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To the memory of Karl Ruppert Michael D. Coe The Maya Scribe and His World The Grolier Club New York MCMLXXIII Copyright © 1973 by The Grolier Club. All rights reserved . This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form, except by reviewers for the public press, without written permission from the publishers. Library of Congress catalog card number: 73-17731 International standard book number: 0-8139-0568-0 The Committee on Publications of the Grolier Club certifies that this copy of "The Maya Scribe and his World" is one of an edition of one thousand copies printed by the Meriden Gravure Company. Norman Ives designed the book. Preface from specialists. For myself, at least, a whole new world Contents Preface 5 of native American thought was opened up. In addition, certain objects in the exhibit possessed an intrinsic in terest by their very uniqueness; in particular, the gen One August day, during the Corn Dance at Santo Dom erosity of an anonymous collector made it possible to Introduction ingo Pueblo, New Mexico, I was asked by my friends put on display for the first time a previously unknown Ancient Maya writing and calligraphy 7 Alfred Bush and Douglas Ewing to organize an exhibi Maya codex (No. 87) . It should be understood, however, Funerary ceramics of the Classic Maya 11 tion on ancient Maya writing at the Grolier Club. I agreed that this catalogue does not contain all the pieces Symbolism and ceremonial paraphernalia 16 reluctantly, since I was then (and am still) engaged in actually exhibited. Those omitted have either already Scenes on Maya pottery 16 writing up the results of my long-term research on the been published in some detail or do not possess suf Olmec culture of Mexico. Our plans, however, lay dor ficient interest to the connoisseur of Maya art or student Maya pottery texts 17 mant for some time. The very successful exhibition on of Maya writing . On the other hand, in the long interval The Primary Standard sequence. 18 the Maya script presented by the Peabody Museum of that has passed since the exhibit closed, various per Primary Alternative texts 22 Harvard at the Center for Inter-American Relations in sons have brought to my attention some superb Maya The Maya Book of the Dead 22 New York (I. Graham 1971) almost caused me to go vessels in their possession which add highly important back on my agreement. Since this exhibit proved to be data substantiating my principal thesis on the nature of exclusively concerned with the history of decipherment, pictorial ceramics and their texts. These have therefore however, a goal we did not have in mind, and very few been included. Catalogue original objects were displayed, we proceeded with our Inscriptions on stone 25 plans. I am deeply indebted to the membership of the Grolier Polychrome plates 34 Club, but especially to Alfred Bush, Douglas C. Ewing, The Grolier Club exhibit (April 20 to June 5, 1971) pre Alfred H. Howell, and Robert L. Nikirk for their aid, or Painted vases 38 sented a large number of magnificent objects from the ganizational ability, and active participation in the exhibit Incised and carved vases 110 Maya civilization, ranging from the Late Formative and in the production of this catalogue. Artists' expenses Pottery flasks and boxes 136 (around the time of Christ) to the post-Conquest 'period have necessarily been heavy in this book, and they have Pottery figurines 142 of Colonial Yucatan. Almost none of these has previ been borne by Douglas Ewing and The Grolier Club. Bone, stucco, and shell objects 146 ously been exhibited or published, so that it is firmly I am highly grateful to Justin Kerr, himself a knowledge Manuscripts 150 hoped the present catalogue will increase our knowl able collector, who took the majority of the photographs edge and appreciation of the New World's most splen in the catalogue as a service to Maya archaeology. I did civilization. All were chosen from private and public would also like to pay tribute to the collectors who made collections, the only criteria being the intrinsic beauty the exhibition possible; they have done the entire world Bibliography 156 and importance of the piece, and that it be painted or an immeasurable service by their devotion to the subject inscribed with a hieroglyphic text. of Mesoamerican art, often by considerable financial sacrifice on their part. While mounting the exhibit, and especially while study Tables ing the texts that occasioned it, it became quite clear that Finally, I would like to acknowledge the excellence and 1. The Primary Standard sequence 158 the focal point of the catalogue should be the large devotion of the two artists who have rendered in ink number of painted