Painted Books Of Ancient Mexico

Question 1

What happened in the Late Postclassic period in Mesoamerica

Answer 1

Codices formed, interreigonal interactions occur trade becomes widespread, Mayan glyphs fall out of use to be replaced with a form of pictographic writing called Rebus writing in which the sound of the object matters more than the object itself transcending linguistic boundaries.

Question 2

What were the three main codices of Mesoamerica?

Answer 2

1. MAYAN CODICES 15th cent
2. BORGIA CODICES OF CENTRAL MEXICO
3. MIXTEC CODICES OF OAXACA

Question 3

What are the Maya Codices

Answer 3

Only 4 remaining, they chart astrological projection and religious rituals.
Style exhibits significant central Mexican influence as figures are flatter and more abstract than the usual classical Mayan style.
Glyph texts restricted to short captions, more abstract symbols are calendrical glyphs.
The Maya Codex of Mexico, still desputed to its legitimacy charts venus cycles.

Question 4

What are the Borgia codices of central Mexico

Answer 4

All ritual/divinatory alminacs, predicting the future in different ways. It is concerned with time and days. Mesoamericans had two calendars: 365 day calendar (year) and 260 day calendar (9months) predicted to be because this is the period of human gestation. The 260 day calander was the one of most interest to the Borgia, they used it to predict destinies like childbirth, marriage, etc all based on the day or more likely the birthday. There is even a marriage codex where you can determine compatability.

Question 5

How did the Mesoamericanas count days? How did they count years?

Answer 5

260 calendar
DAY– Each day had a name, using numbers between 1-13. Each day gets a combination of name + number but they change with each day.

365 calendar
YEAR– Year bearers were symbolic, each given a number between 1 and 13, with 4 symbols this means every 52 years the ritual and solar years realign and begin on the same day.

Question 6

The Mixtec Codices of Oaxaca

Answer 6

Largest group, these offer historical accounts. They chart the political going ons. All are read, but how changes. Made 15th-16th centuries, but record much further back.

Places recorded by geographic substantive then qualifier, eg hill black.

Names were recorded by personal names or calendrical names, as these were more specific. Eg. 18 Rabbit.

Question 7

Spanish colonists attempting to understand the codices

Answer 7

They realised in order to convert Mesoamericans to Christianity they would have to understand their codices, so some made different versions of the books themselves in order to understand. Text in Italian

Question 8

Map of Teozacoalco

Answer 8