Tutul Xiu: Original name of the Olmecs

According to the Yucatec Maya, the Tutul Xiu, a group of foreigners from Zuiva, in Nonoualco territory taught the Yucatec how to read and write (Stross, 1982). The fact that the foreigners brought the Maya writing and other secret knowledge that was transmitted by hereditary clans or specialists would explain why the Maya had institutions where branches of this knowledge could be taught.

Stross (1982) believes that the Mixe-Zoquean speakers transmitted writing to the Maya, other scholars suggest the Toltecs. Although the Toltecs may have conquered the Maya I seriously doubt that this nomadic group gave secret language to the Maya since they appear in Mexico a 1000 years after the Mayan people employed writing to record their history.

Epigraphic evidence make it clear that the Mayan people received writing from the Olmec. This is supported by the bilingual Olmec-Mayan bricks found at Comalcalco,Mexico.It is interesting to note that the people who taught the Maya writing originated at Zuyua or Zuiva made it necessary for the Maya to set up centers of learning where elites could study this writing system and the arts. This resulted from the fact that a class of skilled scribes were necessary to record business transactions and inscribe Mayan monuments and artifacts.

Landa mentions the fact that the heads of Mayan towns had to know a secret language(s) due to periodic interrogations (examinations?) of the chiefs. These interrogations determined if a chief was fit to remain head of a Mayan town (Roys,1967).

In the Chilam Balam of Chummayel , Zuiva is spelt Zuyua . This text declares that the “head chiefs” of a town were periodically examined in the language of the Zuyua.

The language of Zuyua was suppose to have been understood by the Mayan elites. Scholars are not sure about the meaning of the mysterious term zuyua. But it has affinity to Olmec terms. The actual sound value of /z/ in zuyua is /s/.

The Olmec people spoke a Mande language closely related to Malinke-Bambara. If we compare zuyua, with Olmec su-yu-a and zuiva and su-i-wa we find interesting meanings that suggest that zuyua was probably a secret code known only by the Chiefs., rather than a placename.

Su-yu-a can be translated as the “Shaper of Life”, while Su-i-wa means “The Shaper of Good” or “The Thing which hurries your welfare”.

These translations of su-i-wa and su-yu-a , because they are associated with leadership, and the role of both secular and religious leaders made them semantically appropriate terms to interpret zuyua or zuiva, since a priest or head chief is a shaper of the welfare of his people it was only natural that this group of specialists probably had to know secret terms and symbols to manifest their great power.

This makes it clear that the Tutul Xiu or “The Xis who are very good supporters of the Order” who came from Zuiva in Nonoualco were Mande speaking Olmec scholars who passed on writing and a leadership association to the Maya, when they entered Yucatan.

Universities such as Comalcalco, were constructed to ensure the traiing of Mayan elites to become Zuyua and support the needs of Mayan government and religion.

References:

Roys,R.L. (1967). The Book of Chilam Balam Chumayel. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Steede,N. (1984). Preliminary Catalogue of the Comalcalco Bricks. Cardenas, Tabasco: Centro de Investigacion Pre-Colombina.

Stross,B. (1982). Maya Hieroglyphic writing and Mixe-Zoquean, Anthropological Linguistics 24 (1): 73-134.

African Traders and the Maya Indians

The Syllabic Characters in the Codex Tro-Crotesianus

Codex Tro-Crotesianus

The Comalcalco bricks make it clear that the Mayan Indians taught many different forms of writing at their Universities. The "Salazar Brick" is a bilingual Olmec-Maya text. Decipherment of this brick allows us to read the Mayan inscriptions by looking at the syllabic signs contained in the Mayan heiroglyphics.



The Mayans had a syllabic writing systems model on the Olmec script. An examination of the Ekchuan 'Black Trader' God and inscriptions from the Codex Tro-Crotesianus will be used to support this hypothesis.


