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ARCHIVES: The syllable sign tza
Below is a page from one of my old notebooks, giving some of the evidence I was considering in 1989 for the decipherment of the tza syllable sign, a version of which is shown at right. The reasoning...
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REPORT: Two Inscribed Bones from Yaxchilan
Back in 1979, excavations at Yaxchilan overseen by Roberto García Moll unearthed several carved bone objects within Tomb 2 of Structure 23 (Mathews 1997:161; Perez Campa 1990:150). Among them were the...
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BOOKS: The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court: Reflections on the Murals of...
Coming in July 2013 from The University of Texas Press The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court: Reflections on the Murals of Bonampak by Mary Ellen Miller and Claudia Brittenham The blurb from The...
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REPORT: Tonina’s Curious Ballgame
by David Stuart Narrative scenes in Maya art are not always as simple as they might seem. Take for example this image of a ballgame on Monument 171 from Tonina, Chiapas. This small relief sculpture was...
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NEWS: La Corona Notes on Mesoweb
Our friends over at Mesoweb have launched a new series of short reports called La Corona Notes, featuring interpretations and data from the Proyecto Arqueológico Regional La Corona. The series editors...
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NEWS: The Discovery of Chactun, Campeche
INAH (Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia) has posted video footage of the newly discovered site of Chactun, Campeche. The ruins were located and surveyed this season by...
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REPORT: The Lost City of Tzendales
Alfred M. Tozzer during his 1905 fieldwork with the Lacandon Maya These days it might seem easy to dismiss the idea of “lost cities” as a thing of the past, or as a romanticized notion from a by-gone...
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REPORT: An Earful of Glyphs from Guatemala
by Stephen Houston and Alexandre Tokovinine A by-product of giving public talks is that, at times, a member of the audience will introduce themselves and offer an unexpected image: a glyphic text not...
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NEWS: Recent Epigraphic Finds at El Peru
The El Peru Regional Archaeological Project has announced some significant epigraphic discoveries made over the past two seasons, focusing on two new inscribed monuments, numbered Stela 43 and 44....
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NEWS: Discovery of an Inscribed Temple Facade at Holmul, Guatemala
A large and beautifully preserved temple facade has been unearthed this year at Holmul, Guatemala, by an archaeological team led by Francisco Estrada-Belli. The imagery features a local Holmul ruler...
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REPORT: Name and Image on Two Codex-style Vessels
by David Stuart Among the many images in Justin Kerr’s wondrous database of Maya vases are two codex style vessels, K1552 and K1647 (Figures 1 and 2). These are part of a much larger set of vessels...
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ARCHIVES: Poe on Stephens
by David Stuart From time to time some small interesting item from the early days of Maya archaeology catches my eye. For example, I recently came across Edgar Allen Poe’s brief review of John Lloyd...
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ARCHIVES: Glyphs on Pots
by David Stuart At the 2005 Maya Meetings at the University of Texas at Austin I presented a short analysis and overview of the ”Dedicatory Formula,” the standardized glyphic text found on countless...
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Maya Hieroglyphic Syllabary
I recently posted a pdf of a sign syllabary here on Maya Decipherment, under the new header category “Glyph Resources.” A number of other similar charts are available on the internet but many show a...
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Jean Genet, a Forgotten Mesoamericanist Epigrapher
by Eric Taladoire, Université de Paris In 1933, Benjamin L. Whorf published his article on “The Phonetic Value of Certain Characters in Maya Writing,” in which he tried to re-open what many considered...
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BOOKS: Place and Identity in Classic Maya Narratives
A New Publication from Dumbarton Oaks: PLACE AND IDENTITY IN CLASSIC MAYA NARRATIVES by Alexander Tokovinine Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology Series Understanding the ways in which...
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Deciphering the Tikal Emblem Glyph
The Tikal emblem glyph, MUT-la, from the inscription on Tikal, Stela 31 (photograph by D. Stuart). by David Stuart Back in 1993 — over a k’atun ago — I circulated a short note to colleagues about a...
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Early Thoughts on the sajal Title
Example of the sajal glyph (sa-ja-la) from Stela 12 at Piedras Negras. by David Stuart Back in 1985 I wrote an article called “New Epigraphic Evidence of Late Classic Maya Political Organization,”...
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BOOKS: The Life Within: Classic Maya and the Matter of Permanence
An Upcoming Publication from Yale University Press: THE LIFE WITHIN: CLASSIC MAYA AND THE MATTER OF PERMANENCE by Stephen Houston Coming in March 2014 For the Classic Maya, who flourished in and...
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The 2014 Maya Meetings: Tikal and its Neighbors
The 2014 Maya Meetings begin next week in Antigua, Guatemala, devoted to “Tikal and its Neighbors.” The conference will include workshops and a symposium devoted to the latest research on the...
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