The rim text nests

Claim (verbatim)

The rim text nests. The Primary Standard Sequence on Maya vases is a fixed dedicatory formula fitted onto rims of very different circumferences; if the band was planned like piecework lettering against available length, abbreviation should be hierarchical rather than ad hoc, dropping the same expendable slots first the way notarial formulae abbreviate. Shortening a sacred formula is a social risk, and workshops manage such risk by convention — and convention leaves a nested signature.

Prediction clause (verbatim)

Across at least 300 Kerr vases with a legible PSS, code presence or absence of the canonical formula slots (initial sign, dedication verb, surface term, vessel-type term, contents term, owner's name and titles). Primary clause (the verdict follows it): the presence-absence matrix forms a Guttman scale with coefficient of reproducibility at least 0.90 — shorter texts are overwhelmingly core-plus-prefix subsets of longer ones rather than arbitrary selections — versus a shuffled null well below that. Secondary clause: slot count correlates with rim circumference computed from recorded diameters at Spearman rho of at least 0.4.

Kill-dataset (verbatim)

Kill: the Kerr Maya Vase Database, whose rollouts and recorded vessel dimensions permit slot-by-slot PSS coding against circumference on the open corpus.

Novelty / leakage triage

provisional — model-triaged, shepherd review pending

A provisional first pass authored by the model (Opus), not yet confirmed by the shepherd. It carries the same dated-search requirements as an authoritative verdict but is excluded from every headline figure and cannot underwrite a prediction until a shepherd confirms it. Provisional reading: Adjacent (closely related prior work exists).

The Primary Standard Sequence is a fixed dedicatory rim formula that (as Michael Coe established in coining the term in 1973, and MacLeod, Stuart and Reents-Budet elaborated) can be lengthened or shortened around an obligatory dedication-verb/vessel core with optional slots (owner, contents, surface term) -- the formulaic, expandable structure the item leans on is textbook. Not located: the item's operationalization -- that the slot presence/absence matrix forms a Guttman scale (coefficient of reproducibility >= 0.90), so short texts are near-strict core-plus-prefix subsets of longer ones rather than arbitrary selections, plus a slot-count/rim-circumference correlation -- coded slot-by-slot over >= 300 Kerr PSS. Established formula structure, unrun scalogram measurement.

• Michael D. Coe, The Maya Scribe and His World (Grolier Club, 1973), coining 'Primary Standard Sequence'; overview at Mesoamerican Studies Online, 'Reading the Primary Standard Sequence' — The fixed dedicatory formula that is lengthened or shortened; obligatory core plus optional slots.
• Erik Boot et al., 'The Primary Standard Sequence: Database Compilation', FAMSI report 02047 — The kill dataset for slot-by-slot PSS coding against rim circumference on the Kerr corpus.

Predictions

No prediction registered yet.