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[Hide] (4MB, 2320x1600) >>106118
Almost forgot, to elaborate more on the research mentioned at the start of this here, I’d thought I might try to find what the sources of the imagery in the background for the map of Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras in chapter 66. The manga doesn't specify about them, but I figured they couldn't all be Mayan from the page context. From top left to bottom right on there:
>An Atlantean Figure (from Tula, Toltec civilization; a set of these are also seen in Chapter 22)
>An “elongated man” figure (From La Venta, Olmec civilization)
>A werejaguar-styled “Kunz Axe” (from Veracruz area, Olmec civilization)
>Colossal Head 1 (From San Lorenzo, Olmec civilization)
>The carved lid of Pakal the Great’s sarcophagus (from Palenque, Maya civilization)
>A “Sun Stone” calendar (from Tenochtitlan, Aztec/Mexica civilization)
>A funerary urn in the form of a deity effigy (Monte Alban, Zapotec civilization; this urn is currently on display at the Gardiner Textile Musuem in Canada)
>A jade death mask with “divine breath” (Calakmul Structure VII, Maya civilization)
>A sculpture of a Witz monster/god building decoration (Temple 22, Copan)
The urn and Witz were particularly hard to find; the latter much more-so than the former, because what does one even search for going off the manga art? Read some stuff about that temple in Copan as well representing the sacred mountain the gods first discovered maize at, which makes it come off like a mandala in its own right, like the pyramid in the manga. I’m still not certain as to which elongated man figure the second is supposed to though. They seem to have been ritually buried as sets by the Olmecs, so a lot of photos I've seen just have them as group dioramas not all facing the same direction. Easy to potentially pass over the one it was based on if it's not facing the right way.
I’ve also found that most of the Mayan sites on the map have had what seem to be their original names uncovered (the ones using modern Maya names or Spanish, I mean), which would make for an interesting note (or to put below the site names in parentheses), except for El Mirador.
>Bonampak: Known as Ak’e broadly, and Usiij Witz (Vulture Hill) locally.
>Calakmul: In ancient times, this site was referred to as Ox Te' Tuun (Three Stones), but also, perhaps in the sense of the broad city-state, as Chiik Naab'.
>Copan: The original name of this city has been determined as Oxwitik (Three Witik; the meaning of “Witik” is not clear as of now).
>Palenque: In Yucatec, it’s name is Bàakʼ, while to the Itza Maya, it was Lakamhaʼ (Big Waters)
>Tikal: This was either Mutal or Yax Mutal (First Mutal, perhaps implying this was the first city bearing the Mutal name)
>Yaxchilan: Its emblem glyph reads Pa’ Chan (Cleft Sky).
Uxmal, Mayapan, and Chichen Itza are already Mayan, though their spellings might differ from the original words (Uxmal might properly be "Óoxmáal", and derived from Oxmal, "Three Times Built", or Uchmal, "What is to come; the future").
In contrast, all I can find for El Mirador is that it might have been “Kan”, or “Kaan”, or “K’aan”, but with that just meaning of “Snake”, it doesn’t really fit the naming conventions of the other ones, which if translated from Mayan actually come off like location names (“Vulture Hill”, “Cleft Sky”, “Three Stones”, etc). Granted, there does seem to have been a “Snake Kingdom” or “Snake Dynasty”, which is more sensible, but that might be something that applies more to the Mirador Basin as a whole than the El Mirador site. Especially since the same “Sacred Lord of the Snake” title shows up on king lists at Calakmul as well. Speaking of which, I've got Calakmul spelled with a "k" now, so that'll be properly corrected when that chapter is being output again.