Discovered by Stephen Houston's team in May of this year.
Mayan king's tomb discovered in Guatemala - Telegraph
Pyramid Tomb Found: Sign of a Civilization's Birth?
INAH has created an excellent tour of two Maya sites using 360 degree panoramas (possibly QTVR?) to let you look around the sites. It also takes you into the tomb of Pakal, which visitors are not allowed to peer into any more.
Instituto Nacional de Antropología
From Stephen Houston.
What Will Not Happen in 2012 « Maya Decipherment
David Stuart's creation, available on a t-shirt of your choice.
Mayanists for Obama : Cafe Press
Joel at Mesoweb comes through again, with a great resource in three languages.
Mesoweb Resources - Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs
Now, this book I do have and love, for at least three reasons. First, Joel Skidmore was kind enough to send it to me. Second, it was a spectacular find that filled in gaps in our knowledge of Palenque's history. And third, because Temple XIX was one of my first subjects as a television field producer. Wait, a fourth reason - David Stuart is simply brilliant. Yes, I think that covers it.
The Inscriptions from Temple XIX at Palenque by David Stuart: Precolumbian Art Research Institute
Having called this weblog "The Daily Glyph" I've never really provided much information about the glyphs themselves. A helpful person on the Aztlan list pointed to these three links as good places to start learning about glyph reading and the process by which they were deciphered.
Maya Writing - by David Stuart and Stephen Houston
First Palenque Round Table - PACAL - by Floyd Lounsbury
WAYEB - European Association of Mayanists - Resources
And from FAMSI:
Peter Mathews' Description of J.E.S. Thompson's Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphic Signs
Thompson's Drawings of Hundreds of Maya Glyphic Signs
Not the 3D modeling program, but related.
This is for Aimee, Boliver, and Hiro.
Two 3D renderings that I admire, originally commissioned by Kevin Costner's company for the American Indian TV series 500 Nations in 1995, created at Santa Babara Studios. I think the 3D work was the best part of the series. And I licensed the Palenque flythrough for a Discovery project years ago, but was not able to find anyone left in the production company to clear it the last time I tried. So let the cease and desist letter come. It'll make it easier.
Palenque flythrough m4v (iPod)
Piedras Negras animated matte painting m4v (after Proskouriakoff)
And a short (40 seconds) sequence of the Temple of the Inscriptions, walking down into the tomb of Pacal, and the view of the Palace from the Temple.
An interesting survey of the new information coming out about the Maya Preclassic, including the glyphs and murals at San Bartolo.
On Ancient Walls, a New Maya Epoch - New York Times
For more on San Bartolo, see my post on the 2004 discoveries, with video.
This article in La Jornada includes drawings and photos of a monolith found in northern Mexico that may change our understanding of early Olmec and Huasteca history.
Monolito hallado en SLP podría rescribir la historia de Mesoamérica
Science News Article | Reuters.com - Mexico monolith may cast new light on Mesoamerica
Justin Kerr has just made available a photo of a newly found Maya celt (Maya glyphs carved into what they believe was originally an Olmec celt) with translation comments from Simon Martin, David Stuart, and Stephen Houston.
MAYAVASE.COM - FAMSI - PRECOLUMBIAN ART - Comments on K8941 Maya Celt
Yucatecan archaeologists are rejecting the groundbreaking claims regarding the San Bartolo murals.
Rechazan arqueólogos yucatecos novedad de murales mayas en Guatemala
In 2004, I spent five weeks with the archaeological team in San Bartolo, Guatemala, documenting on video every step of the discovery of today's announcement. Now that National Geographic has released the information, I'll be putting my photos and video on the web. Stay tuned, and come back to this post for updates.
Earliest Known Maya Painting Found - New York Times
UPDATE: Here's the video.
An opening shot, a standup, a tunnel walk, and you're into the San Bartolo experience. 5 weeks condensed into 4 minutes, my tribute to everyone on the team, a glimpse of the discovery and the astonishment of three visiting archaeologists and epigraphers, stars in their own right: David Stuart, Karl Taube, and Ian Graham.
Temporada - Digging San Bartolo - iPod Video 20mb
And yes, that is a figure of HunahPu (a king in costume?) performing a bloody penis perforation with a six-foot spear. Did they mention that in the Times? I don't think so. Did Bill mention it on the Today show? I don't know, didn't see it.
UPDATE 2: Here's more on San Bartolo from this site: Search Results
UPDATE 3: Contact me - dave dot pentecost at gmail dot com - for Maya travel and tour info for this spring. We're planning another Usumacinta study trip (Maya cities of Palenque, Yaxchilan, Piedras Negras) and are raising funds now.
UPDATE 4: For Maya related podcasts, check out the Junglecasts that Nicco Mele and I did last spring. Enjoy!
UPDATE 5: For a Google Earth preview of the Usumacinta River trip, see this.
UPDATE 6: If you don't have a video iPod, don't worry (I don't either, but it's a compact file). Download the latest free Quicktime player, for OS X, or Windows.
UPDATE 7: For folks coming by way of Doc Searls' weblog, here's a photo of the stunned satellite dish installers who arrived at night from Guatemala City. This is the moment the team went online. (click for a larger photo)
Once before, I was part of a satellite uplink from the top of a pyramid, but this was the most remote network I've seen.
Worth1000.com | Photoshop Contests | Archaeological Anomalies
Dr. Kathryn Reese-Taylor has announced the discovery of a stela carved with a portrait of a Maya noblewoman or goddess, at the site of Naachtun in Guatemala.
Jungle discovery opens new chapter in Maya history
USATODAY.com - A 'strange and fascinating' find
Only a few days late, here are some links to the Site Q story, a mystery that seems to have been solved.
Maya Monument May Connect Little-Known Ruins With Mystery Site - New York Times
yaledailynews.com - Dispute over Site Q is resolved
Long-sought Maya City -- Site Q -- found in Guatemala
This is the first I've seen a newspaper story promoting tourism in Lacanjá. I wonder how many people going to stay there overnight actually make it to the main part of the site. When I went some years ago, most tourists were walked around in circles, visited the falls, and then saw one temple on the outskirts and were told that the main ruins were another hour's hike. I suppose it is a good way to reduce tourist traffic in the site.
El Universal Online - Intérnate en la selva Lacandona
I'd just finished working on a family photo, trying unsharp mask, when I ran across this set of tips and comments regarding resizing and sharpening photos. by way of Doc Searls, Bryan Bell, Cameron Moll.
Please, sweat the small stuff ~ Authentic Boredom
Or is it three? The Mexican state that was a center of Olmec culture, the Mexican restaurant in Iowa, and the sauce whose maker is suing the restaurant over their name.
