Outskirts Press, INC.

Life among the Ancient Maya

Living in the shadow of the prestigious Na K’abal Xook of the famous sacrifice-trance vision of her warrior ancestor, the three sons of Ahaw Itzamna Balam, Holy Lord of Siyah Chan, each face their own life challenges.

Yoaat Balam, the Heir, Scribe and artist, prefers studying astronomy and designing monuments and inscriptions. Yaxuun Balam, who aspires to be a strong and famous Warrior, is sent by his father as fighter and diplomat to the nearby city of Yokib. Kuy Balam, the youngest, feels no calling to a vocation, yet harbors a secret fear.

Each must navigate the twists and turns of life among their people, the Ancient Maya, and find his own path as a True Man. At the same time, their distant cousin Ch’el Balam has been contracted to marry a man from far-away Motul, and must travel there with her new family and establish a home among strangers.

You can journey with these Maya and their families through the panoply of ritual, ceremony, family squabbles, and warfare, as they build their lives in a tumultuous time whose secrets are only now being uncovered by archaeological research and the decipherment of their intriguing inscriptions.

Yoaat Balam


9.14.11.10.1

7 Imix 14 Zotz


April 27, 723 AD





Yoaat Balam was miserable. His headdress was heavy and was chafing his forehead. Standing here on the temple platform, the hot sun had been beating down on him, making him perspire little rivulets of sweat running down his back and chest. His legs were aching from standing so long in the same place. He was afraid to move lest he draw attention to himself, but he could feel a cramp coming in his left calf, so he had to shift his weight just ever so slightly. It just would not do to get a leg cramp in front of all these people.



Next to him, his father, the Ahaw Itzamna Balam, droned on with the words of the ceremony, reciting an account of his captures. Mother must have helped him compose this, Yoaat thought, staring at the stone platform in front of him. The words mirrored the ones he had drawn for the step they were dedicating.



It wasn’t just that he had to take part in these ceremonies. Ceremonies weren’t so bad, in and of themselves, but this one was about warriors, successful warriors, and only served to remind him once more how everyone felt he wasn’t doing his duty as Ba Ch’ok of Siyah Chan. Well, everyone except his mother and sisters, and perhaps his father. You could never tell with Father.






Yaxuun Balam


9.14.11.12.18 12 Etznab 11 Yaxk’in


June 23, 723 AD





Hunh! Yaxuun dodged a lunge and swung his spear, landing a hit to Chih’s shoulder.



Hack! Chih staggered, then recovered and lunged again before Yaxuun could bring his spear around, and got him on the hip, felling him sideways onto the practice ground.



Grnt! Lom lurched into Chih and sprawled on top of Yaxuun, and Chih quickly jumped astride the two of them, shouting for them to yield.



Even with Lom’s elbow in his ribs, Yaxuun began chuckling, then laughing, then all three were laughing and wrestling, as Leom Kimi strode up to the tangled group of young men.



“What is this?” he demanded, “a practice session or a girls’ fiesta? Is there a winner here, or three losers?”



“No, Uncle,” Yaxuun stammered, breathless, “Chih is the winner, but after Lom tripped and fell on us, well...”



“On your feet! Are you men or boys still?”



The question made Yaxuun laugh even more as he got to his feet, for he was actually the only real man among them, as Chih and Lom had not yet had their manhood rites.



“And what is so funny about that, Wukpik?” Uncle Leom had started calling Yaxuun “Wukpik” ever since he had worn old Xiye’ Kimi’s wukpik-feathered cape at the War Temple ceremony. Either way, he had a bird’s name. The other boys had stopped laughing. Uncle Leom was Chih’s father, and stricter in general with his own son than with his nephews. Indeed Leom was father’s brother to Lom, not mother’s brother as he was to Yaxuun, a somewhat more easy-going relationship. And Uncle Leom was a serious man anyway. That only seemed to make it all the harder to stop laughing.






Kuy Balam

9.14.11.12.18 12 Etznab 11 Yaxk’in

June 23, 723 AD





From the top platform of the K’inich Ahaw Temple, the people in the Plaza looked to Kuy like ants, like leaf-cutter ants after he had scattered them from their orderly ranks and they ran every which way in their confusion. Down there on the Plaza the people were clustered in groups, some were walking around aimlessly, or moving purposefully from one place to another. Kuy liked to think of them sometimes as toys that he could move around. He wondered if that was what it was like to be a Military Commander, or an administrator, who could tell people to move around and they did what you told them. He could sit up here for hours watching the movement below, and often did.



Today Mo’och Balam and Hanab Kimi had both come with him and were sitting beside him on the platform step. Mo’och was two years older than Kuy, a distant cousin, and Hanab was his own age, a cousin on the Kimi side, his mother’s brother’s daughter. For a girl she was all right, she could really run, and liked to climb the temples the same as he did. Mo’och was a little serious, good at his studies, pretty much knew he wanted to be a Scribe.



Kuy didn’t know what he wanted to be. He was good enough at studies, good enough at physical training. His older brother Yaxuun was going to be a Military Commander, had known that for a long time now, was training to be their older half-brother Yoaat’s Sahal when he became Ahaw of Siyah Chan. In fact, Yaxuun was going soon on a Hoyihel with their Uncle Chak and some other Kimi’ob, and would be away from home for a long time.



But Kuy didn’t know what he was going to become. Right now, he wanted to explore the K’inich Ahaw Temple!