Aids to the study of the Maya codices / by Cyrus Thomas.

  • Cyrus Thomas
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Aids to the study of the Maya codices / by Cyrus Thomas. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    were passing into true ideographs1 and possibly into phonetic char- acters. The lack of any satisfactory key to assist us in deciphering them makes it exceedingly difficult to decide how far this change had pro- gressed. We are therefore left wholly to deductions to he drawn from the facts obtained by laborious comparisons of the various rela- tions in which the characters are found and the uses which appeal' to be made of them in the manuscript. It will be admitted without question that a large number of these characters are ideographs or conventional symbols, as distinguished from pictures, as, for exarnjile, most of those denoting the days, months, and cardinal points. I say most of these, as it is yet pos- sible to learn from some of them the objects they were intended to represent, the characteristic features not being entirely lost, as the symbol for the day Cimi, the “death's head” or skull; that of the day Ymix, “the grain of maize;” that of the month Moan, “the head of the moo or ara,” a species of parrot, &c. It is also possible to show from the manuscripts themselves evi- dences of the changes from conventional pictographs to true or mne- monic symbols. Take, for instance, the bird symbols on Plates 16, 17, and 18 of the Dresden Codex, presented in the preceding marginal figures numbered 2i, 25, 26, 27, 28, and 33. If the determination be correct as given, it is apparent that, while one of the birds is indicated by the head as a symbol, the others are denoted by ideographs, or by phonetic charac- ters bearing no resemblance to their forms or peculiar features. Tlmt numerous examples of this kind are to be found in these manuscripts will be admitted by all who have carefully studied them. Another fact bearing upon this point is the difference between the Dresden Codex and the Manuscript Troano in regard to marking with symbols the things represented in the pictures. We fail to find in the former (unless that on Plate 30 be a possible exception) the earth or soil represented by any symbol, though frequently occurring in the latter and also occasionally in the Cortesian Codex. The sym- bol for wood or that appearing so often on wooden ai’ticles in the latter, and occasionally in the Cortesian Codex, is wanting in the Dresden Codex, though wooden articles are several times represented. From this we infer that the Manuscript Troano is a more recent pro- duction than the Dresden Codex, notwithstanding the evidences of greater skill in drawing and higher mathematical attainments shown in the latter. 1 As the term “ ideograph ” is somewhat broad and comprehensive, it may be well enough to state that I use it as expressing that stage of symbolic writing whei'e the picture characters have so changed that all resemblance to the objects they were originally intended to represent is lost, and therefore they can only be considered as mnemonic signs.