Pottery Presented as Evidence Of Olmec Culture's Influence (washingtonpost.com)
Tabasco in hot fight with Mexican restaurant over name
Here's a start on a reading list for Nicco, in preparation for Palenque, Yaxchilan, and other Maya sites.
Sacred Monkey River: A Canoe Trip with the Gods by Chris Shaw
The Rough Guide to the Maya World
Gringos: A Novel by Charles Portis
Breaking the Maya Code by Michael Coe
A Forest of Kings : The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya by David Freidel and Linda Schele
I'm a bit late noting this, but Joel Skidmore has an excellent report on the little-known Maya site of Plan de Ayutla, an important city in the Usumacinta River region.
As Joel writes:
Given its location, impressive size and ambitious architecture, Plan de Ayutla is a "strong candidate" to turn out to be the ancient site of Sak Tz'i' ("White Dog"), known from the Classic Period inscriptions but so far unlocated on the ground.
Mesoweb Reports - Plan de Ayutla
The jade masks of Pacal and the Reina Roja, buried in neighboring pyramids almost 1500 years ago, are on exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. My color photo shows the Reina Roja mask as it was being restored in Palenque in 2001.
Juntos por primera vez en 1500 años, Pacal y la Reina Roja | 2004-09-17 | La Crónica de Hoy
And, as a bonus, here's the Mesoweb report on the original discovery of the Reina Roja's tomb, by Arnoldo González Cruz.
Palenque Features - La Reina Roja
The pre-Maya site of Izapa, near Tapachula in Chiapas, has been damaged by illegal clearing of trees and construction nearby.
El Universal Online - Destruyen zonas arqueológica en Chiapas, denuncian
In Mesoweb, a David Stuart paper on the place name of Piedras Negras. It includes photos of the jaguar paw altar before the four carved supports were removed, leaving it to lie on the jungle floor.
PARI Online Publications - The Paw Stone: The Place Name of Piedras Negras, Guatemala
An amazing collection of collections (30 of them, 300,000 images) including the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. via Doc Searls.
Existe poco interés en la arqueología de Palenque | 2004-06-05 | La Crónica de Hoy
Inauguran reunión sobre cultura Maya en Palenque | 2004-06-04 | La Crónica de Hoy
Proceso.com.mx - Noticia - Continúa el INAH trabajos de excavación en Palenque
Artes e Historia México - Concluye la V Mesa Redonda de Palenque
Tabasco Hoy || Mostrarán hallazgos mayas en Palenque
How did I know that I'd read the words "Indiana Jones" by the end of this story? Even in denial.
Archaeologist's Partnership With Maya Villagers Pays Off in Looters' Conviction
The least hard-hitting story to come out of Chiapas in 10 years. Sacred Coke. Won the cola wars.
I guess I'm aiming too high with threats to culture, Plan Puebla Panama, sustainability. Good night.
UPDATE 2005:
Video from San Bartolo
I've been with Bill Saturno's team in San Bartolo for the last two weeks, as they started a new season of excavation, survey, and conservation of the astonishing murals that Bill found in 2001. This past week, the tunnels were dug to extend the access to the murals, which were buried by the Maya inside a larger pyramid around 100 BC. The age and sophistication of these paintings, showing creation myths from the Popol Vuh, are changing our conception of the "preClassic" age of Maya civilization.
I have the unusual privilege of documenting the entire project on video, using a small, 3-chip DV camera. Most documentary productions visit these sites for a week or less, and they usually arrive long after discoveries are made. Already this past week we have had glimpses of astounding new artwork on the latest wall to be revealed. The first conservator arrives tomorrow to begin protecting and stabilizing the mural as Bill uncovers it.
I will be posting brief updates, using the satellite uplink which was installed just two days ago. The dish installers looked a bit shaken up when they arrived in this jungle compound after dark. They slept overnight here in a spare tent, and got the dish working quickly the next morning. Right now I am connecting wirelessly to the Airport in the palm-thatched lab, which is connected to the DirecWay dish.
The generator is going off soon, so I will pick this up again later. From San Bartolo, Buena Noche!
There's minimal information on the site, but this year's Mesa Redonda (Palenque Roundtable) will be held June 2-5.
Recent findings about the pre-classic roots of Palenque.
Artes e Historia México - Encuentran evidencia del preclásico maya en Palenque, Chiapas
In 2001 Bill Saturno found the oldest known Maya murals in San Bartolo, Guatemala. I've posted here about San Bartolo before. Here's my first post:
The Daily Glyph: San Bartolo Murals - Peabody
Recently I posted Ron Canter's speculations about the murals' central image:
The Daily Glyph: San Bartolo Murals - A canoe?
But I neglected to post a link to Bill Saturno's report on the second season's work:
The latest issue of National Geographic Magazine has an article on the San Bartolo murals, with much more revealed since last year. There is a brief note about the murals online: December Resources @ National Geographic Magazine - Field Dispatch
Heather Hurst is pictured in the story, and her amazing drawing of the astounding painting is spread across two pages of the magazine.
Ron Canter sent in his reaction to the drawing:
I just opened the December NG and there was the expanded San Bartolo mural. The maize god and his honeys, plus other characters to the right , are standing "atop a plumed serpent". The serpent's body extends from a cave on the left and ends in an upturned serpent head belching smoke at the far right. Seven meters of it are visible. The body has no plumes, few markings, and is rigid and straight, quite unlike most snakes. Most of the serpent is to the right of the maize god.
It looks just like a canoe tricked out with a serpent's head prow.
The scene looked familiar, so I went through the canoe pix. The Late Classic rollout image that we dragged out in Philly when discussing paddle shapes shows the same ceremony, with the god again being dressed by two nude women. To the right, floating on a Venus glyph, is a canoe, ready to take the maize god "to the center of the sky, where he oversaw the setting of the thee great stones in Orion" (Freidel 1993). The figures ride on top of, not in, the canoe, as do the figures in the mural ride on top. The little black double boxes in the yellow band along the side of the serpent look a little like the double loop glyphs for wood on the sides of the Tikal canoe illustrations.
A lesser know illustration from one of the Tikal bones shows a long canoe, with straight gunwales and an elaborately carved prow. Part of the prow projects forward and part sweeps up just like in the mural at San Bartolo. The figures in the Tikal illustration are very indistinct, but Hammond, 1981, suggested that one is a woman.
I can't help but wonder if the San Bartolo mural is showing a canoe used as a stage prop in enacting the maize god ritual. There are at least eight places in Belize where you can actually paddle out from inside a cave. The nearest such cave to San Bartolo that I know of is 70 km away at Barton Creek Cave (Tunichil Muknal), but there might be others in Peten nearer to San Bartolo.
