Compared to other ethnic groups in Mesoamerica, the Maya left behind the largest number of hieroglyphic texts in the classical and post-classical period. Writing frozen in stone, painting, ceramics and codes allows us to get closer and try to understand one of the most important cultures of ancient Mesoamerica. We can get acquainted with calendar dates, names of imperial dynasties, emblems of cities, names of ancient artists and sculptors, gods and rituals.
Pioneers
The story begins in the middle of the 19th century, when two Mayan hieroglyphic texts were first published. The first text appeared in 1810, when Alexander Van Humboldt published five pages of a "book" of the Dresden Library. The second text appeared in London in 1822, as a study by Captain Antonio del Rio, which was carried out 35 years earlier, in the ruins of Palenque, then known as Otolum. Both texts, one written on paper, the other imprinted in stone, did not undergo a comparative analysis then. Constantin Rafinesque (1783-1840) - American scientist, was the first to connect the Dresden Codex with the Palenque monuments.
During 1820, a number of publications appeared and the idea was put forward that the Palenque hieroglyphs and the Dresden Codex are monuments of the Maya, and not of the Aztecs, as previously assumed, and, apparently, were associated with the Mayan languages used at that time. In addition, it was suggested that the combinations of points and lines represent numbering, where the point symbolizes one and the line represents five. (Rafinesque, 1832-1833; Stewart, 1989). Rafinesque's early findings were summarized by his follower, James McCullough, in 1829 in his essay on the ancient ruins of America. These conclusions were forgotten in the shadow of John Stephens' pretentious and dubious publications, which were accompanied by beautiful illustrations by Frederick Catherwood. (Stephens, 1841 and 1843).
In 1863, the French abbot Brasseur de Bourbourg made a discovery that influenced all subsequent studies of Maya writing. It was a summary of a manuscript by Diego de Landa regarding Mayan life and culture in the northern part of the Yucatan Peninsula. The Yucatan Business Report, written in 1566, provided two extremely important types of information regarding the Maya writing: the first, the names of the Mayan days and months of Yucatan, which were accompanied by the corresponding hieroglyphs, and the second, the illustrations, which Landa defined as the Maya hieroglyphic alphabet. Later, the first formed the basis for studying the mechanisms of the Mayan calendar, and the second provoked a discussion among researchers, and their thoughts about whether the Maya really had an alphabet and whether there is a correspondence between hieroglyphs and sounds?
At the end of the 19th century, a group of scientists led by Ernest Forteman concentrated on studying the complex mechanism of the Mayan calendar and interpreted the function of all hieroglyphs in the context of time. At the same time, the practical work of Theobert Mahler and an encyclopedic selection of photographs and drawings by Alfred Percival Maudsley (1889-1902) were published. These works, together with Fortemman's outstanding research on the calendrical system, marked the beginning of an intensive period of study of Mayan chronology.
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First half of the 20th century: The period of communities
In 1903, Charles Pickering Bowditch, of Harvard University, recorded the date of one of two monuments Mahler photographed in his account of the monuments found in Piedras Negras, Guatemala. Bowditch made a random, but extremely important, assumption about the intervals or time periods of the Maya. In his report, he writes: “Any of the periods is associated with the government, the leader or the life of a warrior. Suppose the first date of Stela number 3 is the date of birth; the second - the beginning at the age of 12 years and 140 days … the third - 33 years and 265 days, and the fourth - his death at 35 years and 60 days."
With the increase in the number of texts - including the two Maya codes, the Parisian and the Madrid one - the researchers of the Old and New Worlds began to be especially interested in the Maya writing system, especially in non-calendar hieroglyphs, in those mysterious periods of the century or combinations of centuries where there is no numbering. The fundamental problem was the very nature of the ancient Maya writing system. This raised the following questions: did the written elements in painting carry meaning in the image or were they phonetic writing, where each element was a sound, syllable or word? Are you talking about a real alphabet as it appears in Land's book?
This debate has spawned two opposing schools, one led by the American, Cyrus Thomas, and the other by the German explorer Edward Seler. Thomas argued that the Mayan writing was phonetic, Seler was ideographic, and his colleagues, Paul Schelhas and Ernest Fortemann, shared his opinion. In 1910, the "phonetic war" was declared over and none of the existing trends became victorious. The controversy was forgotten in the next stages of research, a new generation of epigraphists focused on a more fundamental topic - the Mayan calendar.
A major breakthrough for this research was made by the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology of Harvard University, which worked on the photographic research of Theobert Mahler, and provided an opportunity to get acquainted with the archaeological research program of the museum in Copan, Honduras. The Carnegie Washington Institution's Publishing Program revised new texts between 1914 and 1958, a period of intense Mayan archeology research in which two Mayanists appear: Silvanus Morley, who began practical work at Carnegie, and John Eric Thompson, who accompanied Morley to Chichen Itza in 1926.
Second half of the 20th century. Renewed past
Eric Thompson was arguably the most influential student of Mayan science in general, and the writing system in particular. Thompson's contributions are great, covering almost every aspect of Mesoamerican culture. In 1950, Thompson published Mayan Writing: One Version. More than one version. Thompson, in his work, summarizes his findings, based on the deepest knowledge of archeology, ethnohistory and ethnology. This summary provided a better understanding of the hieroglyphs and grammatical principles of the codes; and was also an unequivocal denial of any phoneticism in the Maya writing system.
