The Dresden Codex at Hi-Res

Wow! I was just sent a link to the Dresden Codex at hi resolution. See:

http://digital.slub-dresden.de/sammlungen/werkansicht/280742827/0/

Best,

Carl

Well I made it to the Capital of Yucatan! Merida has a host of wonderful museums, not the least of which is the Palacio Canton- a pink and white marble palace (built around 1900) that houses many of Yucatan's finest archaeological treasures, not the least of which is the inscribed Panel 1 from Chichen Itza's Caracol-a stellar observatory with a spiral staircase and observational windows and a building that is a testament to the pinnacle of Maya Astronomy.

So the morning after I arrived (Palm Sunday-the streets were filled with processions of waving palms, song and dance), I walked the 10 blocks to the (it felt like 20) and was allowed to take many pictures of all monuments on display. Frustratingly, most of the monuments and artifacts are not labeled telling of their origins, but fortunately I knew most of them. Panel 1 from the Caracol is displayed in dim light and in the open air without protective glass which makes photographing it a lot easier. I asked if I could use my portable LED light to cross light while took photos and of course they said no. Regardless, I was great to be so very close to such an important inscription and allowed to photograph it at hi resolution. It had sustained a lot of damage since it was recovered in the 1930's with many chips, gouges and scrapes.

Why am I so interested in this monument? Well, it records one of the many Era Day inscriptions (and in reversed order at that!) in connection to the supposed founding of the Caracol. The stela also contains the last known inscriptions of one of Chichen's most prominent rulers that of the great K’ahk’-u-Pakal. It describes many doings of this ruler toward the end of his life and in connection with the 17th TUUN of K’ATUN 1 AJAW (beginning on 10.2.17.0.0. 13 AJAW 18 YAXK’IN and closing on 10.3.0.0.0. 1 AJAW 3 YAXK’IN or circa 886-889 AD). From the good work by other epigraphers such as Erik Boot and Alexander Voss, we can postulate that the Caracol was a building related to the divination and that the Itza B’olon K’awiil was the orator and the prognosticator of the Tz’ikinal (a name for the Caracol?) that had the function to announce and proclaim the prognostication for the year based on astronomical observations. Okay so what does all this mean for my work? Well, when the Caracol was built and Panel 1 dedicated, scribes tied the buildings celebration to not only the life of K’ahk’-u-Pakal but also to the beginning of time and the first day of the Current Era, the so called “zero date” of the Maya calendar. Which makes a lot of sense because the Era date 13.0.0.0.0. 4 AJAW 8 KUMK'U served as the initial base date for almost all Maya astronomical calculations as is exemplified so prominently in the Maya book known today as the Dresden Codex.

Needless to say I took a gazillion shots of everything. Its was then well into the afternoon and intensely hot, I made it back to the hotel soaking wet and exhausted yet happy with my cache of new photos.

After San Diego's Museum of Man, I turned my sights eastward to Explore Maya archives housed in the Palace of the Governors, Santa Fe New Mexico, MARI archives at Tulane University at New Orleans, and The Museum of Anthropology in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. All contain thousands of unpublished documents and photos of Maya monuments from the latter part of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th Century.

I took the time to drive out to Santa Fe from California with my partner in glyphs Mary from Australia. She had never experienced the vast deserts of the Great Basin and the high snows and alpine forests of the Rocky Mountains. So it was a delight to share these natural wonders with her. To reach the remaining archives I flew by plane. In every cache of documents, I found details of inscriptions that have since been eroded away and that are related to Classic Maya Era Day activities- they are small details but ones that help me verify or discredit elements of past drawings and to make new ones that I hope will advance the field in the area of Era Day mythic history.

When I start to examine any archive, my mind inhabits another zone completely where time, hunger, and daily concerns just disappear. Its like gold fever in a way. Twelve hours can pass and it feels like I have only been there only two hours! Every photo, every document holds the potential for new discovery and revelation into the ancient mythic mind of the scribe. The pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake is still a noble task in my book. Yet once I wake from that trance and the work is over, I suddenly feel the hunger pains in my stomach, and my aching back.

With this note, I post just a few photos. The first is courtesy of the MARI Archives at Tulane depicting a girl at the site of Quirigua standing beside two altars. I hope it gives you a feel for many of the early photos I examined. Another is of me on the Penn campus debating with one of my great heroes of all time Ben Franklin (eventhough he is just a statue).

OK Now its off to Mexico to explore some key Maya sites and monuments South of the border.

