Zapotec Writing - Famsi

Zapotec Sierra, the coefficient with which the year bearer Earthquake initiated the Calendar
Round was 1 (Alcina Franch 1993; Justeson and Tavárez 2004). Yet, it remains to be assessed if
the pre-Hispanic reckoning of the Calendar Round in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca initiated
with the year 1 or 13 Earthquake. 12 Although the analysis of year bearers actually identified 6
different signs associated with the icon of a royal headband, it became evident that two of these
were alternative variants to the year bearers “Earthquake” (glyph Alpha) and “Soap Plant”
(glyph U), that is, the year names that open and close the primary, 4-year sequence of the
Calendar Round (Figure 1.21). Despite some novel graphic variations (Urcid and Winter 2003),
the new additional examples of annual dates that have surfaced since the publication of “Zapotec
Hieroglyphic Writing” fully conform to these conclusions (Figure 1.22).
The problems that have been resolved regarding the structure of the Zapotec calendar
seemingly suggests striking differences in the way reckonings of time were recorded in several
Mesoamerican scribal traditions. For example, Isthmian and Maya scribal practices specified an
event in terms of multiple concurrent cycles, always using a fixed point of departure (i.e. the
Long Count). Early Zapotec scribal practices between 200 BCE and 200 ACE situated events in
terms of year and a day anchored to a lunar cycle, marked by glyph W (Justeson and Kaufman
1994). In contrast, most historical records in the late Zapotec tradition, as well as in Ñuiñe,
Central Mexican, and Aztec writing, simply recorded the year of occurrence within a given
Calendar Round. During Postclassic times, scribes in Oaxaca, including the Central Valleys,
situated events in their accounts in reference to two points within a given Calendar Round: the
year and day. Since, for the time span that concerns us here there is no evidence that recounted
events were temporally situated in terms of a count of a lunar cycle, of thirteen day cycles, or of
days in the mantic cycle, the great majority of glyphs accompanied by coefficients that appear in
later Zapotec inscriptions must be the calendrical names of individuals, some of them clearly
members of ruling elites and nobility.
The comparative method has been useful not only to solve problems related to the structure
12 Epigraphic analysis from a set of inscriptions at Monte Albán suggests a reckoning that began with
year 13 Earthquake (13E) (Urcid 2001: 376-379).
18