I’m sure most of you chileheads have seen or even possess personalized bowls for chili con carne like the one shown above. Well, news out of the University of Texas, Austin from David Stuart on his Maya Decipherment blog indicates that the Maya royalty had personalized chile bowls just like the modern ones. Here’s an example of a bowl containing chile residues:
The Maya written language was in glyphs, of course, so it was a pictorial language. But scholars have come a long way in deciphering those glyphs. Stuart explains:
Drawing of glyphs on sherd excavated at Calakmul, marking its vessel as the “container for the chile of Yuknoom Ch’een, the Divine Kanul Lord” (Drawing by D. Stuart).
Scholars even know who this ruler was! Stuart writes, “The owner’s name is familiar to many as that of Yuknoom Ch’een II, the powerful ruler of the Kaan or Kaanul dynasty who ruled from 636-686 A.D.”
