Emblem glyphs have long been a focus of research in Maya studies and remain the primary means by which we attempt to penetrate and comprehend the political geography of the Classic Maya. By now it is well known that each represents a royal title and describes the k’uhul ajaw or “holy lord” of an individually named polity or kingdom. Many of these compounds have succumbed to decipherment in recent years, unmasking the original names of these petty states. Slowly we are building an indigenous nominal landscape, a map of political identity that was rich in both topographic and conceptual symbolism.
