·    Variants (3):

o A. Full – features:

§ A “diamond” element in the centre with inwardly curving sides, perhaps describable as a “4-pointed star with points at N, S, E, W”.

§ “Bolded” by a second, larger diamond – this can be equally angular, or more rounded.

§ 4 “washers” (occasionally just circles) at the 4 corners of a square, at NW, NE, SW, SE.

o B. Reduced – features:

§ Top or bottom half of the full variant.

§ The “remnant” of the half diamond, in turn, becomes more like a bold, curved “w” (top half of the full variant) or “m” (bottom half of the full variant), optionally with reinforcement of the inner edge, outer edge, or with a spine.

§ The washers are no longer at the corners but instead more “encapsulated”, “surrounded” on three sides by what was the (half) diamond in the full form (the “w” or “m”).

§ Most of the pedagogical works give only a “horizontal” form (i.e., the top or bottom half of the full form), but MHD gives a “vertical” form (MHD.ZDQ.3) – the right half of the full form. Presumably, the left half of the full form is also possible (MHD.ZDQ.3 rotated 180 degrees). These could be described as “ε” and the “з” form.

o C. Extremely reduced – features:

§ Half of the reduced (“w”) variant.

§ The “w” is now a “u”, with the (single) washer almost totally encapsulated .

This variant is given only by Bonn (0510dh).

Note that there’s no representational variant of EK’. This becomes relevant when considering the relationship of EK’ = “star” to LAMAT = day name (and also in considering the relationship of LAMAT to the “Starry Deer-Crocodile”/“SDC”). See LAMAT and “SDC” for further information.

·    Meaning:

o This glyph is read EK’ and the most basic meaning is “star”.

o Some sources give additional meanings “heavenly body”, “planet” but from the point of view of the ancients, these would have been “the same meaning” – i.e., from an emic point of view, most of the “astronomical objects” in the sky which were not the sun or the moon would have been one sort of object – a “star” of some sort. Perhaps even comets might have been viewed as “short lived stars with a tail”, though I don’t know this for sure. In any case, it’s very reasonable to have had just one word for planet or star (the ancients of the Old World considered planets to be a sort of “wandering star”).

o MHD gives the additional meaning “Venus”, but other sources consider only CHAK EK’ = “the red/great star” to be Venus.

·    Distinguish (phonetically similar):

o IHK’: “black”

o IK’: “wind/breath”

o EK’: “star”

 

·    The example in SBL Stela 10 A10 is the name of Chan Ek’ (= “Four/Sky Star”?), the name of a ruler of MTL (=Ik’a’) who was present at an incense scattering ritual at SBL on the occasion of the 1^st katun of the 10^th baktun: 10.1.0.0.0.