ANTHROPOLOGY E-1168
1 STORY ST 302 THURSDAY 5.30-7.30 PM https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/4236
More decipherment
Epigraphy and epigraphers u
u
ka ya
yo / YOP
wa Documentation 1860-s +
Calendar and chronology 1860-s +
Phonetic breakthrough 1950-s +
Structural analysis 1960-s +
Growing scholarly community 1960-s +
Linguistic documentation 1960-s +
Final breakthrough 1980-s +
mak kakaw xaman chak
i-?-?la-AJAW u-WE’-?-bi-li u-WE’-i-bi u-WE’-i-bi ?-?li
i-bi-li
A B yu-k’i-bi ta-?-li/la ka-[ka]-wa 20 or 21 consonants 10 vowels (or more, depending on the reconstruction) p’ is not proven
a logo-syllabic script 600+ characters (~200 are common) almost no semantic determinatives almost no auxiliary signs final consonants are spelled with syllabic signs underspellings are uncommon characters are grouped into ‘blocks’ ‘main signs’ and ‘affixes’ some characters are rotatable
Words in the Maya script may be written with syllables (phonetic values only) or with logograms (pronunciation & meaning):
AJAW vs. a-ja-wa
PAKAL vs. pa-ka-la
WITZ vs. wi-tzi
Understanding spelling variation became key to all later decipherments yo-OTOOT yo-OTOOT-ti yo-to-ti o-to-ti
The logogram OTOOT represents a building on a platform. Some early texts indicate that it could be pronounced as ATOOT. This sign only corresponds to the word otoot in all of its meanings (“dwelling, home, box, bottle”). The sign cannot be used to spell the same word in other Mayan languages (e.g. Yukatek otoch). ka-ka-wa k’u-k’u
tzu-tzu-ja bu-bu-lu HA’
u-KAB u-CH’EEN u-ne-ne Transcription is a record of the actual values of individual Maya glyphs in a text. Additional clues may be given to highlight signs or parts of signs which are reconstructed, conflated, or unpronounced
Transliteration represents the actual language encoded by the script
Logographs are in BOLD UPPERCASE Syllabic signs are in bold lowercase Linguistic forms are in italics Translations are in quotation marks Transcription: po-p(o) TUUN-(ni)
Transliteration: pohp tuun
Translation: “stone mat” / “mat stone” yi chi u tz’i ba li PA’ ja yi yu-k’i bi ta u-lu CHAN-na
yi chi u tz’i ba li u ja yi yu k’i bi ta tzi hi TE’ le ka Left to right Top to bottom
Some inscriptions are more flexible in this respect
Yaxchilan Lintel 16 Tikal Altar 5
References to various calendars and time cycles occupy large sections of most texts
These sections offer an easy way to establish the reading order in the text
ch’o[ko] u-pa ka-bu TUUN-ni-li
u-pa-ka-bu-TUUN a-na-bi ch’a-ho-ma
a + ch’a bi + ho
ch’a-ho-ma Three ways of writing tz’a-pa-ja, tz’ahpaj “it is driven into the ground” K’IN pa allographs In the Late Classic period, the words for “snake”, “sky”, and “four” became homophones. Maya scribes distinguished between them by using different logograms allographs (and their allographs).
However, in some cities like Yaxchilan, all these characters became mutually interchangeable.
