The Month Name Wayeb': A Substitution Pattern

Abstract

This note is concerned with the hieroglyph for the Maya month Wayeb. The standard variant of this glyph consists of the signs T157:548. The sign T157 and its allographs T728 / T769 depict the gaping lower jaw of the earth monster, often regarded as a symbolic chasm into the underworld. The decipherment of this hieroglyph as /WAY/ has been proposed by Barbara MacLeod. The reading is based on the occurrence in the hieroglyph for the month Wayeb, which was probably spelled Wayab' in the Classic Period. Nonetheless, several authors have questioned the reading /WAY/ for T157, because this morpheme is exclusively expressed by the sign T539. This paper discusses a substitution between T539 and T157 occuring on a ceramic vessel of unknown provenance.