[Aztlan] List of reversed glyphs

[Justin Kerr]

Dear Friends,
I would like to suggest, if no one else has, that in this discussion of
reversed and mirror imaging that the human aspect of artistry has not been
reckoned with.  
As so many other speculations of why do these types of writing exist, I make
this humble offering. The artists who created these works were "showing
off". In many cultures around the world artists and crafts people show off
by creating what seem to be impossible deeds. Mirror writing is only one;
there is a whole category of European paintings that can only be viewed by
placing the work on a mirror. There are holy scriptures so small that they
can only be read by use of a magnifying glass. I have seen Japanese street
artists create incredible dragons in less time than it takes to write this
sentence. In our own time a Greenwich Village artist received a lot of
television time making paintings using toilet paper. 
To get back to the ancient Maya; it takes great skill, to say nothing of
talent, to create a stone lintel, and having achieved that goal, I feel some
artists may have struck out and in their work said, "I am so good I can do
it my way."  
Justin Kerr

-----Original Message-----
From: aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org]
On Behalf Of Diane Winters
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 9:46 PM
To: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
Subject: Re: [Aztlan] List of reversed glyphs

I'd just like to point out that on Yaxchilan Lintel 25 all of the glyphs are
reversed except for the fish-in-hand.  If this glyph had been reversed, it
would have depicted a right hand instead of a left.  I'm not sure if
preserving the left-handedness of the fish-in-hand was deliberate, but
suspect it may have been and is somehow significant in the cultural concepts
surrounding the meaning of the glyph.

Although I haven't yet read it myself, maybe the article Nate Meissner
mentioned on Left/Right symbolism will be helpful to the general "reversed
realm" discussion:
Palka, Joel English
2002 Left/right symbolism and the body in ancient Maya
iconography and culture
Latin American Antiquity 13(4):419-443
Washington, DC

Diane Winters
once upon a time working on the fish-in-hand glyph, hoping to get back to it
some day


George Haas wrote:

>I'd like to thank every one here that participated in assisting me in my
search for reversed images and glyphs in Mesoamerican art. The following is
a list of the some of the most notable examples of reversed glyphs that I
have archived so far.
>
>
>
>1. Lintel 25 - Yaxchilan.
>
>
>
>2. Bird Jaguar Monument - Yaxchilan.
>
>
>
>3. Western Bench, Temple 11 - Copan
>
>
>
>4. Paris Codex - page 23 & 24.
>
>
>
>5. La Mojarra stela.
>
>
>
>6. Right Throne Leg (of the Creation Tablet) - Palenque.
>
>
>
>7. Ratinlinxul Vase - K 594 - Guatemala.
>
>
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>8. Codex Style Vase - K1333
>
>
>
>If any one knows of additional examples, please feel free to add it to the
list.
>

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