My trip to the San Diego Museum of Man yielded many photos of the casts and their inscriptions of Quirigua monuments on display. These casts were made in 1914 under the direction of Edgar L. Hewett (then the director of the School of American Archaeology) for the Panama California Exposition that opened in 1915. The museum staff allowed me full access for two days to take photos of the inscriptions on the Zoomorphs, especially Zoomorph P (many thanks to director Kate Vogel and assistants Judith Green Wells, Kenneth Bordwell and security guard David Potter for their help). Although this monument has been closely studied in the past, the inscriptions along its south side have not been well documented due to erosion factors and lack of good photographs. The monuments are housed in a beautiful cathedral-like building complete with a dome top. The building's high ceilings and open gallery complement the lofty heights of the stelae on display. The collection also has a cast of Stela C that contains the most detailed account of Era Day events from the Late Classic Period. Delightfully, they also had casts of Palenque's Temple of the Cross and Temple of the Sun's inner sanctuary panels that also record short but important Era Day passages. These panels are located to the left and right walls of the museum's main entrance. Three Era Day passages under one dome-what luck!

Currently, I am on a 5 month research tour of the US, Mexico and Guatemala in search of Maya Era Day Inscriptions. This project is part of my doctoral research at La Trobe University, Melbourne Australia. The core of my research centers on the analysis and interpretation of hieroglyphic texts and archaeological data pertaining to ancient Maya origin mythology from Classic Period (250-900 AD). It investigates those inscriptions that tell of the origin of the cosmos and the birth of the ancient Maya world on Era Day that occurred on August 13, 3114 BC. Previous attempts to organize Maya cosmology have failed to include all known Era Day inscriptions. Consequently, there is no comprehensive overview of actions, gods and place names relating to the cosmogonic act. My research will present and examine all known Era Day inscriptions for a complete analysis and I hope to relate these findings to the rich imagery on the temple walls and artifacts on which they were written.

Vital to the project is the photographing, drawing and cataloguing of all hieroglyphic passages relating to Era Day. Logistically this is quite a challenge since texts and monuments are scattered in site museums, archives and private collections all over North and Central America. My initial survey revealed that of the thirty nine known Era Day passages, nineteen of the inscriptions and associated monuments need to be photographed and drawn. Previously, these Era Day texts have not been properly documented so as to render accurate drawings for translation. It will be my task to photograph them at night (with a raking light source) to bring out surface details not discernable in the daylight hours. The new photos will then aid in making new drawings. Archival research is equally vital. My findings have uncovered the locations of several key photos and casts of texts made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that are indispensable to the new translations. These materials are distributed in libraries and museums in the United States, Mexico, and Guatemala.

First up on the agenda is, the San Diego Museum of Man that has on display a cast-replica of Guatemala's, Quirigua Zoomorph P. This monument is read in tandem with its companion altar (called Altar P') that lay directly in front of it. Altar P’ and Zoomorph P also are related in time in that they both record the same initial Long Count date of 9.18.5.0.0. 4 AJAW 13 KEH (September 15, 795 AD), so they were both dedicated on the same day by a ruler known as "Sky Xul". Both are intricately carved with imagery and inscriptions. The attached figure (by Dmitri Kessel, May 1965, Life Magazine) shows both Zoomorph P and its Altar P' together on site. The two works invoke a similar earth based related iconography; Altar P' displays a masked, anthropomorphic figure leaping out of, or falling into, a giant chasm in the earth that is supported on the back of a giant bird while Zoomorph P displays a biciphalic creature whose back supports a giant mountain "WITZ" mask- out of one end emerges a seated human figure from a gaping maw while the opposite end displays a giant mask of the Principle Bird Deity.

The Palenque House E Painted Band: Calculations into Deep Time

The Palenque House E painted text is situated on the rear wall of the western corridor just above the Oval Tablet and below the vault spring. It consists of two horizontal rows of glyphs roughly three meters long. Today, sections of the text are badly damaged or completely effaced (see above photo- courtesy of the British Museum). Fortunately photographs taken by Alfred P. Maudslay in 1891 and Linda Schele in 1973, record many details now lost. The photos reveal four distinct passages (each separated by dates and intervening distance numbers) that were written in commemoration of the accession of K’inich Ahkal Mo’ Naab III in 721 AD[i]. The following link: http://www.mayaexploration.org/pdf/PalHouseEpaintdTextComposite_2mb.jpg
gives a modern photo composite of the entire text with a preliminary number and lettering system.

