[TI-2.02] The Set of Tzolk'in Signs on the End Faces of Pakal's Sarcophagus Lid: The Distribution of Signs over the Edges of the Cubic Graph

Abstract

The lid of Pakal's sarcophagus (Temple of the Inscriptions, Palenque) is regarded as a discrete structure apart from the linguistic, historical, and calendrical content of the signs. The set of thirteen visual signatures of the Tzolk'in system on the end faces of the lid, folded at the preceding stage into a cubic graph with a numerical invariant on its faces, serves here as the material for the next construction: the signs are distributed over the edges of the graph as designations of the connections between its nodes. The result of the distribution is a graph of non-group connections, presented as a planar projection in which the structure of the sign distribution reveals a topological coincidence with the general compositional structure of the Aztec Sun Stone and with the positions of individual Tzolk'in sign elements. The coincidence is recorded as a correspondence of the positions of visual signatures, identified in both structures by their reference forms, and it entails no claims of a historical or cultural connection. The question of the intentionality of the observed structures remains outside the work as unfalsifiable.