KAN / CHAN lo/CHIIT IXIIM/na SUUTZ’/tz’i/xu KAN/bi se/cha/CHUWEN
K’IN / 4 TUUN/ku/KAWAK PIK/pi/KAL KAL/pi
li la 400
500
600
700 CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) syllables are spelled by adding a CV character with a silent vowel The silent vowel may be the same as in the syllable (synharmonic) or different (disharmonic) Disharmonic spellings mark complex vowels Silent initial or final CV characters may accompany logograms as phonetic complements ku-tzu tzu-lu ba-ki mu-ti cha-ki CHAHK-ki muwaan muwan
baak bak
aat at
y-ook y-ok Functional typology (syllables, logograms, determinatives, auxiliary) Transcription & transliteration Reading order Glyph blocks Visual typology (rotatable and non-rotatable) Addition, conflation, superimposition Allographs, homophones, polyphones Change over time Spelling rules
ANTHROPOLOGY E-1168
10-MINUTE BREAK Old World: documentation and study of inscriptions on hard objects (in contrast to paleography that centers on manuscripts); a technical subfield of history and/or archaeology
New World: decipherment, study of inscriptions, manuscripts, writing systems, languages, literatures, history, visual culture; a subfield of anthropology and art history Still some decipherment (slower pace)
Documentation and publication of texts
Contributions to linguistics/historical linguistics
Maya writing and other Mesoamerican scripts
Contributions to archaeology, history, anthropology, and art history
Fewer people are attending large public conferences (UT Austin Maya Meetings, Tulane Symposium); some events have disappeared (Peabody Museum workshops, UPenn weekends)
Pre-Columbian societies in the US are declining
The field is becoming less transparent to people with no background in Mayan languages, anthropology, and historical linguistics UT Austin/Brown/BYU (Stuart, Houston, Robertson, Law): morphosyllables, tenses, Ch’olti’an
European (Madrid, Bonn, Moscow, Copenhagen) (Lacadena, Wichmann, Brown, Beliaev, Davletshin, Helmke, Hull, Grube, Prager): phonetic, aspects, Ch’olan (different vowels)
Don’t ask, don’t tell (UPenn, Tulane, Harvard, Yale, La Trobe; Martin, Zender, Chinchilla, Tokovinine, Mathews)
SUNY (Justeson, Kaufman, Mora-Marin): underspellings, aspects, Proto-Ch’olan
Database (Macri, Looper) & codex people (Vail, Hernandez, Bricker): uncertain language/grammar, glyphs from the 90-s
Old sensibilities: restricted social context, propaganda fears
Lack of training in (and appreciation of) languages, philology, and history
Post-structuralist critique: power and authority in social sciences, western ideas about writing Schele and Grube’s workshops, MAM (Mayas for the Mayan) and similar initiatives (Western academic patronage)
Cholsamaj, Kachoch ajtz’iib and other indigenous organizations
Iyaxel Ixkan Cojti Ren, Romelia Mo, Guillermo Kantun Rivera and other indigenous Maya scholars (incorporated into Western/national academic institutions)
How to document?
How did the standards develop?
What are the challenges?
Drawing = interpreting
Epigraphy and technology Ricardo Almendariz 1787 José Antonio Calderón 1750 or 1751 Antonio del Río, 1787 Jean-Frederic Waldeck, The Beau Relief, Palenque, 1837 Pedro Marquez, 1804 Desirée Charnay Facade of the House of the Masks, Kabah Alfred Percival Maudslay (1850-1931)
Documented the monuments of Palenque, Copan and Quirigua in both casts and photographs, opening the way to the decipherment of Maya writing. Spectacular images & prints Stela A, Quirigua Glass plate negatives… Making and transporting molds
Teobert Maler (1842-1917)
Pioneer photographer of numerous Maya sites (including Tikal, Yaxchilan and Piedras Negras). Much of his work was published by Harvard’s Peabody Museum in the early years of the 20th century.
sketch photograph photograph inking
Based on multiple images
Uniform conventions
Easy to publish and to share
Trained judgment
Detail of MS photograph of Mural 7, La Sufricaya Tikal St 26
Copan Stela 63 No reconstruction
Erosion marks or features are not indicated
Recessed background is stippled
Stippling density reflects background preservation
Lines reserved for carved features and exterior contours (solid when certain, stippled when not)
A row of dots outside the block’s exterior line
Ixkun Stela 1 by Hunter (Chicago conventions) and Graham (CMHI conventions) Stela 30, Naranjo
Lacanha Panel 3d scans address the distortion issue
3d allows better control of light and texture
3d filters may amplify visibility of certain carved feature Piedras Negras Panel 2 DO PC.B.528 Grey descriptor radiance scaling: La Sufricaya Stela 5 vs. Building A-sub frieze Implicit choices, yet much less known than in photography
Data collection (resolution, averaging, filters)
Data processing (masking, edge reduction, optimization)
Definitions Maya epigraphy: sensibilities and responsibilities History of documentation Epigraphic drawing: conventions and challenges New technologies and techniques ANTHROPOLOGY E-1168
1 STORY ST 302 THURSDAY 5.30-7.30 PM https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/4236