A Loaf of Bread
or a Star in the Dresden Codex
Kerr No. 3091

The Maya Vase Data Base Archive of Rollout Photographs by Justin Kerr (n.d.), contains a wide range of Classic Maya ceramics with different kinds of painted, incised, carved, and stamped rim texts. To claim that there is a standardized dedicatory formula for all or even for the small number of the vases that have been "read," seems to be out of place with the few translations that have actually been deciphered for them. Many are "readable" as spelled out glyphs, but those syllables cannot yet be translated. After checking through many of the Maya dialects, it has been decided that there was a "proto-chol" language in ancient times. That is like saying that the Lithuanian language is the source of the "proto-european" languages. Can one really pick up a Polish book and read aloud the language by sound patterns without knowing Polish? I doubt it.

It has been claimed that some of these inscriptions are long and unique versions of the Primary Standard Sequence. However, that in itself infers that their uniqueness is so distinct from the PSS norm that there probably is no "normal" text sequence that has ever been clearly identified, This even includes texts that contain variations among the numeric date glyphs, It is too easy to gloss over an circle in the eye, or a hand with two fingers instead of four, ignoring the fact that it is different from an eye with a scroll or a hand that uses only one finger. Many glyphs are words within words and even though they can be "spelled" out, there is no way to identify a word concept without knowing idiomatic phrases that few anthropologists are pirvy to.

As long as the number and the assumed day or month glyph fits into the calculated calendar sequence, then it does not matter if the glyph for the month or the day is a tad different from the accepted conceptual drawings of these glyphs. It is said to have no other meaning except the day, the month, or the number name. In this manner, a lot of the context of a monument, vase, or incised text is completely lost to the researcher.

The rim of Kerr No. 3091, a polychrome vessel, illustrates one full body portrait of the supreme god Itzamnaj and a second sky being, identified as the Monkey that was once thought to be God C. Apparently, these two "gods" were major entities in a "star (bread)/water" event. The great square nose beastie figures between the two entities are different from each other. One has a jaw, the other, just a curved fang as the jaw. The one near the monkey figure has a ocean, sea, or sacred cotton glyph, while the other none. These elements, and the rest of them, should be considered when attempting to translate information about the main iconography, that of the "gods." TO ignore them is to do an incomplete decipherment of the information available on the vase.

The vessel has a height of 17 cm.,(a little less than 7 inches high) a diameter of 13.8 cm., (about five/six inches across) and a circumference of 44.4 cm. (about 17 inches around the rim). This is not a tortilla holder and it is unlikely that it was for any beverage. The pictures on the vase do not exhibit any serving maids with food or drink in their hands, just two male entities and around the rim are only two glyphs,

one though to be "bread" and the other "ocean, sea, water" or "sacred cotton") repeated around the vase rim with several blank glyph frames between the groups of two.

It is well within the range of probability that it held flowers in temples or homes. The Maya still decorate their altar tables with flowers and fruit during great festivals. But because the Church frowns upon having such heathen pictures on their altars, these vases would have no longer been used to honor the "gods."

In 1997, Linda Schele and Nikolai Grubb presented the Dresden Codex as the topic of the Maya Meetings. For the section that was very obviously the good/bad auguries for horoscopes, the first glyph of this vase, that of the "round envelope," was identified as "bread." Many of the omens included this particular "bread" glyph as part of the "reading."

The problem with this indentification is that the whole of the Dresden Codex is dedicated to the stars and planets in the heavens. Yes, there are a myriad of activities associated with the human condition, but what god does not have a history of humanistic habits, including love trysts and petty wars. However, "bread" is not an option for a god," especially if he/she is "helping" to cast a horoscope. A good "star" or a bad "star" is the better choice within the parameters of an augury or omen.

The Madrid Codex also contains star-studded information. Near the dead mummy of the Death God, is a Turtle with three "bread" units on his back. (M.71-A) If the Turtle is Lyra (once called the Turtle constellation (See Allen, Star Names and Their Meanings), then, again the three units on its back should also be stars. Lyra, or the Turtle is located where the stars of the Summer Triangle is located, and sure enough, the three "bread" loaves on its back are in the shape of a triange. It is from this triangle that a blazing nova appeared and a meteorite from that direction fell into the Atlantic Ocean. An interesting quote is found:
John Birmingham, an Irish astronomer, writing of Cygnus (b.1816-d.1882) said:
There is a space of the heavens including the Milky Way, between Aquila, Lyra, and Cygnus (Deneb), that seems so peculiarly favored by red and orange stars that it might not inaptly be called the Red Region, or the Red Region of Cygnus.

The Summer Triangle is a clearly defined triangle in the summer skies, and with the above quote, may well be the sacred hearthstones of the Maya gods. In spite of the fact that the Orion constellation does have a triangle, with the last star of the sword being the location of the present hearthstones, one actually needs a telescope to identify it as a triangle. Instead, it is more likely that the hearthstones (As the "Oven of the Gods"), the blue nova and the great meteorite fallout all come from the Summer Triangle location.

It is the Hawaiian version that identifies Cygnus as the Northern Cross constellation that was the source of the Blue Star (URI)that probably was a nova. The Greeks called it Uranus but gave it the feminine attribute as Urania, or Aphrodite (Roman: Venus). Her birth was supposed to be in Primavera, or Springtime, just about the time the Summer Triangle becomes visible in the northern hemisphere. It is quite possible that her wounded hand during the battle of the heavens in the Iliad was the source of the BLUE blood of future kings and queens.

Someday the whole panorama of the ancient stars of archaeoastronomy will t of history. At the present time, the astronomers are not depending upon what they read about the stars, but about what their instruments tell them about the stars. Did the ancient astronomy rely upon instruments or did they use actualy earth to sky observations, without telescopes.