Talk:Pakal (disambiguation)

Clean-up
What is the correct cat for this? Boleyn (talk) 13:09, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
 * 'Correct categorisation', in what sense? Primarily it's a human name (or part of a name) that identifies one of several precolumbian Maya individuals. But I guess there may be some homonyms out there in other languages/cultures where it means something else.--cjllw ʘ  TALK 06:57, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Hndis would be the category if it was those who shared a personal name, e.g. all were called John Smith, but this isn't the case here. I don't know anything about this name, but it doesn't seem to be hndis, but I didn't think it was given name or surname either. Additionally, I'm unsure if any of these were known as 'Pakal'. Boleyn (talk) 07:21, 22 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, the second in the palenque list here has definitely commonly been called just 'pakal', but so have some of the others (although since they are lesser known, this would be less often). It is a bit complicated I suppose, the names of these individuals have been teased out of the ongoing process of the decipherment of the Maya script in which they are written (we have no other source for what their names were). The translation and transliteration of their name glyphs in the inscription text has changed over time, and been refined somewhat. They were also not so long ago known just by nicknames that the archaeologists essentially made up, before their name(s) could be phonetically deciphered. But 'pakal', as a glyph is one of the first names that could be read, and consequently has been the usual shorthand way to refer to most of these. Also Maya names do not quite fall in to the conventions of "given name", "surname". 'Pakal' would not be a surname in our usual sense, it's more a name-component expressing or bestowing some attribute (and not any genealogical relation to parents or offspring, say).
 * In short, those here have at some stage or another been referred to just as 'Pakal' (pr 'Pakal I', Pakal II', etc), but now the decipherment of their nameglyphs has improved so 'fuller' versions of their recorded names are obtainable.--cjllw ʘ  TALK 15:38, 22 July 2009 (UTC)