Bishop Diego de Landa recorded a Maya script of 29 signs. Many scholars using Landa's alphabet have been unable to read the entire script. The syllabic nature of the Mayan writing explains the more than 287 characters associated with this writing, not including variants which appear in the Maya Codices. The reason we have so many Mayan signs results from the uniting of groups of syllables to make Maya words and sentences.

Landa made it clear that the Maya script was made up of drawings and signs within the drawings (Tozzer, 1941:p.169). This point of Landa's presentation on the Mayan writing, led me to attempt to break down Maya glyphs into their constituent parts to try and determine if the smbols inside the glyphs that resembled Olmec signs, could be given Mayan phoneticization and read in Yucatec Mayan.


Rafinesque was sure the Mayan writing was related to the Libyco-Berber writing in Africa. Yuri Knorosov and Eric Thompson recognized the syllabic nature of Mayan writing. For example, Thompson hypothesized that the footprint sign from Landa's list called "B", represented the Yucatec word be 'road'.


I began my attempt to read Mayan inscriptions based on the work of Knorosov who read the inscriptions based on the context of the inscription. The best source of the Mayan syllabic signs is the codex Tro-Crotesianus. Here there is frequent mention of Ekchuah or God M. According to Sahagun, the first foreign merchants sold mantles (chimalli) and waistcloths (maxtli).


Leo Wiener in Mayan and Mexican Origins , and Ivan van Sertima, They came before Columbus , published several illustrations of Ekchuah. I read the Mayan inscriptions by giving each of the syllabic signs of the Maya syllables the phonemic value the identical sign in the Olmec writing. After transliterating the Mayan syllables, I read each syllable in Yucatec Maya.


In Mayan times, most items of trade were carried by boat. The major product involved in the native trade was cocao, a crop they only grew in watered field.


Though most trading was by sea a special group of merchants carried goods overland under the protection of the god Ekchuah. The Merchants of Ekchuah were guided along these perilous trails by the North Star: Xaman. Ekchuah was also the diety of cocao growers , probably because this group early monopolized.


In Mayan times cocao beans were used as currency or ta-kin . The god EkChuan appears seventeen times in the Madrid Codex and once in the Dresden codex.


Ekchuan and many of the merchants carrying goods are given African features and painted black. These merchants usually carries a corded hamper and pouch and flint-tipped spear with a headband on his head.

The God of the North was called Xaman. Xaman is associated with richness and abundance. Below we use the syllabic method to read the Mayan Codex.

This panel reads : "The merchants of the god Ekchuah (come carrying) fine skins (co) (and) bitter cocao beans (ki ta kin). The cocao beans are shelled (po'o). (They are) Priest of the divinity (and) exist in a unique state. (They represent) Xaman god of the North".

There is another interesting inscription about the Afro-Mexicans from the Tro-Crotesianus codex.

In this inscription we can easily break down each glyph into there syllabic parts.

We can read this inscription moving from right to left. There are four rows of inscriptions. Row 1, is on the far right side of the panel. Row2, is the glyphs written above the fire stick. Row 3 consist the symbols on the immediate left side of the panel and; row 4, is the group of glyphs on the far left side of the panel.

Let's transliterate the signs

Row 1

1. ta
2. i yu
3. Mayaland
4. ta zay
5. i
6. ku
7. Chikin sign

Row 2

1. t-o'
2. pe
3. qu
4. firestick

Row 3

1. Ta
2. Ku
3. Sign of Ekchuah (Ta Fa gyo).
4. ..........
5. Ta
6. ku
7. ku
8. Yum Kaaz (Lord of the North)
9. Lamat
   

Row 4

1. Pe
2. pe
3. Eb day sign
4. ta
5. ku
6. ta zay co
   
7. Be
8. May
9. to
10. a
11. ki

Translation

"Row 1: These thick men (came to) the marketplace of Mayaland.(?)....Their thick pouches (full of goods) they were assembled at the Chikin market.

Row 2: Long ago the Merchants of Ekchuah transported (goods to the) gods.

