Friday, July 20, 2012
Mayan Codex
LadyArtisan brings us this recreation of a Mayan codex. While they never developed a true alphabet they had the most literary culture in the new world, crafting texts from from long, folded sheets of felted tree bark. In the real world it was an epic tragedy when nearly every single one of their books was destroyed. In the Mythos universe that may well be a cause for celebration.
Great work, it looks nearly like a real codex. The mayan mythology is extremely rich on bizarre monsters and gods, and doubtless an enormous resource for inspiration to create props like this.
ReplyDeleteThe codices look great. I can tell you did a lot of research and spent a great deal of time crafting your work. I wonder what you could put together from fragments of the Easter Island codices. BTW there is a good article on undeciphered language scripts at http://www.omniglot.com/writing/undeciphered.htm Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteFor everybody, I’m going to suggest a fantastic book about many aspects of the Mayan language and it’s ongoing decipherment. It’s call Breaking the Mayan Code by Michael D. Coe. This is a multiplex book: you learn the rediscovery of the Maya and their language set out clearly and concisely by one of the people who was in the midst of all the people working on the written Mayan language, not some pop culture “popularizer” author. The book is written almost like a detective story with villains and underdogs, an unknown written language being uncovered piece by piece in a remote area. Personalities help and hinder decipherment and sometimes it’s as maddening as reading about the people who held back Galileo or Copernicus: you just want to yell, “no, no, that’s the wrong door” like in a Hitchcock thriller.
Coe’s explanation of the construction, context and written characters is highly accessible and very enlightening. You need not have a linguistics background to appreciate the book. If you have any interest in languages, archeology, anthropology, mysteries or the Maya, you really need to pick up a copy of this book. It also discusses in detail the Mayan calendar and although the book was published in 1992, it’s still fresh and timely.
The codices look great. I can tell you did a lot of research and spent a great deal of time crafting your work. I wonder what you could put together from fragments of the Easter Island codices. BTW there is a good article on undeciphered language scripts at http://www.omniglot.com/writing/undeciphered.htm Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteFor everybody, I’m going to suggest a fantastic book about many aspects of the Mayan language and it’s ongoing decipherment. It’s call Breaking the Mayan Code by Michael D. Coe. This is a multiplex book: you learn the rediscovery of the Maya and their language set out clearly and concisely by one of the people who was in the midst of all the people working on the written Mayan language, not some pop culture “popularizer” author. The book is written almost like a detective story with villains and underdogs, an unknown written language being uncovered piece by piece in a remote area. Personalities help and hinder decipherment and sometimes it’s as maddening as reading about the people who held back Galileo or Copernicus: you just want to yell, “no, no, that’s the wrong door” like in a Hitchcock thriller.
Coe’s explanation of the construction, context and written characters is highly accessible and very enlightening. You need not have a linguistics background to appreciate the book. If you have any interest in languages, archeology, anthropology, mysteries or the Maya, you really need to pick up a copy of this book. It also discusses in detail the Mayan calendar and although the book was published in 1992, it’s still fresh and timely.
They also had a weird knot-writing methodology.
ReplyDeleteThe knot-writing was used by the Incas, but not by the Mayans.
ReplyDeleteSurely this proves the ancient Mayans played RPG! It's clearly a gamemaster shield! Indeed, a frightening revelation, good sirs.
ReplyDelete