Alejandro Sheseña has written me with corrections to the story by Fredy López that I posted on this site. He says that reporter López made a number of mistakes in the article.
I am posting his corrected article in its entirety below (click MORE) and I will add a link in the original post to this correction. Thanks to both Fredy and Alejandro for their information.
Alumno de Knórozov fecha en Joloniel las inscripciones mayas más antiguas de Mesoamérica
Fredy López* San Cristóbal de Las Casas.- El investigador mexicano Alejandro Sheseña, discípulo del epigrafista ruso Yuri Valentínovich Knórozov, fechó en la cueva de Joloniel o cueva de Jolja’, a ocho kilómetros en dirección norte del poblado de Tumbalá, la pintura más antigua de la civilización maya: el año 37 d.C.
Se trata de una pareja representada de pie, una frente a otra, de las cuales solo una está conservada en su totalidad, pues la otra tiene el rostro parcialmente dañado, elaboradas y rellenas con pintura color negro a excepción del ojo, la nariz y las manos de la figura completa, que tiene el ojo y la nariz de color blanco, mientras que las manos conservan el color de la roca.
En conferencia dictada el pasado 5 de noviembre en la Biblioteca Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, en el Museo Na Bolom, Sheseña argumentó que en ambas figuras “se observan cánones artísticos arcaicos”, que constituyen “el testimonio más remoto de ésta civilización”, correspondientes al período “Protoclásico Tardío”.
“El conjunto de elementos indican claramente que sus autores fueron aquéllos mayas más antiguos, los cuales habrían sido herederos directos de la tradición artística de Izapa”, expuso, apoyado con diapositivas de reproducciones a escala de las pinturas de Joloniel elaboradas por el mismo.
El corpus pictórico de Joloniel está compuesto de dos imágenes iconográficas (entre ellas una que representa al monstruo mitológico que simboliza la tierra y sus cuevas, Kawak) y varios jeroglíficos individuales y en textos, y la pareja estudiada por Sheseña.
Como parte de su investigación para revelar el ancestral mensaje de estas pinturas, Sheseña realizó una visita a la cueva de Joloniel en enero de 1999. Los primeros resultados de esta tarea, el “Análisis epigráfico de la figura 5 de la cueva de Joloniel”, fueron publicados por la Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas (Unach), y una segunda entrega será coeditada por Na bolom y la Unach, bajo el título “La antigüedad del Grupo 2 de la cueva de Joloniel”.
El investigador de la Unach, con un Doctorado en Rusia, sostiene que las pinturas de Joloniel solo serían contemporáneas a las esculturas del sitio arqueológico El Baúl (en la costa pacífica de Guatemala), y posiblemente a la estela 10 de Kaminaljuyu (también en Guatemala).
En el corpus pictórico de Joloniel, Sheseña destaca la representación de la imagen más antigua de Kawak (el monstruo de la tierra), como un claro ejemplo de cómo los mayas más antiguos sintetizaron los elementos culturales que heredaron de Izapa creando a su vez aquéllos nuevos que iban a ser característicos de la futura civilización maya.
El estudio de Sheseña trata de demostrar una constante interacción entre las tierras altas de Guatemala y la zona de los olmecas a través de la región de Tumbalá.
“Si el proceso de síntesis cultural ocurre durante el Protoclásico, y puesto que la antigüedad otorgada para el monumento 1 de El Baúl se ubica, siendo específicos, en el periodo Protoclásico Tardío, el cual abarca del 0 al 200 d. C., entonces a este periodo correspondería también la antigüedad propuesta por nosotros para las pinturas de Joloniel. Y la región de Tumbalá seria entonces, evidentemente, uno de esos sitios mayas de las tierras bajas en donde en dicho periodo se da la síntesis de elementos culturales”, dice Sheseña.
De acuerdo con el arqueólogo americano Gordon Willey, “elementos iconográficos y arquitectónicos mayas que sin duda son antecedentes inmediatos de los del clásico empiezan a aparecer en los centros ceremoniales en el preclásico tardío y adquieren mayor definición en el protoclásico. No se puede negar que la síntesis de esos elementos tiene lugar en las tierras bajas y es peculiar de los mayas”.
La escala utilizada por Sheseña para fechar las pinturas de Joloniel, se basa en la elaborada por Gareth Lowe y J. Alden Mason, quienes dividieron al periodo Protoclásico en dos etapas: Protoclásico Temprano, que abarca del 100 a. C. al 1 d. C., y Protoclásico Tardío, que corre a su vez del 1 al 200 d. C., y las enseñanzas de Knórozov, quien comprobó el carácter logo-silábico de la escritura jeroglífica maya y proporcionó las bases del desciframiento lingüístico de los jeroglíficos y además creo una metodología de análisis de los fenómenos culturales de la civilización mayas.
La hipótesis de Sheseña pone en tela de juicio las fechas estipuladas por arqueólogos de la escuela norteamericana, como Andrea Stone, quien fecho los dibujos y jeroglíficos de Joloniel para el “Clásico temprano”, es decir, entre el 200 al 600 d.C. En su estudio Sheseña evidencia la inexistencia de aquéllos símbolos que los científicos norteamericanos comúnmente adjudicaban a estas pinturas.
Gracias al trabajo de los arqueólogos Karen Bassie-Sweet, Jorge Pérez de Lara y Marc Zender que exploraron la cueva de Joloniel con tecnología infraroja, se pudo determinar que el total de obras de la cueva son 13 pinturas distribuidas en 7 grupos, todas elaboradas en color negro, rojo y blanco sobre la roca caliza de los muros del interior, que su estado de conservación varía, y que, el hábeas pictórico está compuesto de dos imágenes iconográficas y varios jeroglíficos individuales y en textos.
Para el estudio de los jeroglíficos de Joloniel, Sheseña usa el sistema de catalogación empleado la canadiense Karen Bassie-Sweet, quien inicia la cuenta por un jeroglífico ubicado en el muro derecho de la entrada de la cueva (grupo 1), seguida por un pequeño texto y las dos imágenes iconográficas (grupo 2, pinturas 1, 2 y 3), una Rueda Calendarica (grupo 3), 6 textos jeroglíficos en conjunto (grupo 4, pinturas 1-6) y dos textos más por separado (grupos 5 y 6).
“El corpus artístico de Joloniel es una fuente histórica excepcional que nos permite no solo profundizar en la religión, mitología, política, arte y lengua de los antiguos mayas, sino también comprender la lógica de la práctica de elaborar pinturas para la oscura soledad del interior de las cuevas”, dice Sheseña.
