Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-24hb2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T13:53:48.997Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

NAHUA LOAN WORDS FROM THE EARLY CLASSIC PERIOD: Words for cacao preparation on a Río Azul ceramic vessel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2006

Martha J. Macri
Affiliation:
Department of Native American Studies, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA

Abstract

The discovery of words in a Nahua language on a Maya ceramic vessel provides evidence of Nahua influence in the Maya region as early as a.d. 480, centuries earlier than previously believed. The words are spelled in syllabic Maya signs painted on a pot known to have contained chocolate (Hall et al. 1990). The words occur within the context of the primary standard sequence, a well-known Maya formula, and describe the chocolate drink that among the later Mexica (Aztec) was reserved for “rulers and esteemed noblewomen.” This new reading supports the Uto-Aztecan etymology of cacao proposed by Karin Dakin and Søren Wichmann (2000) and their assertion that an economically and militarily powerful Nahua-speaking people were responsible for the spread of the word cacao into southern Mesoamerica. More broadly, these findings have implications for the role of Uto-Aztecan speakers in the formation and spread of Mesoamerican civilization.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adams, Richard E.W. 1986 Archaeologists Explore Guatemala's Lost City of the Maya: Río Azul. National Geographic 169:420451.Google Scholar
Adams, Richard E.W. 1999 Río Azul: An Ancient Maya City. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Barrera Vásquez, Alfredo, Juan Ramon Bastarrachea Manzano, William Brito Sansores, Refugio Vermont Sales, David Dzul Gongora, and Domingo Dzul Poot 1980 Diccionario maya Cordemex: Maya–español, español–maya. Ediciones Cordemex, Mérida, Yucatan.Google Scholar
Brockway, Earl, Trudy H. Brockway, and L.S. Valdés 2000 Diccionario náhuatl del norte del estado de Puebla. Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Campbell, Lyle 1997 American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Campbell, Lyle, Terrence E. Kaufman, and Thomas C. Smith-Stark 1986 Mesoamerica as a Linguistic Area. Language 62:530570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coe, Michael 1973 The Maya Scribe and His World. Grolier, New York.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael, and Sophie D. Coe 1996 The True History of Chocolate. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Dakin, Karin 1982 La evolución fonológica del protonáhuatl. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Dakin, Karin 2001 Animals and Vegetables, Uto-Aztecan Noun Derivation, Semantic Classification, and Cultural History. In Historical Linguistics 1999: Selected Papers from the 13th International Conference on Historical Linguistic, Vancouver, 9–13 August 1999, edited by Laurel J. Brinton. pp. 105117. John Benjamins, Amsterdam.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dakin, Karin 2003 Uto-Aztecan in the Linguistic Stratigraphy of Mesoamerican Prehistory. In Language Contacts in Prehistory: Studies in Stratigraphy, edited by Henning Andersen, pp. 258288. John Benjamins, Amsterdam.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dakin, Karin, and Søren Wichmann 2000 Cacao and Chocolate: An Uto-Aztecan Perspective. Ancient Mesoamerica 11:5575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fought, John 1972 Chorti (Mayan) Texts. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Hall, Grant D., Stanely M. Tarka Jr., W. Jeffrey Hurst, David Stuart, and Richard E.W. Adams 1990 Cacao Residues in Ancient Maya Vessels from Rio Azul, Guatemala. American Antiquity 55:138143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, Jane 2001 Proto-Uto-Aztecan: A Community of Cultivators in Central Mexico? American Anthropologist 103:913934.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houston, Stephen D., and Karl A. Taube 1987 “Name-Tagging” in Classic Mayan Script: Implications for Native Classifications of Ceramics and Jade Ornament. Mexicon IX:3841.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen D., and Karl A. Taube 2000 An Archaeology of the Senses: Perception and Cultural Expression in Ancient Mesoamerica. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 10:261294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houston, Stephen D., David Stuart, and Karl A. Taube 1989 Folk Classification of Classic Maya Pottery. American Anthropologist 91:720726.