Mayan Writing

1
Mayan Writing the Long Count

• Stelae, Codices and Books
• Calendric Calculations
• Deciphering Hieroglyphs
• Maya Long Count Exercise

2
Stelae, Books and Codices Mayan writing is
depicted in several ways.

• Stelae
• carved, vertical glyphs on stone shafts or
  altars.
• also horizontally on steps, benches
• sometimes seen on bone, shell or stones.

3
Stelae
Copan Stelae 18 Rabbit, a Copan Ruler, as is
usual in full-figure stelae, carries a ceremonial
bar with dragon heads at either end. From the
dragon heads emerge divine heads.
http//www.misericordia.edu/users/davies/maya/text
a.htm
4
Copan, Stela 4
Stela 4's version of "18 Rabbit." The "18"
numeral, is three lines plus three dots, with
each line equal to 5.The "ubah" sign is included
in the Kawil head through the circle/cross and
the "rabbit" head facing upwards.
5
Erected July 22, 736 A.D.  (9.15.5.0.0) Stela D
is located at the farthest southern point of the
"Grand Courtyard" of Copan. Like Stela A, it was
erected by the ruler "18 Rabbit."18 Rabbit's
face is hidden behind a God-mask.
http//www.misericordia.edu/users/davies/maya/ste
lad.htm
6
Books Popul Vuh

• Books of the Chilam Balam (Mayan prophet)
• Book of the Community is a collection of Quiche
  and Cakchiquel people.
• Thought to have been written by Diego Reynos, a
  converted Indian in the mid 16th century.
• The manuscript was lost and re-discovered by
  Father Francisco Ximenez in 1857.
• Father Ximenez found the book in his parish, the
  El Calvario Church, at Chichicastenango,
  Guatemala.
• The manuscript contains compiled oral histories
  of Maya culture.
• Original manuscript was written in Quiche
  language using the Latin alphabet.
• Father Ximenez translated the book into Latin and
  that work is located in the Newberry Library in
  Chicago, the original is lost.

7
Popul Vuh cond

• This work is considered by many to be a bible of
  the Maya-Quiche outlining the origin of the
  civilization and their cultural traditions and
  mythology.
• The history of the Quiches down to 1550 is
  presented. Further contained is a collection of
  legends concerning Kukulcan, or Quetzalcoatl.
• Contains legends of the Quiche Maya and written
  in Latin at an unknown date.
• Not really a codex but certainly written by a
  historian soon after the conquest.
• The book contains glyphs of some signs and many
  accounts of myths and legends of the early Maya.

8
Maya codices

• Codices
• most elaborate of writing medium, must have
  existed in the thousands, but only a few left.
• made out of bark paper, or deer skin.
• prepared from the inner bark of trees, fibers
  soaked in lime and then beaten smooth.
• once dry it was white-washed with a thin coat of
  limestone or gypsum paste.

9
Classic Codices

• Wright Codex
• Pottery Codex
• rectangular vessel, 10 in. high, Guatemalan.
• Each side represents page of a codex.
• Dates between A.D. 600 and 900.

10
Ceren, El Salvador

• Joya de Ceren, a precolumbian village buried by
  surges and scoria fallfrom the 1658 eruption of
  Loma Caldera, a small vent along NW trending
  fissures associated to San Salvador volcano.
• In their haste to escape, the villagers left
  behind utensils, textiles, food, ceramics,
  furniture and all of the other accouterments of
  daily life.
• The village lay hidden until 1976 when it was
  discovered by Payson Sheets, an anthropology
  professor at the University of Colorado in
  Boulder. Sheets almost immediately began
  excavating the site, a process that has continued
  ever since.
• Codex from Ceren, San Salvador
• preserved under volcanic ash when Laguna Caldera
  volcano erupted in A.D. 600.
• located on a bench in a communal building.
• no text recovered, but painted with kaolin,
  cinnabar and iron pigments.

http//www.theculturedtraveler.com/Heritage/Archiv
es/Joya_Ceren.htm
11
Ceren
12
Ceren
13
Sauna Bath, Ceren
14
The Dresden Codex

