Clik here to view.
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,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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 –...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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....
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View Article