ASB 222 - Buried Civilizations of the Americas - Keith Kintigh

Maya Calendrics and Writing

• Maya Calendar
• Father Diego de Landa (arrived 1549) started to figure out calendric system
• Base 20 system
• bar & dots; stylized shell 0, dots 1, bars 5
• |||: =17
• 0 an important development
• Types of Dates -
• Expressed dates in more than one system
• Sunday, June 13, 1993 (7) 1.9.9.3.6.13 day of week, millenium, century, decade, year, month, day
• Sunday: 1-7, June: 1-12, 13: (1-28/31)
• June 13=565 day system
• 1993 solar years from starting point of AD1.
• also astrological calendar symbols
• Long count 31BC-AD909
• count days from arbitrary starting point August 11, 3114BC is day 1, (Thompson correlation)
• Positional system: # of 24 hour days=kin; 20 kin=uinal (20 day month); 18 uinals=tun (360 days); 20 tuns=katun (20 360 day years); 20 katuns=baktun (400 360 day years); up to 19 baktuns=8000 years
• 260 day count 13 numbers and 20 names (A-T)
• 1(Imix)A 2B 3C...13M, 1N..., 13 Ahau 261st day was 1A
• each of 260 days corresponds to its own god
• vague year 365 day cycle, 18 months of 20 days each + 5 unlucky days at the end
• Pop 1-20, next month 1-20
• Mesh together and you get, 1 Imix, 1 Pop only once every 52 years: Calendar Round
• Date Inscription: here comes a date glyph, long count date, 260 day count - 3 other cycles, 365 day count; subsequent dates, days +/- initial date.
• Maya Hieroglyphs
• 3 True Writing Systems in Mesoamerica (none in North or South America): Maya, Zapotec, Aztec
• Maya writing: in books; on stela, representing lives or events; walls; hieroglyphic stairway Copan
• No translation until the 1960s
• Figured esoteric phenomena being described
• Spanish burned the books: Fray Diego de Landa
• "We found a large number of books of these characters and, as they contained nothing in which there were not to be seen superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all which they regretted to an amazing degree and which caused them much affliction"
• Loss not only of ability to translate, but of what they contained?
• 1960 & later, translation
• insight: Tatiana Proskouriakoff, Henry Berlin note Maya is a combination of phonetic syllable glyphs and logograms
• Maya writing is mostly phonetic (but not alphabetic) where a symbol represents a sound (syllable),mixed with logograms, symbols with a defined meaning
• Emblem glyphs for places, certain symbols restricted to certain sites
• Have names sequences of rulers, but name glyphs just interpreted: smoke jaguar, curl nose, pacal
• Language has a grammar, read L-R T-B & systematic ways to read names, dates, places
• Generally in inscription includes one long count date (e.g. for ascension) then relative dates to that within stela for other events (birth, death, e.g.)
• Now possible to read ca 90% of writing.
• Have lists of kingly dynasties for each site
• Maya was not characterized by peaceful priests but by acquisitive kings
• We have elite (kings') personal histories and achievements
• While these are useful, they have inherent biases
• Much of Maya writing that can be deciphered has not been