• Best of the codices preserved, is at the Royal
  Library, Dresden, also known as the Dresdensis.
• Was brought in 1739 to the King of Saxony's
  library in Dresden, where an unknown person sold
  it to the director of the library, Johann
  Christian Goetze.
• Existence of the codex was made known to the
  world in 1774 when the director published his
  book Peculiarities of the Library of Dresden,
  First Collection.
• Publicly displayed for the first time in 1834.
  Contains 39 pages of prophecies, ceremonies for
  the new year, and astronomical data. New year's
  ceremonies are depicted as well as a sort of
  agricultural almanac is contained in this codex.
• The codex was almost destroyed during WWII but
  today is on display at the Dresden Museum.
• The codex was vigorously studied by a librarian,
  Ernest Forstemann, 1822-1906, who after years of
  work began to break the numerical signs and code.

15
Dresden Codex

• During the first world war, Martin Meinshausen
  deciphered the famous Calendar of Eclipses.
• Pages 57 and 58 of this codex provide a perpetual
  lunar calendar of 11,960 days consisting of 405
  months, divided into 69 groups of 177, 178, or
  148 days.
• An accurate lunar calendar, with accurate
  predictions of solar eclipses. 11,960 divided by
  405 gave the Maya a 29.5308 lunar cycle. Modern
  astronomers compute a lunar calendar at 29.5309
  days.
• Dates from A.D. 1250-1345.

16
Codex Tro-Cortesiano

• Incomplete, now in Madrid
• Drawn on amate paper and is 56 pages long.
• Sold to the Museum by Pilar Bermudez de Castro.
• For a considerable time it was thought to be two
  different codices. The first part "Tro", was
  brought to the attention of the abbe Brasseur de
  Bourbourg, who discovered it in the private
  library of Juan Tro y Ortelano, a Professor of
  Paleography and a descendant of Hernan Cortes.
• According to some sources the second half of the
  name "Cortesian", refers to the professor's
  Spanish ancestry, some however, believe it
  derives from the codex being found in
  Extremadura, where it may have been taken by
  Cortes.

17
Tro-Cortesiano Codex
18
Other Post Classic Codices

• Codex Peresiano
• prophesies and ceremonies, possibly of east coast
  origin.
• dates from the period of Mayapans rule in
  Yucatan, A.D. 1200.
• Leon de Rosny, a botanist and Japanese language
  expert, found this codex in a wastebasket at the
  National Library of Paris in 1859, it's papers
  blackened by chimney smoke.
• A small codex of only eleven pages measuring 1.45
  meters long by 22 centimeters wide. Thought to
  have been made in the twelfth or thirteenth
  century.
• The codex contains information of prophecy and
  history and almanacs dealing with divinity.
• One complete side of the manuscript details
  eleven successive katuns, or twenty year periods
  of time. It is not known how it came to Paris or
  how long it was there.
• Grolier Codex
• found in a dry cave by looters, northern part of
  Chiapas
• almanac based on planet Venus
• originally about 20 pages, A.D. 1230

19
http//www.mayavase.com/grol/grolier.html
Codex de Paris http//classes.bnf.fr/dossiecr/gc63
-1.htm
20
Calendric Calculations

• Maya Calendar
• Calendar Round
• Basic unit was a day, not broken down further.
• two recurring cycles of time 260-day and 365-day
  ran simultaneously making up a period of 52 years.

21
Mayan Calendar Round Sacred Cycle
http//www.hanksville.org/yucatan/mayacal.html
22
Sacred Almanac (Tzokin)

• 260-day cycle
• MayaTzokin, AztecTonalpohualli
• primarily religious and divinatory
• guidance of daily affairs
• 20 named days, combined with numbers 1-13, in
  which the exact combination of name and number
  would recur every 260 days.
• not based on natural phenomenon.

