Unlocking the Secrets of Ancient Writing
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
With the Protection of the Gods: an Interpretation of the Protector Figure in Classic Maya Iconography
University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2012 With The Protection Of The Gods: An Interpretation Of The Protector Figure In Classic Maya Iconography Tiffany M. Lindley University of Central Florida Part of the Anthropology Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Masters Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Lindley, Tiffany M., "With The Protection Of The Gods: An Interpretation Of The Protector Figure In Classic Maya Iconography" (2012). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 2148. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/2148 WITH THE PROTECTION OF THE GODS: AN INTERPRETATION OF THE PROTECTOR FIGURE IN CLASSIC MAYA ICONOGRAPHY by TIFFANY M. LINDLEY B.A. University of Alabama, 2009 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Anthropology in the College of Sciences at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2012 © 2012 Tiffany M. Lindley ii ABSTRACT Iconography encapsulates the cultural knowledge of a civilization. The ancient Maya of Mesoamerica utilized iconography to express ideological beliefs, as well as political events and histories. An ideology heavily based on the presence of an Otherworld is visible in elaborate Maya iconography. Motifs and themes can be manipulated to convey different meanings based on context. -
The Rulers of Palenque a Beginner’S Guide
The Rulers of Palenque A Beginner’s Guide By Joel Skidmore With illustrations by Merle Greene Robertson Citation: 2008 The Rulers of Palenque: A Beginner’s Guide. Third edition. Mesoweb: www. mesoweb.com/palenque/resources/rulers/PalenqueRulers-03.pdf. Publication history: The first edition of this work, in html format, was published in 2000. The second was published in 2007, when the revised edition of Martin and Grube’s Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens was still in press, and this third conforms to the final publica- tion (Martin and Grube 2008). To check for a more recent edition, see: www.mesoweb.com/palenque/resources/rulers/rulers.html. Copyright notice: All drawings by Merle Greene Robertson unless otherwise noted. Mesoweb Publications The Rulers of Palenque INTRODUCTION The unsung pioneer in the study of Palenque’s dynastic history is Heinrich Berlin, who in three seminal studies (Berlin 1959, 1965, 1968) provided the essential outline of the dynasty and explicitly identified the name glyphs and likely accession dates of the major Early and Late Classic rulers (Stuart 2005:148-149). More prominent and well deserved credit has gone to Linda Schele and Peter Mathews (1974), who summarized the rulers of Palenque’s Late Classic and gave them working names in Ch’ol Mayan (Stuart 2005:149). The present work is partly based on the transcript by Phil Wanyerka of a hieroglyphic workshop presented by Schele and Mathews at the 1993 Maya Meet- ings at Texas (Schele and Mathews 1993). Essential recourse has also been made to the insights and decipherments of David Stuart, who made his first Palenque Round Table presentation in 1978 at the age of twelve (Stuart 1979) and has recently advanced our understanding of Palenque and its rulers immeasurably (Stuart 2005). -
History of Minoan Crete Perhaps the Most Sophisticated Bronze Age
History of Minoan Crete Perhaps the most sophisticated Bronze Age civilization of the Mediterranean world was that of the Minoans. The Minoan civilization developed on and ruled the island of Crete from about 3,600 -1,400 BC. The Minoans established a great trading empire centered on Crete, which is conveniently located midway between Egypt, Greece, Anatolia, and the Middle East. Background to the Minoans The Minoan language, written in the script known as Linear A, remains undeciphered, so there remains much that we do not know about the ancient Minoans. For example, we do not even know what they called themselves. The term “Minoan” is a modern name and comes from the legendary King Minos. According to Greek mythology, King Minos ruled the island of Crete. He supposedly kept a Minotaur in a maze on the island and sacrificed young Greeks to feed it until it was killed by the hero Theseus. There are various legends about a King of Crete named Minos, and the ancient Greeks decided that all of them could not refer to the same man; thus, they assumed that there were many kings named Minos who had ruled Crete. When the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans rediscovered the civilization, he renamed them the Minoans, because he believed they were related to these ancient rulers of the island from Greek myth. Still, the lack of written evidence can be somewhat compensated for through the use of archaeology. We can make up a bit for our lack of knowledge from texts with information gleaned from archaeology. The Minoan civilization was forgotten until it was rediscovered by the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans in the first decade of the twentieth century. -
Journal of Eurasian Studies
JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES _____________________________________________________________________________________ Journal of the Gábor Bálint de Szentkatolna Society Founded: 2009. Internet: www.federatio.org/joes.html _____________________________________________________________________________________ Volume I., Issue 4. / October — December 2009 ____________________ ISSN 1877-4199 October-December 2009 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume I., Issue 4. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Publisher Foundation 'Stichting MIKES INTERNATIONAL', established in The Hague, Holland. Account: Postbank rek.nr. 7528240 Registered: Stichtingenregister: S 41158447 Kamer van Koophandel en Fabrieken Den Haag Distribution The periodical can be downloaded from the following Internet-address: http://www.federatio.org/joes.html If you wish to subscribe to the email mailing list, you can do it by sending an email to the following address: [email protected] The publisher has no financial sources. It is supported by many in the form of voluntary work and gifts. We kindly appreciate your gifts. Address The Editors and the Publisher can be contacted at the following addresses: Email: [email protected] Postal address: P.O. Box 10249, 2501 HE, Den Haag, Holland Individual authors are responsible for facts included and views expressed in their articles. _____________________________________ ISSN 1877-4199 © Mikes International, 2001-2009, All Rights Reserved _____________________________________________________________________________________ -
150506-Woudhuizen Bw.Ps, Page 1-168 @ Normalize ( Microsoft
The Ethnicity of the Sea Peoples 1 2 THE ETHNICITY OF THE SEA PEOPLES DE ETNICITEIT VAN DE ZEEVOLKEN Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam op gezag van de rector magnificus Prof.dr. S.W.J. Lamberts en volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties. De openbare verdediging zal plaatsvinden op vrijdag 28 april 2006 om 13.30 uur door Frederik Christiaan Woudhuizen geboren te Zutphen 3 Promotiecommissie Promotor: Prof.dr. W.M.J. van Binsbergen Overige leden: Prof.dr. R.F. Docter Prof.dr. J. de Mul Prof.dr. J. de Roos 4 To my parents “Dieser Befund legt somit die Auffassung nahe, daß zumindest für den Kern der ‘Seevölker’-Bewegung des 14.-12. Jh. v. Chr. mit Krieger-Stammesgruppen von ausgeprägter ethnischer Identität – und nicht lediglich mit einem diffus fluktuierenden Piratentum – zu rechnen ist.” (Lehmann 1985: 58) 5 CONTENTS Preface ................................................................................................................................................................................9 Note on the Transcription, especially of Proper Names....................................................................................................11 List of Figures...................................................................................................................................................................12 List of Tables ....................................................................................................................................................................13 -
The Evolution of Civilizations Singled out for National Awards by a National Committee Headed by George Gallup
The Evolution of Civilizations n this perceptive look at the factors behind the rise and fall of I civilizations, Professor Quigley seeks to establish the analytical tools necessary for understanding history. He examines the applica- tion of scientific method to the social sciences, then establishes his historical hypotheses. He poses a division of culture into six levels, from the more abstract to the more concrete—intellectual, religious, social, political, economic, and military—and he identifies seven stages of historical change for all civilizations: mixture, gestation, expansion, conflict, universal empire, decay, and invasion. Quigley tests these hypotheses by a detailed analysis of five major civilizations: the Mesopotamian, the Canaanite, the Minoan, the classical, and the Western. "He has reached sounder ground than has Arnold J. Toynbee" —Christian Science Monitor. "Studies of this nature, rare in American historiography, should be welcomed. Quigley's juxtaposition of facts in a novel order is often provocative, and his work yields a harvest of insights"—American Historical Review. "Extremely illuminating" —Kirkus Reviews. "This is an amazing book. Quigley avoids the lingo of expertise; indeed, the whole performance is sane, impres- sively analytical, and well balanced"—Library Journal. CARROLL QUIGLEY taught the history of civilization at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, and was the author of Trag- edy and Hope: The World in Our Time. Contents Diagrams, Tables, and Maps .................................................... 11 Foreword, by Harry J. Hogan ................................................... 13 Preface to the First Edition ....................................................... 23 1. Scientific Method and the Social Sciences.......................... 31 2. Man and Culture.................................................................. 49 3. Groups, Societies, and Civilizations.................................... 67 4. Historical Analysis .............................................................. 85 5. -