Al parecer, habría sido el mayista Eric Thompson quien registró por primera vez la existencia de las pinturas en la cueva de Joloniel, pero no dio ninguna interpretación, limitándose a ubicar su elaboración hacia el 300 d.C.
Según una carta enviada a Frans Blom el 6 de junio de 1961, Thompson considera que las pinturas fueron elaboradas alrededor de 9.0.0.0.0, es decir, en el llamado periodo Clásico Temprano de la historia maya.
Joloniel, que en español quiere decir “El termino”, habría sido, de acuerdo a lo establecido por Sheseña en su libro “Analisis Iconográfico del grupo 5 de la cueva de Joloniel”, el confín, el lindero, la frontera, el limite entre Palenque y Toniná, cuyos gobernantes se disputaban el control de Tumbalá o K´uk´Wits, que en español quiere decir “Cerro del Quetzal”, una ave de gran significado para la aristocracia maya por su plumaje.
Según la arqueóloga Bassie-Sweet, la región de Tumbala sería un espacio geográfico en constante disputa y el origen del continuo conflicto bélico entre Palenque y Toniná. Sheseña argumenta que la cueva de Joloniel, localizada en Tumbala, seria un mojón natural entre las dos ciudades citadas.
Esta peculiaridad, según el análisis elaborado por Sheseña, otorgaría a Joloniel la misma categoría que los mayas dieron a manantiales y cenotes para delimitar territorios, y donde por su naturaleza se realizaron ceremonias rituales de autosangrado en honor al Dios Chak, cuyo logograma, representado también en Joloniel, se distingue comúnmente por tener un ojo de grandes dimensiones, nariz larga, labio superior grande, boca abierta, grandes colmillos, y una concha cubriéndole la oreja.
Sheseña considera que pudo haber sido Ch’away, comúnmente llamado “Casper”, quien disfrazado de del Dios Chak realizó los rituales descritos y ordenado después la elaboración de otra de las pinturas de Joloniel, el grupo 5, fechado para el 345 d. C.
En la actualidad, la cueva de Joloniel contiene en su interior un conjunto de cruces, ante las cuales, en determinadas fechas, entre ellas el 3 de mayo, los tatuches, ancianos locales encargados del culto tradicional, realizan, a la luz de las velas, variadas ceremonias. Un rezo para solicitar permiso de entrada a la cueva fue realizado precisamente en ese lugar por el tatuch Miguel Arcos, de Túmbala, para que Sheseña pudiera ingresar a la cueva a realizar su investigación.
From Fredy López, via Megan O'Neill, a report on the dating of painted figures in the caves of Joloniel, or Jolja’, by Alejandro Sheseña. For the full text, in Spanish, click MORE.
UPDATE 11/20: Alejandro Sheseña wrote in that there are errors in Fredy's story, and he has sent a corrected version of the article, which you can find here.
And the groundbreaking work on these caves can be found in the study by Karen Bassie-Sweet, on the FAMSI site:
Reports Submitted to FAMSI - The Jolja’ Cave Project
Alumno de Knórozov fecha en Joloniel las inscripciones mayas más antiguas de Mesoamérica
Fredy López* San Cristóbal de Las Casas.- El investigador mexicano Alejandro Sheseña, discípulo del epigrafista ruso Yuri Valentínovich Knórozov, fechó en la cueva de Joloniel o cueva de Jolja’, a ocho kilómetros en dirección norte del poblado de Tumbalá, la figura antropomorfa más antiguas de la civilización maya: el año 37 d.C.
Se trata de una pareja representada de pie, una frente a otra, de las cuales solo una está conservada en su totalidad, pues la otra tiene el rostro parcialmente dañado, elaboradas y rellenas con pintura color negro a excepción del ojo, la nariz y las manos de la figura completa, que tiene el ojo y la nariz de color blanco, mientras que las manos conservan el color de la roca.
La nueva lectura epigráfica del corpus pictórico de la cueva de Joloniel realizada por Sheseña, equipara el desarrollo temprano de los mayas, con la de la cultura Mixe-Zoque, que se estableció en Izapa, en la costa pacífica, y que el investigador norteamericano Gareth Lowe denominó “Mocaya”.
En conferencia dictada el pasado 5 de noviembre en la Biblioteca Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, en el Museo Na Bolom, Sheseña argumentó que en ambas figuras, que conforman el grupo 2, de las pinturas 2 y 3 de la cueva de Jolja’, “se observan cánones artísticos arcaicos”, que constituyen “el testimonio más remoto de ésta civilización”, correspondientes al período “Protoclásico Tardío” o “protomaya”.
“El conjunto de elementos indican claramente que sus autores fueron aquéllos mayas más antiguos, los cuales habrían sido herederos directos de la tradición artística de Izapa”, expuso, apoyado con diapositivas de reproducciones a escala de las pinturas de Joloniel elaboradas por la arqueólogo Fabiola Sánchez Balderas, directora de Na Bolom.
El corpus pictórico de Joloniel está compuesto de dos imágenes iconográficas (entre ellas una que representa al monstruo mitológico que simboliza la tierra y sus cuevas, Kawak) y varios jeroglíficos individuales y en textos, y la pareja estudiada por Sheseña.
Como parte de su investigación para revelar el ancestral mensaje de estas pinturas, Sheseña realizó una visita a la cueva de Joloniel en enero de 1999. Los primeros resultados de esta tarea, el “Análisis epigráfico de la figura 5 de la cueva de Joloniel”, fueron publicados por la Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas (Unach), y una segunda entrega será coeditada por Na bolom y la Unach, bajo el título “La antigüedad del Grupo 2 de la cueva de Joloniel”.
El investigador de la Unach, con un doctorado en Rusia, sostiene que las pinturas de Joloniel solo serían contemporáneas a las esculturas del sitio arqueológico El Baúl (en la costa pacífica de Guatemala), y posiblemente a la estela 10 de Kaminaljuyu (también en Guatemala).
En el corpus pictórico de Joloniel, Sheseña destaca la representación de la imagen más antigua de Kawak (el monstruo de la tierra), como un claro ejemplo de cómo los mayas más antiguos sintetizaron los elementos culturales que heredaron de Izapa creando a su vez aquéllos nuevos que iban a ser característicos de la futura civilización maya.
El estudio de Sheseña trata de demostrar una constante interacción entre las tierras altas de Guatemala y la zona de los olmecas a través de la región de Tumbalá.
“Si el proceso de síntesis cultural ocurre durante el Protoclásico, y puesto que la antigüedad otorgada para el monumento 1 de El Baúl se ubica, siendo específicos, en el periodo Protoclásico Tardío, el cual abarca del 0 al 200 d. C., entonces a este periodo correspondería también la antigüedad propuesta por nosotros para las pinturas de Joloniel. Y la región de Tumbalá seria entonces, evidentemente, uno de esos sitios mayas de las tierras bajas en donde en dicho periodo se da la síntesis de elementos culturales”, dice Sheseña.
