[Aztlan] Institute of Maya Studies July Lectures

[michael ruggeri]

July 8, 8:00-9:30 PM
Institute of Maya Studies Explorer Session Lecture
“Understanding Maya Glyphs for Beginners”
Joaquín J. Rodríguez III, P.E., SECB
Numerous features distinguish the Maya from other cultures of ancient  
Mesoamerica, but one that has attracted Explorers, scholars and  
enthusiasts for centuries is Maya Hieroglyphic Writing. The  
calligraphic style and pictorial complexity of Maya glyphs are like no  
other writing system. While the decipherment of Maya hieroglyphs has  
been advancing rapidly in the past few decades, differing opinions of  
whether or not Maya writing was either a number of simple word- 
pictures or a sophisticated phonetic system stifled decipherment for  
years. Indeed, it was only in the mid-twentieth century following a  
breakthrough by Mayanist Tatiana Proskouriakoff that epigraphers (or  
glyphic experts) could finally agree that Maya Hieroglyphic Writing  
was a fully functional system based on phonetic signs.
For a great introduction to Maya hieroglyphs, check out How to Read  
Maya Hieroglyphs by John Montgomery; and his Maya Drawing Collection  
at: www.famsi.org
The Institute of Maya Studies
Miami Science Museum,
3280 South Miami Avenue, across from Vizcaya;
Maya Hotline: 305-235-1192
www.instituteofmayastudies.org


July 15, 8:00-9:30 PM
Institute of Maya Studies Lecture
“Zodiacal Beasts of the Pre-Columbian Maya”
Harvey M. Bricker and Victoria R. Bricker
The Paris Codex, one of the few surviving hieroglyphic books of the  
Pre-Columbian Maya, contains an almanac that has long been interpreted  
as a representation of a Maya zodiac. It divides the year into 13 28- 
day periods, and these periods are associated in some way with 13  
animals, mostly non-human, that have been seen as zodiacal symbols  
comparable to the bull, the ram, the twins, and so on, of our own  
zodiac (both sets include a scorpion, for example). There have been  
very divergent interpretations of how the symbols of a Maya zodiac  
should be related to the annual calendar.
“Twenty years ago, we proposed, based on our study of the Paris Codex  
almanac, that what was important were pairs of zodiacal constellations  
– the one that was rising and the one that was setting just before  
Sunrise during a given 28-day period. A few years later we presented  
what seemed to be strong confirmatory evidence for this model based on  
a previously little-studied inscription at the Terminal Classic site  
of Uxmal in Yucatán, Mexico. More recently, we have returned to the  
zodiacal almanac in the Paris Codex, applying knowledge not available  
two decades ago to the study of this almanac’s hieroglyphic captions.  
The results of this new research confirm and extend our previous  
understandings, and they explain explicit references in the almanac to  
a 168-day distance that had been the subject of earlier controversy.”
Victoria R. Bricker is an Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Tulane  
University, where she was on the faculty from 1969 through 2005, and a  
Courtesy Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida. She  
is the author of eight books and eighty articles on Maya ethnology,  
ethnohistory, linguistics, literature, epigraphy, archaeoastronomy,  
and folklore.
Harvey M. Bricker is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Tulane  
University; at the University of Florida, he is Courtesy Professor of  
Anthropology and Research Associate of the Florida Museum of Natural  
History. He is a former Chairman of the Tulane Department of  
Anthropology and a former Director of the Tulane University Center for  
Archaeology.
The Institute of Maya Studies
Miami Science Museum,
3280 South Miami Avenue, across from Vizcaya
Maya Hotline: 305-235-1192
www.instituteofmayastudies.org

Mike Ruggeri's Ancient America Museum Exhibitions, Conferences and  
Lectures
http://tinyurl.com/c9mlao