Creation Cosmos
Creation, Cosmos, and the Imagery of Palenque and Copan Linda Schele and Khristaan D. Villela University of Texas, Austin At the 1992 Texas Meetings, Schele published in Schele (1992) and Freidel, (1992) presented a new interpretation of the Schele, and Parker (1993), we discuss here creation myth and the imagery associated only the main features of the story and its with it, as they are recorded in Classic Period association to astronomical phenomena. inscriptions. There is continuing debate The story of creation on Quirigua about some of the details in this reconstruc- Stela C (fig. 1) gives us the most detailed tion, but various researchers (Schele, Grube, information about the first moment. The text Nahm, R. Johnson, and Quenon) have tested describes the first event as the “appearance some of its patterns and found them to be or manifestation of an image” (halhi productive. This new reconstruction resulted k’ohba). Here the image that appeared was from the decipherment of texts at Quirigua, of three stone-settings (u tz’apwa tun), Palenque, and elsewhere, relating the events described as a jaguar throne stone placed by of creation and associating them with the Paddler Gods at a place called Na-Ho- various constellations, the Milky Way, and Chan, ‘House (or First or Female) Five- their movement through the sky. Since a Sky’; a snake throne stone set up by an detailed discussion of the creation story is unknown god at Kab-Kah,1 ‘Earth-town’; Fig. 1. The Creation Passage from Quirigua Stela C. 1 a. A council of gods aiding in the setting of the jaguar throne. -
Maya Hieroglyphic Writing
MAYA HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING Workbook for a Short Course on Maya Hieroglyphic Writing Second Edition, 201 1 J. Kathryn Josserandt and Nicholas A. Hopkins Jaguar Tours 3007 Windy Hill Lane Tallahassee, 32308-4025 FL (850) 385-4344 [email protected] This material is based on work supported in partby Ihe NationalScience Foundation (NSF) under grants BNS-8305806 and BNS-8520749, administered by Ihe Institute for Cultural Ecology of Ihe Tropics (lCEr), and by Ihe National Endowment for Ihe Humanities (NEH), grants RT-20643-86 and RT-21090-89. Any findingsand conclusions or recommendationsexpressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect Ihe views of NSF, NEH, or ICEr. Workbook © Jaguar Tours 2011 CONTENTS Contents Credits and Sources for Figures iv Introductionand Acknowledgements v Bibliography vi Figure 1-1. Mesoamerican Languages x Figure 1-2. The Maya Area xi Figure 1-3. Chronology Chart for tbe Maya Area xii P ART The Classic Maya Maya Hieroglypbic Writing 1: and Figure 14. A FamilyTree of Mayan Languages 2 Mayan Languages 3 Chronology 3 Maya and Earlier Writing 4 Context and Content S Tbe Writing System 5 Figure 1-5. Logographic Signs 6 Figure 1-6. Phonetic Signs 6 Figure 1-7. Landa's "Alphabet" 6 Figure 1-8. A Maya Syllabary 8 Figure 1-9. Reading Order witbin tbe Glyph Block 10 Figure 1-10. Reading Order of Glypb Blocks 10 HieroglyphicTexts II Word Order II Figure 1-11. Examples of Classic Syntax 12 Figure 1-12. Unmarked and Marked Word Order 12 Figure 1-13. Backgrounding and Foregrounding 12-B Figure 1-14. -
Breaking the Maya Code : Michael D. Coe Interview (Night Fire Films)
BREAKING THE MAYA CODE Transcript of filmed interview Complete interview transcripts at www.nightfirefilms.org MICHAEL D. COE Interviewed April 6 and 7, 2005 at his home in New Haven, Connecticut In the 1950s archaeologist Michael Coe was one of the pioneering investigators of the Olmec Civilization. He later made major contributions to Maya epigraphy and iconography. In more recent years he has studied the Khmer civilization of Cambodia. He is the Charles J. MacCurdy Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus at Yale University, and Curator Emeritus of the Anthropology collection of Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History. He is the author of Breaking the Maya Code and numerous other books including The Maya Scribe and His World, The Maya and Angkor and the Khmer Civilization. In this interview he discusses: The nature of writing systems The origin of Maya writing The role of writing and scribes in Maya culture The status of Maya writing at the time of the Spanish conquest The impact for good and ill of Bishop Landa The persistence of scribal activity in the books of Chilam Balam and the Caste War Letters Early exploration in the Maya region and early publication of Maya texts The work of Constantine Rafinesque, Stephens and Catherwood, de Bourbourg, Ernst Förstemann, and Alfred Maudslay The Maya Corpus Project Cyrus Thomas Sylvanus Morley and the Carnegie Projects Eric Thompson Hermann Beyer Yuri Knorosov Tania Proskouriakoff His own early involvement with study of the Maya and the Olmec His personal relationship with Yuri -
Reassessing Shamanism and Animism in the Art and Archaeology of Ancient Mesoamerica