De acuerdo con el arqueólogo americano Gordon Willey, “elementos iconográficos y arquitectónicos mayas que sin duda son antecedentes inmediatos de los del clásico empiezan a aparecer en los centros ceremoniales en el preclásico tardío y adquieren mayor definición en el protoclásico. No se puede negar que la síntesis de esos elementos tiene lugar en las tierras bajas y es peculiar de los mayas”.
La escala utilizada por Sheseña para fechar las pinturas de Joloniel, se basa en la elaborada por Gareth Lowe y J. Alden Mason, quienes dividieron al periodo Protoclásico en dos etapas: Protoclásico Temprano, que abarca del 100 a. C. al 1 d. C., y Protoclásico Tardío, que corre a su vez del 1 al 200 d. C., y las enseñanzas deKnórozov, quien comprobó el carácter logo-silábico de la escritura jeroglífica maya y proporcionó las bases del desciframiento lingüístico de los jeroglíficos.
La hipótesis de Sheseña pone en tela de juicio las fechas estipuladas por arqueólogos de la escuela norteamericana, como Andrea Stone, Peter Mathews, Linda Schele, David Freidel y Marc Zender, quienes fecharon los dibujos y jeroglíficos de Joloniel en el “preclásico temprano”, es decir, entre el 200 al 600 d.C., aunque en su estudio Sheseña soloevidencia la inexistencia de aquéllos símbolos que los científicos norteamericanos adjudicaron a estas pinturas.!
Gracias al trabajo de los arqueólogos Karen Bassie-Sweet, Jorge Pérez de Lara y Marc Zender que exploraron la cueva de Joloniel con tecnología infraroja, se pudo determinar que el total de obras de la cueva son 13 pinturas distribuidas en 7 grupos, todas elaboradas en color negro, rojo y blanco sobre la roca caliza de los muros del interior, que su estado de conservación varía, y que, el hábeas pictórico está compuesto de dos imágenes iconográficas y varios jeroglíficos individuales y en textos.
Para el estudio de los jeroglíficos de Joloniel, Sheseña usa el sistema de catalogación empleado la canadiense Karen Bassie-Sweet, quien inicia la cuenta por un jeroglífico ubicado en el muro derecho de la entrada de la cueva (grupo 1), seguida por un pequeño texto y las dos imágenes iconográficas (grupo 2, pinturas 1, 2 y 3), una Rueda Calendarica (grupo 3), 6 textos jeroglíficos en conjunto (grupo 4, pinturas 1-6) y dos textos más por separado (grupos 5 y 6).
“El corpus artístico de Joloniel es una fuente histórica excepcional que nos permite no solo profundizar en la religión, mitología, política, arte y lengua de los antiguos mayas, sino también comprender la lógica de la práctica de elaborar pinturas para la oscura soledad del interior de las cuevas”, dice Sheseña.
Al parecer, habría sido el mayista Eric Thompson quien registró por primera vez la existencia de las pinturas en la cueva de Joloniel, pero no dio ninguna interpretación, limitándose a ubicar su elaboración hacia el 300 d.C.
Según una carta enviada a Frans Blom el 6 de junio de 1961, Thompson considera que las pinturas fueron elaboradas alrededor de 9.0.0.0.0, es decir, en el llamado periodo Clásico Temprano de la historia maya.
Jolja’, que en español quiere decir “El termino”, habría sido el confín, el lindero, la frontera, el limite entre tres Ciudades-Estado, Tortuguero, Palenque y Toniná, cuyos gobernantes se disputaban el control de Tumbalá o K´uk´Wits, que en español quiere decir “Cerro del Quetzal”, una ave de gran significado para la aristocracia maya por su plumaje.
Según la arqueóloga Bassie-Sweet, Joloniel sería un espacio geográfico en constante disputa y el origen del continuo conflicto bélico entre Palenque y Toniná, por ser Tumbalá o K´uk´Wits un mojón natural, pero, también, un lugar sagrado, donde, según Yuri Knorozov y Galinda Yershova, termina el mundo de los vivos e inicia el “Wits Ch´en” (la Boca de la Montaña), el mundo de los muertos, la entrada al inframundo.
Esta peculiaridad, según el análisis elaborado por Sheseña, otorgaría a Joloniel la misma categoría que los mayas dieron a manantiales y cenotes para delimitar territorios, y donde por su naturaleza se realizaron ceremonias rituales de autosangrado en honor al Dios Chak, un logograma representado en Joloniel que se distingue comúnmente por tener un ojo de grandes dimensiones, nariz larga, labio superior grande, boca abierta, grandes colmillos, y una concha cubriéndole la oreja.
Aunque fue Audrey Korelstein quien encontró por vez primera el topónimo K’uk’te Wits (cerro del quetzal) en el Templo del Sol, en Palenque, y Bassie-Sweet quien demostró con detalle el paralelismo iconográfico entre Joloniel y el Grupo Las Cruces, sin duda fueron Linda Schele y David Freidel quienes exploraron la hipótesis de que en tiempos muy remotos los habitantes de Palenque utilizaban la cueva de Joloniel para sus procesiones.
Así, un fragmento del Tablero del Sol reveló que el gobernante Chan Balum derramó sangre y conjuró a las divinidades en el lugar de los lirios acuáticos y en K’uk’ te Wits (cerro de los quetzales), aunque Schele y Freidel consideran que pudo haber sido Ch’away, comúnmente llamado “Casper”, quien ascendió al trono de Palenque en agosto de 345 d.C., quien disfrazado de del Dios Chak realizó los rituales descritos y ordenado después la elaboración de las pinturas descritas.
En la actualidad, la cueva de Joloniel contiene en su interior un conjunto de cruces, ante las cuales, en determinadas fechas, entre ellas el 3 de mayo, los tatuches, ancianos locales encargados del culto tradicional, realizan, a la luz de las velas, variadas ceremonias. Un rezo para solicitar permiso de entrada a la cueva fue realizado precisamente en ese lugar por el tatuch Miguel Arcos, de Túmbala, para que Sheseña pudiera ingresar a la cueva a realizar su investigación.
And why do I have to read about it in China Daily online?
1,200 year-old slab from Mayan ruins site in southern Mexico
Megan O'Neil sent in an article from Cuarto Poder by Fredy Lopez, about a glyph-writing workshop recently held in the new Sala Linda Schele at Panchan, Palenque, Chiapas. Friend Alonso Mendez also participated. Saludos to Don Moises for the opening of the cultural center!