A Short Summary of the Painted Text[ii]

Passage I (glyph blocks pA1– pI2) begins with a Long Count set deep into the mythic past (by a few hundred thousand years) of the previous era. This is one of only two deep time texts before the era base day that is accompanied by a full long count date (the other being La Corona glyphic panels 1 and 9). The event associated with the Long Count is unfortunately lost. As noted previously by David Stuart, a participant in the event may be the Sun God or an aspect of him as the HUK TZ’IKIN CHAPAT AJAW[iii] (God of the night sun). Passage II (glyph blocks pJ1–pS2) records a distance number leading from the opening Long Count to the accession of the Triad Progenitor on 2.0.0.10.2. 9 Ik’ Seating of Sak (7 September 2325 BC). Passage III (glyph blocks pT1–pU2) may record a conjuring event by the Triad Progenitor (A.K.A. the Maize God-see note i) one WINAL (twenty days) before his accession. Passage IV (glyph blocks pU2–pD’2) records a long distance number of 1,112,280 days leading from the accession of the Triad Progenitor on the day 9 IK’ Seating of SAK to the accession of K’inich Ahkal Mo’ Naab III on 9.14.10.4.2. 9 Ik’ 5 K’ayab (3 January 722 AD).[iv]

It is a loss that archaeologists and conservators were unable to save the House E Painted Band. Yet, through the aid of existing photos, drawings and computer technology we have been able to reconstruct this painted monument to Palenque’s mythic origins and royal history and return it to the House E throne room. Back in its rightful place above the Oval Tablet, we see how the text was part of a strategic effort of legitimacy by Ahkal Mo’ Naab III to source his accession on the day 9 IK’ to the Maize God’s accession on the day 9 IK’. The king further wanted to show continuity between his reign and those of his uncles and famous grandfather Pakal by painting the inscription so it was directly centered and above the Oval Tablet (Pakal’s accession monument) and a throne (the now removed Del Rio Throne) recording three generations of Palenque kings.[v] As elsewhere at Palenque, politics and myth are intermeshed, and rulers continually sought to source their power in mythic deeds of the creator gods. The New Composite of the House E Painted Text offers the researcher the ability view the painting as Maudslay would have seen it back in 1891. Placing the painting back into the House E will allow future scholars to compare the painting to other House E monuments and to understand more fully relationships between written text and the surrounding imagery. Finally a more in-depth article on the painted band can be found at:

http://www.mayaexploration.org/pdf/HouseEPaintedText_Callaway2008.pdf

Notes

[i] It is very interesting to consider the fact that the portion of the painted text sitting directly above the Oval Tablet (Pakal’s accession monument), speaks about the accession of the Triad Progenitor who is strongly associated with the Maize God, see David Stuart, The Inscriptions From Temple XIX At Palenque. A Commentary, 2005, 183. Pakal as well made an apparent link to the Maize God on the Oval Tablet, by declaring in his name caption that he was the “HUN YAAX IXIM” or “First Green Maize.”
[ii] Of all the sources mentioned previously, I will use the Maudslay and Schele photos along with the Seler drawing to recreate and interpret numerical coefficients of time periods in the painted text.
[iii] Erik Boot, The Title (WUK) Chapat Tz’ikin K’inich Ahaw: A New Proposal. Unpublished manuscript.
[iv] As David Stuart points out (see David Stuart, The Inscriptions From Temple XIX At Palenque. A Commentary, 2005, 85) the accession date of 9 IK’ 5 KAYAB and its accompanying time interval of 7.14.9.12.0 days (in connection with the Triad Progenitor’s accession date on 2.0.0.10.2. 9 IK’ Seating of SAK) is recorded elsewhere at Palenque (see Temple XIX text and the Temple XVIII jambs). Therefore, the associated distance number and event connected to Passage IV are verifiable from two other sources.
[v] For a reconstruction of the Del Rio Throne see Merle Greene Robertson, The Sculpture Of Palenque Vol. II: The Early Buildings Of The Palace And Wall Paintings. 1985.

The Birth of the Number Twenty as Recorded in the Dresden Codex

Two of the “Serpent Number” pages of the Dresden Codex hold parallel passages describing creation events shortly before the start of the current era on 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u (August 13, 3114 BC). Specifically, they record the creation of the Winal–the number twenty (see above figure for the passage on page 61). Scribes reference the Winal’s “birth” with the passage pataj ajwinik, “was formed twenty.” The Winal’s birth is then followed by a short numerical count of twenty days that falls directly before 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u. This count of twenty days is expressed by the numbers “19 and 0” written side–by–side. The birth of the Winal, followed by a count of twenty days prior to creation day shares a one–to–one correspondence with a similar pre–era event as recorded in the Post–Conquest writings of the Chilam Balam of Chumayel from the Yucatán. This strong correspondence between the Dresden and the Chumayel leaves little doubt that the Winal episode told on the Serpent Number pages serves as the antecedent to the Chumayel text, and thereby shows that a core mythos of Maya cosmology survived intact in Post–Conquest Yucatán despite the ravages and religious suppression of the European Conquest.

Works Cited

Roys Ralph L.

1967 The Book of the Chilam Balam of Chumayel. Pp 229. The Civilization of the American Indian Series. Oklahoma: Univiversity of Oklahoma Press.