In 1952, a young Russian researcher, Yuri Valentinovich Knorozov, published one of his first works, in which he criticized Thompson. He argued that Landa's alphabet was extremely valuable, not so much as the alphabet, but as a series of characters with "precise phonetic meaning." In short, Knorozov suggested that the Maya might have used them, and that Landa's hieroglyphs are phonetic syllables. Each of these syllables included a consonant and a vowel sound. Such a syllable or set of sounds can form a word in combination with another sound or sounds. In addition, the ending of such combinations was a spelling addition that could be avoided, for example, the word tzul (dog), they write - tzu-lu.
The controversy between Thompson and Korozov was inevitable, in addition, it took place in the atmosphere of the Cold War. The culmination was the defense of the views of each of them in the pages of American Antiquity (Knorozov, 1958; Thompson, 1959). The main postulates of Knorozov were accepted by American scientists.
While Thompson and Knorozov were debating about phonetism, other researchers made significant contributions to deciphering the Mayan hieroglyphs. Eirich Berlin discovered in Palenque and in other cities a large number of hieroglyphs, which differed from the rest in that they were smaller glyphs that were combined into a specific symbol. And the last one, in different forms, depending on the combined glyphs, symbolized a certain city. Berlin came to the conclusion that these "emblems" should reflect the specifics of the city, the names of emperors or families living in the city.
In 1952, Alberto Roos discovered the legendary crypt of the Temple of the Inscriptions; there he confirmed the special connection between hieroglyphs and real life, with real places and real names. Opening the lid, a giant stone slab was discovered, with bas-reliefs of hieroglyphs. It was a sarcophagus, not an altar, as was originally intended.
Even the biggest skeptics did not doubt that the texts on the slab were associated, first of all, with the remains of a person who was buried under this slab and was found there. This was the first direct rejection of the idea, which existed before this time, that everyone represented in the Maya monuments were priests or gods.
At this time, Berlin was preparing its thesis on the "emblems", and thanks to the Palenque crypt, it was suggested that its hieroglyphs represent the name of a person buried in a sarcophagus.
Tatiana Proskuryakova, artist and art critic at the Carnegie Institution in Washington and the Harvard University Museum, analyzed the hieroglyphs of Piedras Negras (Guatemala). Unlike Bowdich, who had researched the same texts seven decades earlier, Proskuryakova continued this long research, which ended with the publication of the legendary hypothesis, the text of which fundamentally changed the view of Mayan hieroglyphs. In this work, the possible hieroglyphs for "birth" and "coronation" are presented, along with others that seem to represent names or titles. In addition, the concepts of "verbs" and "nouns" continued the grammatical order previously formulated by Worf for deciphering the Dresden Code. Proskuryakova's conclusions were immediately recognized by Thompson and, in general, by all his colleagues. The hypothesis has stood the test of time and was the basis for the reconstruction of the real dynasties of Yaxchilan, Quirigua, Tikal and other Mayan capitals.
Since the mid-sixties, the development of Mayan epigraphy research has been manifested in numerous scientific conferences that focus on this topic in particular, and also on related topics such as linguistics, archeology and iconography. Such conferences began in Mexico City with the First Mayan Writing Research Workshop in December 1966.
The themes with which the ancient Maya texts are associated are chronological descriptions of the lives of rulers. The work of the modern generation of epigraphists and their colleagues allows for an unprecedented introduction to Mayan culture. Acquaintance with the rulers-priests, their totems and espiritual meaning, with miracles and real facts. With wars and conquests among the ancient Maya, with the payment of tribute. Today we know the names of real emperors, priests and other representatives of the elite, men and women, their form of life, marriages, rituals and burials. We have knowledge of ritual ball games, rituals of self-sacrifice, and the use of houses and temples. We know the names that the Maya gave to sacred things, as were called bloodletting instruments and bowls for drinking chocolate. We know how monuments and altars, structures and their parts were called. We learn and can read the names of the artists and sculptors who signed their works. Place names not only allow us to designate these places, but also give us information about more ancient times, when the gods were born and created their followers. We know about the sacred landscapes of caves and mountains, and the wonders of water. We know a little more about the perception of the world by the ancient Maya, both real and mystical, and the connection of this world with space. Deciphering the Mayan hieroglyphs allowed our dialogue to take place through time, telling us our history and our problems. And this gave us the opportunity to appreciate the grandeur and uniqueness of this disappeared civilization.when the gods were born and created their followers. We know about the sacred landscapes of caves and mountains, and the wonders of water. We know a little more about the perception of the world by the ancient Maya, both real and mystical, and the connection of this world with space. Deciphering the Mayan hieroglyphs allowed our dialogue to take place through time, telling us our history and our problems. And this gave us the opportunity to appreciate the grandeur and uniqueness of this disappeared civilization.when the gods were born and created their followers. We know about the sacred landscapes of caves and mountains, and the wonders of water. We know a little more about the perception of the world by the ancient Maya, both real and mystical, and the connection of this world with space. Deciphering the Mayan hieroglyphs allowed our dialogue to take place through time, telling us our history and our problems. And this gave us the opportunity to appreciate the grandeur and uniqueness of this disappeared civilization. And this gave us the opportunity to appreciate the grandeur and uniqueness of this disappeared civilization. And this gave us the opportunity to appreciate the grandeur and uniqueness of this disappeared civilization.
This long journey of research is marked by different stages, ups and downs, cycles of success and failure. Given all this, it becomes clear that the moment in history in which we find ourselves today is identical to any other connected with Mayan research. The only difference between these two points is the process of successfully deciphering the Maya writing and the culture behind it.
Armina Volpert