Here's an excerpt. Click More for the rest of the story.
29 Sept. 2003, Cuarto Poder, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico
PALENQUE El taller es impartido por Megan O’Neil, de la Universidad de Yale,
Estados Unidos.
Una introducción a la escritura maya
Fredy López CP.
Luvina Velasco Salas, la más famosa reproductora de estelas mayas en madera, piedra caliza y piel de Palenque, recién aprendió a escribir su nombre en jeroglíficos mayas.
“Es muy interesante, y creo que las personas de Palenque debiéramos aprender el sistema, porque es bueno empaparse del arte maya”, dice.
Como Luvina, también lograron escribir su nombre en jeroglíficos al menos una docena más de palencanos, entre ellos don Moisés Morales, ínclito de la arqueología maya; el guía especializado en arte, arquitectura y cosmogonía maya, Alonso Mendez Toporek; y el director del Cecytech de Palenque, Felipe Matos Baqueira.
El taller “Una introducción a la escritura maya”, impartido por Megan O´Neil, de la Universidad de Yale, Estados Unidos, se realizó en la “Sala Linda Schele”, en El Panchán, el pequeño feudo de don Moisés Morales.
La sala fue bautizada con el nombre de una de las epigrafistas norteamericanas que dedicó gran parte de sus estudios al sitio arqueológico de Palenque, Linda Schele, a quien se le acreditan los primeros talleres de epigrafía abiertos al público. “Las sillas se destruyeron con el paso del tiempo, pero las laminas y la pizarra son las mismas que cobijaron a los integrantes de la Primera Mesa Redonda de Palenque”, según contó el anfitrión cuando presentó a la instructora, una arqueóloga norteamericana que ha trabajado en Piedras Negras, Guatemala, y en el Proyecto Templo Las Cruces, en Palenque.
O´Neil estudió bajo la instrucción de Linda Schele antes de su muerte, en 1998, y en la actualidad escribe su tesis doctoral en Historia del Arte basada en los vestigios de Lacanhá, Yaxchilán y Palenque.
“Los glífos se leen de izquierda a derecha, de arriba abajo, en doble columna”, explicó O´Neil a los 16 talleristas, entre ellos dos niños de 10 años, y dos jovencitas de 14, quienes, al igual que todos, aprendieron que la escritura de los mayas antiguos está compuesta de pictogramas (dibujos que representan palabras) y una serie de sílabas representadas por glífos. O´Neil acreditó al cura español Diego de Landa el primer tratado de la escritura de los mayas antiguos de Yucatán que pretendía ser un alfabeto, y la genialidad del lingüista ruso Yuri Knorosov, quien puso las bases en el desciframiento de la compleja escritura maya, que resultó ser un sistema fonético basado en sílabas y no en letras alfabéticas.
Luego de cuatro horas de taller, los estudiantes fueron capaces de hallar verbos como “nació”y “ascendió” en una réplica de la plataforma esculpida del Templo XIX de Palenque, cuyo texto narra la historia mitológica empezando en el 3,309 A.C., fecha que según los mayas antiguos correspondía a antes de la creación del mundo, al 736 d.C., cuando se registran acontecimientos trascendentales — como el nacimiento, la asunción y la celebración de los aniversarios del calendario — de la vida de Ahkal Mo‚ Nab, nieto de Hanab Pakal, el más famoso de los reyes de Palenque. Los tropiezos mayores se presentaron al escribir nombres con letras como la “G”, la “D”, la “F”, y la “V”, ya que en el sistema de fonemas maya no existen y tienen que suplirse por equivalentes lingüísticos, como “H” o “T”, “P” y “B”, de manera respectiva.
Los talleristas aprendieron primero a dividir las palabras en silabas, como “Ba/la/ma”, para escribir “Jaguar”, o “Lu/vi/na”, para escribir el nombre de la primera artista en estilizar las pinturas mayas de Palenque y también la primera en ponerle color a los pirograbados en piel.
El taller fue patrocinado por la Asociación Cultural Na Bolom, el H. Ayuntamiento
Constitucional de Palenque y El Panchán.
The National Gallery in Washington, D.C. has announced the exhibition "Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya" which will open next year, on April 4, for a 4-month run. Mary Miller of Yale is co-curator.
A Rare Look At the World Of the Maya (washingtonpost.com)
Palenque mapper Ed Barnhart made a splash on Austin television recently, in a report on his new Maya Exploration Center. The online story mentions snakes, spiders, labyrinths, and his new son Edwin. There is no one better than Ed to go stomping around jungle ruins with. So if that's your thing, contact him for a tour!
News 8 Austin | Explore Mexico with a fellow Austinite
You may notice a new button in the left column, linking to the Maya Exploration Center, a new organization headed up by Ed Barnhart. Ed's Palenque Mapping Project was a breakthrough in understanding that Maya site. Friends Chris Powell and Alonso Mendez are part of the effort. Good work, guys!
Joel Skidmore, at Mesoweb, has a new link to the Peabody Museum website, which has a page on the San Bartolo murals in Guatemala. Bill Saturno discovered them in March, 2001, and Heather Hurst did the drawings that June. You can find Heather's work on the San Bartolo site.
Early Maya Murals at San Bartolo, Guatemala
San Bartolo - Research
(Run your mouse over the far left "trowel" icon to see one of Heather's drawings)
Joel Skidmore at Mesoweb has created a new feature, beautifully designed: a series of informal articles by David Stuart, Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
A collection of Maya artifacts that survived 9-11 in the World Trade Center is being returned to Guatemala.
In 1999, scientists studying the bones of Pakal, king of Palenque, said that he was only 40 to 50 years old when he died. That contradicted the record in the glyphs, which said he was 80. New studies have confirmed that he did indeed live to an age almost unheard of in those days.
Tabasco Hoy || Rey maya Pakal habría muerto a edad avanzada
Thanks to Alfonso for this article. Google News is good, but it doesn't search local Mexican papers like Tabasco Hoy.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Ancient Nicaraguan society found
Reuters AlertNet - Newly uncovered Honduran ruins predate Mayans
And back to my original mission:
Joel Skidmore has posted a new feature on the latest at Palenque. It covers the new displays in the museum, which I saw for the first time last Friday. A big improvement and, finally, a home for the Temple XIX stuccos and carvings.
Mesoweb Features - What's New in Palenque: February 2003
In the New York Times today (free registration required) Tim Weiner has a story about Palenque, the solstice, and the Maya calendar. Chris Powell and Moises Morales are the voices of reason. And Panchan gets a mention.