23
What is the Tzolkin?

• The Tzolkin date is a combination of two "week"
  lengths.
• While our calendar uses a single week of seven
  days, the Mayan calendar used two different
  lengths of week
• a numbered week of 13 days, in which the days
  were numbered from 1 to 13
• a named week of 20 days, in which the names of
  the days were
• As the named week is 20 days and the smallest
  Long Count digit is 20 days, there is synchrony
  between the two
• if, for example, the last digit of today's Long
  Count is 0, today must be Ahau if it is 6, it
  must be Cimi.
• Since the numbered and the named week were both
  "weeks," each of their name/number change daily
  therefore, the day after 3 Cimi is not 4 Cimi,
  but 4 Manik, and the day after that, 5 Lamat.
• The next time Cimi rolls around, 20 days later,
  it will be 10 Cimi instead of 3 Cimi. The next
  3 Cimi will not occur until 260 (or 13 x 20) days
  have passed.
• This 260-day cycle also had good-luck or bad-luck
  associations connected with each day, and for
  this reason, it became known as the "divinatory
  year."
• The "years" of the Tzolkin calendar are not
  counted.
• When did the Tzolkin Start?
• Long Count 13.0.0.0.0 corresponds to 4 Ahau. The
  authorities agree on this.

24
Tzolkin
0. Ahau 1. Imix 2. Ik3. Akbal 4. Kan 5. Chicchan
6. Cimi 7. Manik 8. Lamat 9. Muluc 10. Oc 11.
Chuen 12. Eb 13. Ben 14. Ix 15. Men 16. Cib 17.
Caban 18. Etznab 19. Caunac
25
Astronomical Year

• 365-day cycle
• MayaHaab, AztecXihuitl)
• 18 named months of 20 days each, plus 5
  additional days of apprehension and bad luck at
  the end of the year.
• Days numbered from 0-19, and to return to any
  given date, 52 years would have to pass.

26
The Haab

• In contrast to the Tzolkin dates, the Haab month
  names changed every 20 days instead of daily so
  the day after 4 Zotz would be 5 Zotz, followed by
  6 Zotz ... up to 19 Zotz, which is followed by
  0 Tzec.
• The days of the month were numbered from 0 to 19.
  This use of a 0th day of the month in a civil
  calendar is unique to the Maya system it is
  believed that the Mayas discovered the number
  zero, and the uses to which it could be put,
  centuries before it was discovered in Europe or
  Asia.
• The Uayeb days acquired a very derogatory
  reputation for bad luck known as "days without
  names" or "days without souls," and were observed
  as days of prayer and mourning. Fires were
  extinguished and the population refrained from
  eating hot food. Anyone born on those days was
  "doomed to a miserable life."
• The names of the month 1.Pop 2.Uo 3.Zip 4.Zotz
  5.Tzec 6.Xul 7.Yaxkin 8.Mol 9.Chen 10.Yax 11.Zac
  12.Ceh 13.Mac 14.Kankin 15.Muan 16.Pax 17.Kayab
  18.Cumku
• When did the Haab Start?
• Long Count 13.0.0.0.0 corresponds to 8 Cumku. The
  authorities agree on this.

27
Did the Mayas Think a Year Was 365 Days?

• Although there were only 365 days in the Haab
  year, the Mayas were aware that a year is
  slightly longer than 365 days, and in fact, many
  of the month-names are associated with the
  seasons Yaxkin, for example, means "new or
  strong sun" and, at the beginning of the Long
  Count, 1 Yaxkin was the day after the winter
  solstice, when the sun starts to shine for a
  longer period of time and higher in the sky.
• When the Long Count was put into motion, it was
  started at 7.13.0.0.0, and 0 Yaxkin corresponded
  with Midwinter Day, as it did at 13.0.0.0.0 back
  in 3114 B.C.E. The available evidence indicates
  that the Mayas estimated that a 365-day year
  precessed through all the seasons twice in
  7.13.0.0.0 or 1,101,600 days.
• We can therefore derive a value for the Mayan
  estimate of the year by dividing 1,101,600 by
  365, subtracting 2, and taking that number and
  dividing 1,101,600 by the result, which gives us
  an answer of 365.242036 days, which is slightly
  more accurate than the 365.2425 days of the
  Gregorian calendar.
• (This apparent accuracy could, however, be a
  simple coincidence. The Mayas estimated that a
  365-day year precessed through all the seasons
  twice in 7.13.0.0.0 days. These numbers are only
  accurate to 2-3 digits. Suppose the 7.13.0.0.0
  days had corresponded to 2.001 cycles rather than
  2 cycles of the 365-day year, would the Mayas
  have noticed?)