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurst, W. Jeffrey, Stanely M. Tarka Jr., Terry G. Powis, Fred Valdez Jr., and Thomas R. Hester 2002 Cacao Usage by the Earliest Maya Civilization: Foaming Chocolate Prepared in Spouted Vessels Made a Delectable Preclassic Drink. Nature 418:289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karttunen, Francis 1983 An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Kaufman, Terrence 1969 Teco—A New Mayan Language. International Journal of American Linguistics 35:154174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, Terrence 1971 Tzeltal Phonology and Morphology. University of California Publications in Linguistics, Vol. 61. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Kirchoff, Paul 1943 Mesoamérica, sus límites geográficos, composición étnica y carácteres culturales. Acta Americana 1:92107.Google Scholar
Lastra de Suárez, Yolanda 1980 El náhuatl de Tetzcoco en la actualidad. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Lastra de Suárez, Yolanda 1986 Las áreas dialectales del náhuatl moderno. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Laughlin, Robert M. 1975 The Great Tzotzil Dictionary of San Lorenzo Zinacantán. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, 19. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
MacLeod, Barbara 1990 Deciphering the Primary Standard Sequence. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
MacLeod, Barbara, and Dorie Reents-Budet 1994 The Art of Calligraphy: Image and Meaning. In Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period, by Dorie Reents-Budet, pp. 106163. Duke University Press, Durham, NC.Google Scholar
Macri, Martha J. 2000 T536 Xo from Nahuatl Xochitl “Flower.” Glyphdwellers Report 11. Available at http://nas.ucdavis.edu/NALC/glyphdwellers. html.Google Scholar
Macri, Martha J., and Matthew G. Looper 2003 Nahua in Ancient Mesoamerica: Evidence from Maya Inscriptions. Ancient Mesoamerica 14:285297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martínez Hernández, J. (editor) 1929 Diccionario de Motul, maya–español, atribuido a Fray Antonio de Ciudad Real y Arte de lengua maya por Fray Juan Coronel, Mérida.Google Scholar
Maldonado Andrés, Juan, Juan Ordóñez Domingo, Juan Ortiz Domingo, Nora C. England, and Terrence Kaufman 1986 Diccionario mam: San Idelfonso Ixtahuacán, Huehuetenango. Proyecto Lingüístico Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala.Google Scholar
Molina, Fray Alonso de 1944 (1571) Vocabulario en lengua mexicana y castellana. Facsimile. Coleccion de Incunables Americanos, vol. 4. Ediciones Cultura Hispanica, Madrid.Google Scholar
Powis, Terry G., Fred Valdez Jr., Thomas R. Hester, W. Jeffrey Hurst, and Stanley M. Tarka Jr. 2002 Spouted Vessels and Cacao Use among the Preclassic Maya. Latin American Antiquity 13:85106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schele, Linda 1989 A New Glyph for “Five” on Stela E. Copán Note 53. Copán Mosaics Project and the Instituto Hondureño de Anthropología e Historia, Honduras.Google Scholar
Schele, Linda, and David Freidel 1990 A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. William Morrow, New York.Google Scholar
Schele, Linda, and Nikolai Grube 1997 Notebook for the 21st Maya Hieroglyphic Workshop, March 8–9, 1997. Department of Art and Art History, College of Fine Arts, and Institute of Latin American Studies. University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Schele, Linda, and Peter Mathews 1998 The Code of Kings: The Language of Seven Sacred Maya Temples and Tombs. Scribner, New York.Google Scholar
Siméon, Rémi 1977 [1885] Diccionario de la lengua nahuatl o mexicana: Redactado según los documentos impresos y manuscritos más auténticos y precedido de una introducción. Siglo Veintiuno, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Stuart, David 1988 The Río Azul Cacao Pot: Epigraphic Observations on the Function of a Maya Ceramic Vessel. Antiquity 62:15357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuart, David, and Stephen Houston 1994 Classic Maya Place Names. Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology 33. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Taube, Karl A., and Bonnie L. Bade 1991 An Appearance of Xiuhtecuhtli in the Dresden Venus Pages. Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing 35. Center for Maya Research, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Wichmann, Søren 1998 A Conservative Look at Diffusion Involving Mixe-Zoquean Languages. In Archaeology and Language II: Archaeological Data and Linguistic Hypotheses, edited by Roger Blench and Matthew Spriggs, pp. 297323. Routledge, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittaker, Gordon 1986 The Mexican Names of Three Venus Gods in the Dresden Codex. Mexicon 8:5660.Google Scholar