Hailing the Solstice and Telling Time, Mayan Style
Alfonso Morales and Julia Miller have sent recent observations of the Palenque Temple XXI find to a long list of glyphers and friends. He titled his email "Latest report on Chocolates". That's his "technical" term for something like this, when you find the "goodies". His message is below - click MORE.
Joel Skidmore at Mesoweb has much more on the find as he continues to update his report.
Mesoweb Reports - New discovery in Palenque
Meanwhile, I've made it down to San Cristobal, Chiapas, and I'm starting to relax. This town has more "cibercafes" than anywhere else I've ever been. I'm sitting in a place called "Virtual Planet" with my iBook plugged into their system, a good trick in a country that is almost exclusively PC-oriented. The connection is nice and fast. I guess all that fibre we saw being laid along the Pan Am highway last year is paying off.
Glyphers:
Last Friday we had a visit to Arnoldo’s restoration
shop with a good friend Claudia Madrazo, we were shown
some of the fragments of the new throne, less
fragments were visible than on Monday. Claudia asked
if David Stuart had this new inscriptions, Juan
Antonio Ferrer told me yes, Arnoldo had given
instructions to e-mail them to the glyphers, I told
him that nothing has been sent from INAH, Gillermo
Bernal said he will send them in 8 days with his
informe, let me know if you get anything, my feeling
is that Gillermo is the one that has been blocking the
information. The left side with the inscriptions was
been glued in a sand box, it was strange because last
time I look at it was in good condition, so the
question is does it have a new break or was a way of
keeping it away from our eyes, I will compare the
firsts pictures with its new condition. I went back
next day and the stone that was not displayed on
Friday with the name of the Lady Telaraña- Propela was
back in the table.
On Friday, the top of the throne was out of sight, it
was been kept on a back bench with a white paper and a
plastic on top with the inscriptions facing the wall
of boxes, away from us. I asked Juan Antonio if we
could take a look at it he said no problem, so he took
the covers off and put some light on it. The whole
edge of the stone is carved with inscriptions. Almost
to the end of the inscriptions we found the DN
1.04.16.16. When that is added to the beginning long
count date we will end with this:
Initial date: 9.13.17.09.00 3 Ahaw 3 Yaxk’in
Like T. XIX Stucco (8th Katun)
DN 1.04.16.16
Date A in Lakamha’ 9.15.02.07.16 9 Cib
19 K’ayab (I have not seen this)
Guessed DN 2.08.01
Date B in Lakamha’ 9.15.04.15.17 5 Kaban 5
Yaxk’in (I have not seen this)
Righ side DN 2.03
Date C in Lakamha’ 9.15.05.00.00 10 Ahaw 8
Ch’en
Minus right side DN 2.10.01.07.03
Date D in Lakamha’ 7.05.03.10.17 10 Kab’an 5
Muwaan (sic.)
I hope this helps some and I will insist that you guys
get the images so you can share them with the other
guys.
I have a dumb question; do we have any hard evidence
that Pakal II (aka U Pakal K’inich) is the son of AKMN
III?
Alonso Mendez made the observation that new throne has
Pakal II with a feather cape can it be a relation to
the bird name glyph?
Or my other question is can the bird name be related
of the use of the Bird backrack of T.XIX Stucco?
Saludos
Alfonso y Julia
In La Jornada, coverage of the new find in Temple XXI. This is the cover, click through to more photos and a longer article.
NUEVO HALLAZGO CRUCIAL EN PALENQUE
Thanks to Alfonso and Julia for passing this along.
Below you can find a detailed description of the find at Temple XXI in Palenque. Some details not confirmed in this report may be clearer by now. I've received some photos, with instructions not to publish them yet. But soon...
On Aug 27th, our excavators stumbled on a bench or throne with inscriptions in the south east gallery. The bench spans the 3 meter gallery joining a medial pier with the south wall and the glyphs grace the front edge of the slab. This slab which measures aprox 3 meters by 1.70 m. shows signs of breakage and stacking of the fragments on the south side ( possibly precolumbian looting). The rubble from the roof that collapsed onto it caused further damage.
Directly in front of it we found a beautiful tablet measuring almost 3 meters by 55 cm. This tablet was damaged the most on the left hand side by an immense vault stone that landed on it shattering and hurling pieces of it as far as three meters. Despite the damage we have been able to recover so far at least 90%. Framing the tablet is a text similar to the XIX tablet on the south side of the throne. We are still piecing together the first part of the text, but the right hand side is intact except for a couple of glyphs. The part that we are able to read now has a lot of similar info as the south side of XIX and mentions the same katun ending ceremonies. Also a mention of Akal Mo Nab.
The Image begins on both the right hand and lefthand with two rodent like looking were-jaguars in the capes of a jaguar skin whose head drags down behind like a tail. Their hands and feet are those of jaguars and they extend a bouquet or bunch of feathers and tassles toward three other more human looking fellows in royal dress and headress that kneel before him.
Facing the Jaguar figures are two figures in feather capes (possibly the same capes are the feather bunches that the jaguars hold out ). These hane been identified as Akal Mo Nab on the left and U Pakal Kinich (the son) on the right. We have not been able to verify the right hand figure but the cartouch on the left hand does coincide with Akal Mo Nab name glyphs they are both identified as ahau of Bac.
The third figure is the central one, and without a doubt the most important. He holds in his right hand the personified bloodletter and seems to hand it toward an unreceptive Akal Mo Nab ( it is strange that both the other figures turn away from him , Perhaps the answer is in the depth of field as these two figures´ knees hide behind the throne backing they are clearly behind the central figure. He may be handing the object to someone else outside of the picture).
The lid cartouch is a little more confusing here as it begins with a glyph that seems to represent the impersonation of someone. Some people here call it a number tree glyph and there is an example of it also in the XIX throne tablet where it talks of Akal Mo Nab impersonating Itzam Na. In this case the person being impersonated is combination of a new head variant glyph with a crest like a quetzal that has "Casper" glyph or something that looks a lot like it in its mouth, followed by the familiar U Kix Chan ( the Mythological Founder of Palenque) and then the phrase 5 Katun Ahau with a Vulture glyph variant that has a curiously penis-like shape to his head, complete with a laceration. The cartouch according to Bernal continues on the right hand side to finally clarify that this mystery figure is none other that Kinich Ha´nab Pakal or Pakal the great.
Joel Skidmore has posted a report on the unfolding Temple XXI story. Our friend Janet got on the road at 5am today to drive the twisting road from San Cristobal to Palenque, expecting an official announcement. When it didn't come (it's now promised for tomorrow) she filed a story with La Republica en Chiapas with the headline "Archaeologists Hide Discovery in Palenque". Here's Joel's summary of news to date.
Mesoweb Reports - New Discovery in Palenque
Joel and I will both publish details tomorrow.
