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The Solar Eclipse Record from Santa Elena Poco Uinic
by David Stuart This entry is offered in anticipation of the solar eclipse visible over much of Mexico and the United States on April 8, 2024. Only one record of a solar eclipse is known from Maya...
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The Devil’s Writing
Stephen Houston and Felipe Rojas (Brown University) The Spaniards expressed a certain ambivalence about Maya glyphs. They called them letras, a neutral word suggesting an equivalence to their own...
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Day Sign Notes: Men / Tz’ikin
by David Stuart The Classic-period names for the days of the tzolk’in are often obscure to us. This is true even where we see clear semantic connections to the familiar names used in colonial Yucatan...
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Tobacco Tubes and Cigarette History
by Stephen Houston and Harper Dine (Brown University) “A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied.” (Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray,...
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A “Fraternity” of Scribes on a Maya Plate
Stephen Houston (Brown University) “If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient.” [Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, Vol. 2, Chap. 8] A renowned example of...
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Jeweled Stones and Detachable Finery
Stephen Houston (Brown University) Carved surfaces tend to endure, if, for the Classic Maya, in eroded, broken or hacked form. But, in the past, stone seldom stood alone. Images of stelae reveal a...
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A Good Hot Meal—Notes to a Culinary History
by Stephen Houston (Brown University) Humans like their food warm. Heat reduces the number of pathogens, makes proteins easier to digest, and increases the amount of energy from meals (Carmody et al....
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Citational Rise and Fall among Mayanists
by Stephen Houston (Brown University) “[E]very age is an age of ignorance because the rise of some knowledges is often accompanied by the loss of others” (Burke 2024a:35) “Ignorance” is an emotive...
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Day Sign Notes: Caban
David Stuart (University of Texas at Austin) This is the second in a series of occasional essays on the visual histories and iconographic associations of the Maya day signs. It follows up on previous...
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Day Sign Notes: Manik
David Stuart (The University of Texas at Austin) This is the third in an anticipated series of essays on the visual histories and iconographic associations of the Maya day signs, presented in no...
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