Planting, cultivation. Ch'orti': B'ahk' (or pak'); Quiche: Aj; Yucatec: Ben; Aztec: Acatl. The Quiche name probably derives from the Ch'orti' Ahk', which means yield or produce. Ahk' in turn probably derives from B'ahk'. The Yucatec name probably comes from the Ch'orti' Ben, which means weeds or shrubbery. This meaning is similar to the Aztec Acatl or grass. Acatl most likely comes from the Quiche Aj or the Ch'orti' Ahk'. Perhaps Ben, or wild growth, was a slang for this day sign.
This is one of the earliest named day signs in Ch'orti'. It refers to the period of time in the Mars retrograde long-count calendar when the Maya first succeeded in cultivation. This time period was 8325 BCE to 8278 BCE, when the Mars calendar was set at 7 B'ahk' (what would become known as 7 B'ahk'). The Maya named day signs based on events that occurred while a day sign was the "reigning" marker in the Mars calendar.
The first crop that the Maya cultivated was tobacco and it was grown and used for spiritual purposes. The Maya first grew tobacco (or any plant) on Isla Tigre, Honduras, in the Gulf of Fonseca. The descriptions in the Popol Vuh indicate that the Maya tried repeatedly to transplant tobacco plants brought to them from Tecapa, El Salvador, by Xibalba. This did not work; they finally tried planting the seeds, which succeeded. Soon after the Maya learned cultivation they began planting teosinte grass seeds and hybridized it into corn.
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