Oldest flourishing Maya book announced authentic

Fifty-four years after it was sole by looters, an ancient Maya pictographic content was judged authentic by scholars Thursday.

Mexico’s National Institute of History and Anthropology pronounced a calendar-style content was done between 1021 and 1154 A.D. and is a oldest famous pre-Hispanic document.

The 10 flourishing pages of a tree-bark folding “book” will now be famous as a Mexico Maya Codex. It had been famous as a Grolier Codex. It might have creatively had 20 pages, though some were mislaid after centuries in a cavern in southern Chiapas state.

A workman inspects a an ancient Maya pictographic content in Mexico City. The INAH says a content was done between 1021 and 1154 A.D., is a oldest famous pre-Hispanic text, and will now be famous as a ‘Mexico Maya Codex.’ (INAH around Associated Press)

It contains a array of observations and predictions associated to a planetary transformation of Venus. Mayan texts are combined in a array of syllabic glyphs, in that a stylized embellished figure mostly stands for a syllable.

A Mexican gourmet bought it in 1964, and it was initial exhibited during a Grolier Club in New York in 1971.

Collector Josue Saenz returned a book to Mexican authorities in 1974.

The fact that it was looted and had a easier pattern than other flourishing texts had led some to doubt a authenticity.

“Its character differs from other Maya codex that are famous and proven authentic,” a hospital pronounced in a statement. About 3 other after Maya “books” survived an try by Spanish conquerors to destroy Mayan artifacts in a 1500s.

Chemical tests

But a hospital pronounced Thursday that since a book was combined so early, it had been combined in an date of relations misery compared to a other works. It pronounced a array of chemical tests valid a flawlessness of a pages and a pre-Hispanic inks used to write it.

There are 10 flourishing pages of a tree-bark folding ‘book.’ It might have creatively had 20 pages, though some were mislaid after centuries in a cavern in southern Chiapas state. (INAH around Associated Press)

While prior studies had upheld a flawlessness of a text, it was a finish of decades of doubts for a book.

“For a prolonged time, critics of a codex pronounced a character wasn’t Mayan and that it was ‘the ugliest’ of them in terms of total and colour,” pronounced hospital researcher Sofia Martinez del Campo. “But a purgation of a work is explained by a epoch, when things are wanting one uses what one has during hand.”

Article source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/mexico-maya-modex-1.4806032?cmp=rss