28
Zero and the Long Count

• Numbers represented with a one as a dot and a
  five as a bar.
• value is determined by its position.
• No idea when zero invented
• needed for calculating dates in the past.
• invented in the Old World-India and Babylonia ca.
  500 B.C.

29
Long Count

• A starting point in the past as August 13, 3114
  B.C., significance may be mythological such as
  the creation of the three Maya worlds.
• Time in groups of 20 days
• kinone day
• uinal20 days
• tun360 days
• katun7200 days
• baktun144,000 days
• We translate them as 9.14.8.0.0 which is 9
  baktuns, 14 katuns, 8 tuns, 0 uinals, and 0 kins.

30
When did the Long Count Start?

• Logically, the first date in the Long Count
  should be 0.0.0.0.0, but as the baktun (the first
  component) are numbered from 1 to 13 rather than
  0 to 12, this first date is actually written
  13.0.0.0.0.
• The authorities disagree on what 13.0.0.0.0
  corresponds to in our calendar. I have come
  across three possible equivalences
• 13.0.0.0.0 8 Sep 3114 BC (Julian)
  13 Aug 3114 BC (Gregorian)13.0.0.0.0
  6 Sep 3114 BC (Julian) 11 Aug 3114 BC
  (Gregorian)13.0.0.0.0 11 Nov 3374 BC (Julian)
  15 Oct 3374 BC (Gregorian)
• Assuming one of the first two equivalences, the
  Long Count will again reach 13.0.0.0.0 on 21 or
  23 December AD 2012 - a not too distant future.

31
Gregorian vs. Julian Calendar

• The Gregorian Calendar is a revision of the
  Julian Calendar which was instituted in a papal
  bull by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. The reason for
  the calendar change was to correct for drift in
  the dates of signifigant religious observations
  (primarily Easter) and to prevent further drift
  in the dates.
• The important effects of the change were
• Drop 10 days from October 1582, to realign the
  Vernal Equinox with 21 March
• Change leap year selection so that not all years
  ending in "00" are leap years.
• Change the beginning of the year to 1 January
  from 25 March

32
Deciphering Maya Hieroglyphics

• It is the combination of imagery and hieroglyphs
  wich gives patterns meaning.
• no list of signs with meaning for each.
• no real alphabet.
• Maya inscriptions thought to relate only to
  calendrics and astronomy because they were the
  first to be deciphered.

33
Mayan Epigraphers

• Today epigraphers recognize the writing as a
  political or dynastic theme.
• Researchers such as Yuri Knorosov, Tatiana
  Proskouriakoff, and Heinrich Berlin.
• Knorosov-combining signs (consonant plus vowel)
  words were formed phonetically.
• Berlin-emblem glyphs stood for centers, regions,
  or dynasties.
• Proskouriakoff-dates corresponded to historical
  events of rulers and their families at Pedras
  Negras.
• Linda Schele Breaking the Maya Code
• dates on stelae and in codices are associated
  with events in rulers lives. assumption to the
  throne is dated then bloodletting or other
  rituals and their corresponding dates.
• Still about 1/3 cannot be deciphered.

34
Maya Long Count Exercise

1. Calculate the year that the New World was
   discovered in Mayan long count.
2. What year did WWI begin in Mayan long count?
3. Write the year of your birth in Mayan long count.
4. In what year did you graduate high school as
   calculated by the Mayan long count?

35
Conversion

• Gregorian to Mayan
• http//www.pauahtun.org/cgi-bin/gregmaya.py
• Long Count to Gregorian
• http//www.pauahtun.org/cgi-bin/mayagreg.py