Moises Morales, spiritual father to many of us, staged a one-man protest this weekend outside the gates of Palenque. It was his response to the secrecy surrounding the recent find at Temple XXI. I'll post more information when I get it, but I've been protective of my sources up until now. Things seem to be getting a little tense there. I'll know better in a couple of weeks when I go down to visit.
(click on these thumbnails for larger photos)
It's front page in the NY Times,
Maya Carvings Tell of 2 Superpowers (registration required).
There's also a good article in Newsday, with a graphic and photos of archaeologist-epigraphers, Federico Fahsen and Arthur Demarest.
Newsday.com - Stairway Leads To Mayan History
Computer archaeologists at Microsoft have dug up the first use of emoticons, those little faces some folks use to make sure people know when they are joking;-)
Thanks to Slashdot, Boing Boing, others
The team working on Temple XXI has found what appears to be a new throne, with glyphs referring to Akal Mo Nab, as on the throne in Temple XIX. I'll publish more details when I get the okay from the folks down there.
Meanwhile, you can see Temple XXI's location, in the center of this map of the Cross Group. The map is the work of Ed Barnhart and his mapping team, working on a 3-year FAMSI project.
Guilherme Kajawski wrote me from Brazil with some interesting questions about digital archiving. Here's part of my response:
I worked at all 3 major broadcast networks here, setting up divisions whose job it was to "mine" or "excavate" the tape archives, creating new programs they could sell to the cable channels. We were using the earliest practical nonlinear editing systems, where all footage is stored on hard drives, using various levels of compression. I realized quickly that our programs were going back into the archives and were being cannibalized to make other shows. To me this was problematic, due to the successive generations of compression. Before, we dealt with tape copies, a kind of analog degradation. Now we were adding digital artifacts every time we reused the footage. Yes, the new shows could go back to the original versions we had used, but why? These shows were produced quickly and cheaply. Who had the time, when someone else (us) had already dug up the best shots?
Now there are systems that are non-compressed, that don't degrade the image. And there are starting to be digital archives on servers. But there is just too much, a landslide of new material every day. Even if the systems go digital, there will still be that layer of material we created in the 90's, the pixelized, dusty geological stratum in the middle, between the film of the 50's and 60's, the blurry tape of the 70's, the better betacam of the 80's and 90's and the digital formats of the future.
Here's more from Mark Van Stone about his glyph installations at Southwestern College. The photos on this page link to larger ones.
"Each glyph was sandblasted 1/4 inch deep, twelve feet square, from a stencil-template cut from plexiglas with a CAD-CAM-driven high-pressure water jet. Since they had to blast fourteen copies of it, and the surface of the limestone plaster was too friable for traditional adhesive sandblast-masking, I was forced to design a glyph stencil-style, with no closed forms whose middles would drop out of the template. So I designed calligraphically, after the Palenque 96-Glyphs tablet and various ceramic inscriptions, which often leave gaps between the strokes. Though a few strokes suffered from forced gaps, all in all the design worked out quite legibly and prettily, I think."
Mark Van Stone writes from Southwestern College in Imperial Beach, California, where he is teaching:
" Lately, I have been working with the architects of the new Library here at SWC, and the facade now is adorned with a single glyph --NAH-hi-ITZAMNAAJ-ji--derived ultimately from the glyph on Quirigua Stela D (in the "Three Stone Thrones" creation passage), but rendered in a calligraphic style that owes most of its inspiration to Palenque's Panel of 96 Glyphs..."
"Sandblasted (not deeply, but tinted for legibility in the shade) fourteen times, each twelve feet square, filling the entire middle floor of the front facade. My drawings have never been rendered on so public a scale before. The job will be concluded by a "smoke-entered" building-dedication text in the same style (dated 12.19.10.0.0 /14 Feb 2003, with all 25 glyphs fitting into a space the size of an elevator door -- 4 x 8 ft... Just above the entry elevator on the outside by the front door) once I finish rendering it in Illustrator, so the template can be CAD/CAM-cut for the sandblasting. That's how I have been spending my summer "vacation"... . I'll send a photo of the facade when I get them developed. A different artist's rendition of "Itzamna" (taken from that Interpreting Maya Glyphs book by that Italian educator) will be cut next month twenty feet high on the exterior elevator shaft, at the same time as my dedication text. By the time this is done, it will be the most glyph-covered building in California, I think, or maybe the USA. Do you know of others? Besides the Nowlin House in Austin, I cannot think of an example to rival it. But that is no doubt more due to my limited awareness of these latter-day things than anything... ."
Some of you may wonder about my dual obsessions with wireless internet and Maya glyphs. Pretty simple to me - gotta pay for my trips to the jungle with long months on the computer. Also, after achieving my sci-fi dream of doing a satellite uplink from atop a Maya pyramid, beaming the web to the New York monoliths holds a strange attraction. This weblog lets me indulge both halves of my brain.
Another nice intersection of the two is the phenomenon of warchalking. This may be old news to some folks (the last 2 weeks, in the NY Times already, Doonesbury has hit a precursor, "wardriving") but some clever nerds have devised a variation on the old hobo runes which marked the location of a handout. These new symbols are designed to mark wireless network access in the area that is open for exploiting.
I'm dealing with issues of how to create an open network that can also be managed. Bandwidth to the people, but let's make sure that one warchalker doesn't come by and suck up all the bandwidth at once. It's the age-old dilemma of the commons - how to share the resource without taking more than your share.
One of the most amazing resources on the web is the Schele Archive, which FAMSI maintains. Nearly 1,000 of Linda Schele's drawings are made available free to the public for non-commercial use. Searchable and with extensive annotation, this is a treasure for Maya scholars and fans (like myself) alike.
This is just a note to give links to some recent reports submitted to FAMSI as part of their research grants program.
Alfonso Morales has a report on Recording New Inscriptions of Palenque.
Karen Bassie has an interim report on the Jolja' Cave Project.
Alright, I already screwed up. I decided to use the Maya glyph for "writing" in my banner. In Michael Coe and Justin Kerr's book "The Art of the Maya Scribe" there is a photo (not by Justin - by Elizabeth Land) of the glyph. I laboriously traced the photo and created my own glyph. The next morning I realized that it was on the cover of Coe's new book. My bet is that co-writer, Mark Van Stone, artist and calligrapher, made that graphic. He did a better job than I did. I swear, I didn't rip it off from there - just from somewhere else. I'll get permission from the photographer (and Michael) or else I'll use another graphic. Good reason to contact both. Meanwhile, buy Mike and Mark's book. It's the best beginning text there is from a man who explains things better than anyone else and a top artist in the field.