religions Article Reassessing Shamanism and Animism in the Art and Archaeology of Ancient Mesoamerica Eleanor Harrison-Buck 1,* and David A. Freidel 2 1 Department of Anthropology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA 2 Department of Anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63105, USA; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: Shamanism and animism have proven to be useful cross-cultural analytical tools for anthropology, particularly in religious studies. However, both concepts root in reductionist, social evolutionary theory and have been criticized for their vague and homogenizing rubric, an overly romanticized idealism, and the tendency to ‘other’ nonwestern peoples as ahistorical, apolitical, and irrational. The alternative has been a largely secular view of religion, favoring materialist processes of rationalization and “disenchantment.” Like any cross-cultural frame of reference, such terms are only informative when explicitly defined in local contexts using specific case studies. Here, we consider shamanism and animism in terms of ethnographic and archaeological evidence from Mesoamerica. We trace the intellectual history of these concepts and reassess shamanism and animism from a relational or ontological perspective, concluding that these terms are best understood as distinct ways of knowing the world and acquiring knowledge. We examine specific archaeological examples of masked spirit impersonations, as well as mirrors and other reflective materials used in divination. We consider not only the productive and affective energies of these enchanted materials, but also the Citation: Harrison-Buck, Eleanor, potentially dangerous, negative, or contested aspects of vital matter wielded in divinatory practices. and David A. Freidel. 2021. Reassessing Shamanism and Keywords: Mesoamerica; art and archaeology; shamanism; animism; Indigenous ontology; relational Animism in the Art and Archaeology theory; divination; spirit impersonation; material agency of Ancient Mesoamerica. -
Talking Neolithic: the Case for Hatto-Minoan and Its Relationship to Sumerian
Talking Neolithic: The Case for Hatto-Minoan and its Relationship to Sumerian Peter Schrijver University of Utrecht It is argued that the Minoan language of second-millennium BC Crete stands a good chance of being descended from the language that was imported into Crete by the earliest farmers that colonized the Island in the 7th millennium BC. Evidence is presented that links Minoan to the Hattic language of second- millennium BC northern Anatolia. An analysis of the Hattic verbal system supports the hypothesis that in turn Hattic is related to Sumerian. The existence of a Hatto-Sumero-Minoan language family is posited, which predates the expansions of Semitic and Indo-European in the Near East and which is implicated in the spread of migrant farmers into Europe. A word for ’pig’ is reconstructed for that language family. 1. Language, genes and culture The expansion of a language across a geographical area takes place as a result of two mechanisms: the language is taken along by people who migrate into new territory, or the language is adopted by local populations beside or instead of their original language. Before the times of widespread formal education, mass media and the internet, language spread by acculturation always went hand in hand with spread by migration: only the presence of migrant native speakers in a new territory is capable of exposing the natives to the new language and of creating social pressure to adopt that language. Exposure and social pressure are what it takes for a population to trade its native language for a different one. -
The Quadripartite Badge: Narratives of Power and Resurrection in Maya Iconography
THE QUADRIPARTITE BADGE: NARRATIVES OF POWER AND RESURRECTION IN MAYA ICONOGRAPHY by VICTORIA ANN INGALLS B.S. Texas State University, 2009 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Anthropology in the College of Sciences at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Fall Term 2012 © 2012 Victoria A. Ingalls ii ABSTRACT Ancient Maya iconography primarily depicted elite individuals in idealized states of being and rationalized their power and authority through ideological concepts and otherworld beings. This study aims to reexamine previous assumptions made concerning the Quadripartite Badge. This motif is examined based on iconographic associations and contexts, as well as temporal and spatial distributions. The dataset was created from currently identified examples of the Quadripartite Badge, although only a select group is extensively examined. The spread of this motif is demonstrated through time and its spatial dispersals are noted for their political consequences. Indicating the liminal status of its user, the Badge is frequently placed in scenes of transformation, accompanying rites of passage. It is also established that as elite women became more prominent, women from Tikal and Calakmul circulated this iconography through marriage alliances, as seen in the number of newly ‘arrived’ women carrying the Badge. Other iconographic associations of the Badge revealed strong ties with the Maize God and the cyclical nature of agriculture. For the continuation of the maize cycle and renewal of universal forces, sacrifice was required; the completion of ritual sacrifice was demonstrated through the depiction of the Quadripartite Badge. This one expression of power simultaneously validated earthly and otherworldy authority, ensuring the continuation of the cosmos and the perpetuation of the sun and maize cycles.