover of the box. Maybe the word “lid” is hidden in the undeciphered compounds.Well, hope the blogg will continue growing his way!

__Thank you Rocío!