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Further Observations on the MUT Logogram

by David Stuart Figure 1. The complements mu and tu on the Tikal/Dos Pilas emblem glyph. Back in 1993 I proposed that the main sign of the emblem glyph of Tikal and Dos Pilas/Aguateca is read as MUT,...

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Design Transfer and the Classic Maya

Stephen Houston (Brown University) Printing designs on textiles goes far back in time. An example at the Hunan Provincial Museum in China dates to the Western Han dynasty in the 2nd century BC. Likely...

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Seeing Blindness

Stephen Houston (Brown University) In 1560, a pictorial census was compiled for the province of Huexotzinco in what is now the Mexican state of Puebla (Aguilera 1996:529). Taxation – or its avoidance –...

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Tikal, Tecali, Teotihuacan

by Stephen Houston (Brown University) Alabaster was a rarity among the Classic Maya, reserved for fine bowls in elite settings, especially tombs or palaces (Houston 2014:258; Kubler 1977:5n1). Known as...

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A New Drawing of the Inscription on the Cross Censer Stand from Palenque

by David Stuart (The University of Texas at Austin) In 1979 Linda Schele and Peter Mathews published their important catalog, The Bodega at Palenque, Chiapas Mexico, presenting various sculpture...

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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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Did the Classic Maya have musical notation?

Stephen Houston (Brown University) In the third-quarter of the 16th century, a Nahuatl-speaking scribe compiled the Cantares Mexic.os [Mexicanos], a set of “Mexican songs” lush with metaphors of...

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