and carved funerary vases which drawings the sophisticated and esoteric texts and 2. Primary Standard glyphs 159 were here brought together for the first time. It presented scenes on Maya pottery: Diane G. Peck and Diane McC. 3. The Grolier Codex and the Maya a unique opportunity to do justice to this great body of Holsenbeck. Venus cycle 160 Mesoamerican art, iconography, and calligraphy which 4. Degrees of similarity of Grolier day has heretofore suffered from neglect and even contempt New Haven, Connecticut, 1972 M.D.C. glyphs with other Maya codices 160 5 Ancient Maya writing and calligraphy Of all the native peoples of the New World before the not much different from those one sees today in the arrival of the Spaniards, the Maya of southern Mexico Yucatan countryside. and Central America were alone in being fully literate. Many of their records have survived more than a thou There are probably hundreds of such centers of varying sand years to tell of a way of life that has vanished for degrees of size and importance across the Maya low ever. Archaeologists, who are usually left with little more lands, most of them lost from sight under the jungle than the pots, pans, weapons, and other material goods canopy that covers the area. What really were these of ancient cultures, assure us that the dead do not speak, centers, so reminiscent of Angkor and the Khmer civili and thus assume that the mental life that has gone with zation of Southeast Asia? So poor is our information that out trace played little or no part in those cultures. In the we are not even sure that the so-called palaces were case of the Maya, like that of the Egyptians, the dead actually used as dwellings. On the other hand, the pyra most certainly do speak, but they tell us of a mental mid temples have begun to reveal some of their secrets. world that is often completely alien to our own. It is this They are stucco-covered structures of limestone rubble unique glimpse into the minds of a gifted people that faced with dressed blocks. The pyramid itself is stepped, makes the study of the ancient Maya so fascinating to with a frontal stairway giving access to a vaulted temple the scholar. on the summit. In recent years some extraordinary dis coveries of richly stocked tombs have been made at the The Maya civilization flourished in the midst of a tropical base of the substructure, making it certain that these forest between the end of the third century after Christ were funerary temples built by a ruler to house his own and the Spanish conquest, but its greatest period, the remains upon death. Classic, was over by about 900. At that point in time, some enormous and as yet little understood catastrophe Who, then, might have been worshiped in a Maya tem overwhelmed the Maya of the southern lowlands, al ple? A god or the dead ruler for whom it was raised? though during the next six centuries the northern low Here we have an example of the false use of categories lands-that is, Yucatan-remained prosperous even derived from our own culture, for in prehispanic Mexico though under sporadic domination from the Mexican and Central America these might have been one and highlands. the same. The rulers were descended from the gods, and a king probably became identified with his lineage Let us consider the Classic, since that period saw the god after death. By paying homage to the man, one was greatest flowering of Maya art and architecture, and dur also paying homage to the god. Finely made masonry ing the Classic all the great Maya inscriptions were tombs lavishly equipped with grave goods have often carved. The word city has often been used in discus been found beneath the floors of the palaces as well. sions of the largest Maya sites-such as Tikal, Palenque, In other words, an ancient Maya center might have been Copan, and Piedras Negras-yet these agglomerations as much a necropolis for rulers and nobles as a seat of towering pyramid temples, palaces, and courtyards for the Maya administration. This peculiar ambiguity be show little signs of planning, and there are no streets. tween life and death can be seen elsewhere in Maya Instead, houses were scattered helter-skelter across the culture. landscape, although there are more of them the closer one gets to the center of a site. Most archaeologists, The writing of the ancient Maya has given us our most then, prefer to think of these as ceremonial centers, in valuable clues to their social, political, and religious life. habited by politicians and priests and their retinues, with Like their art, this writing is at the same time elegant, the bulk of the Maya peasantry living in rural hamlets baroque, complex, and fundamentally weird.

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