Row 3: Thick men (came) to the market (from the) East. Pouches came to the market from the Lord of the North on Lamat day.

Row 4: They carry and transport (to the market) thick pouches assembled (with) skins (inside). (The merchants appeared on ) Eb (the lucky market day). They went to the May (Priest) (to) present bitter wine (at the temple)."






Reference:

A.M. Tozzer (Ed.). Landa's Relacion de las Casas de Yucatan: A translation. Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology. Cambridge 1941.

Black Gods of the Maya

African Writing in Mayan Inscriptions

Today over 500,000 Mexicans live in Mexico. On the Gulf coast we find the Afro-Vercruzanos, who claim descent from African slaves and Cubans.

But 70,000 Blacks live in Costa Chica. These Negrocostachicanos claim they arrived in Mexico due to ship wrecks. They live in areas (especially mountains) where their is no history of slavery. They practice many African traditions.

The Negrocostachicanos may be our link to the Africans who lived in Mexico that date back to pre-Olmec times.

We usually talk about the Olmecs as representatives of Pre-Columbian Blacks. But there are also Blacks dating back to Mayan times. It was the Olmec who gave the Mayans writing. Here is a bi-lingual Mayan-Olmec text.You can read about this text .

In the Mayan Madrid Codex and Troano Codex for example, we see the Mayan gods Ekchuah, and gods L & M.Ekchuah was recognized by the Mayan as the god of traveling merchants due to the influence of Blacks in the Mayan world as merchants.

Ekchuah has affinity to the Olmec bird god. Ekchuah is often called the long nose god. The glyph associated with Ekchuah, numbers 45 and 46 above support this title.

The symbol for Ekchuah is made up of three signs. This symbol is made up of a circle at the opening of a horseshoe figure with two or three circles at the base of the symbol.

Figures 45 and 46 only have the two circles at the base of the symbol.

This reads from top to bottom:

• ta
• fa
• gyo

This message is "Priest of the divinity--(they) exist in a unique state.

When the Ekchuah has three cirlces at the base it reads:

• ta
• fa
• se

The text reads "A partisan of the march (who) satisfies (your) needs".

Xaman the North Star God, is associated with Ekchuah. Often Xaman is depicted with facial chracteristics common to the African type and the compound ear-rings, which were also popular in ancient Africa.

Above is another Mayan inscription relating to the Black merchants. Reading the inscriptions in the Mayan language left to right we have the following:

Column 1 Top to bottom

1. Priest of the divinity exist in a unique state.
2. Xaman god of the North.

Column 2 Top to bottom

1. Santified
2. Co ki ta kin
3. Pouch on the back of the traveling Merchant
4. Po ta kinTranslation reading from right to left.

"The merchants of god Ekchuah (come carrying) fine skins (and) bitter cocao beans. The cocao beans are shelled. (They are) Priest of the divinity (and) exist in a unique state. (They represent) Xaman the god of the North".

The Olmecs called themselves Xi (Shi)

We know the name of the Olmec from the Maya. Landa noted that the Yucatec Maya claimed that they got writing from a group of foreigners called Tutul Xiu from Nonoulco (Tozzer, 1941).

The Olmec originated writing in Mexico, so we can assume that the term Tutul Xiu refer to the Olmec.The Tutul Xi were probably Olmecs.

The term Tutul Xiu, can be translated into Olmec which is a member of the Manding Superfamily of languages as follows:Tutul, "Very good subjects of the Order".Xiu, "The Shi (/the race)".

These terms together would read: "The Shis (who) are very good Subjects of the cult-Order".

The term Shi, is probably related to the Manding term Si, which was also used as an ethnonym. Since Si/Xi was used as an ethnonym, the Tutul Xi-u were the Olmec people. Thus I call them by their own name Xi.

Reference:

Landa, D. de. (1978). Yucatan before and after the Conquest. (Trans. by) William Gates. New York: Dover Publications.