1.
Indigenous peoples
–
Groups are usually described as indigenous when they maintain traditions or other aspects of an early culture that is associated with a given region. Not all indigenous peoples share such characteristics, Indigenous societies are found in every inhabited climate zone and continent of the world. Estimates put the population of indigenous peoples from 220 million to 350 million. The adjective indigenous is derived from the Latin word indigena, which is based on the root gen- to be born with a form of the prefix in in. Any given people, ethnic group or community may be described as indigenous in reference to some particular region or location that they see as their tribal land claim. Other terms used to refer to indigenous populations are aboriginal, native, original, james Anaya, former Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, has defined indigenous peoples as living descendants of pre-invasion inhabitants of lands now dominated by others. They are culturally distinct groups that find themselves engulfed by other settler societies born of forces of empire, throughout history, different states designate the groups within their boundaries that are recognized as indigenous peoples according to international or national legislation by different terms. Their ability to influence and participate in the policies that may exercise jurisdiction over their traditional lands. The presence of external laws, claims and cultural mores either potentially or actually act to constrain the practices and observances of an indigenous society. These constraints can be observed even when the society is regulated largely by its own tradition. They may be imposed, or arise as unintended consequence of trans-cultural interaction. They may have an effect, even where countered by other external influences. This definition has some limitations, because the definition applies mainly to pre-colonial populations, the primary impetus in considering indigenous identity comes from the post-colonial movements and considering the historical impacts on populations by the European imperialism. Greek sources of the Classical period acknowledge the existence of indigenous people. These peoples inhabited lands surrounding the Aegean Sea before the subsequent migrations of the Hellenic ancestors claimed by these authors, the disposition and precise identity of this former group is elusive, and sources such as Homer, Hesiod and Herodotus give varying, partially mythological accounts. However, it is clear that cultures existed whose indigenous characteristics were distinguished by the subsequent Hellenic cultures, greco-Roman society flourished between 250 BC and 480 AD and commanded successive waves of conquests that gripped more than half of the globe. The rapid and extensive spread of the various European powers from the early 15th century onwards had an impact upon many of the indigenous cultures with whom they came into contact. The Canary Islands had an indigenous population called the Guanches whose origin is still the subject of discussion among historians, the United Nations estimates that there are over 370 million indigenous people living in over 70 countries worldwide
Indigenous peoples
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Indigenous Australian boys and men in front of a bush shelter,
Groote Eylandt, circa 1933
Indigenous peoples
–
A
Navajo man on horseback in
Monument valley,
Arizona
Indigenous peoples
–
B
Inuit people on a traditional qamutik (dog sled),
Cape Dorset,
Nunavut,
Canada
Indigenous peoples
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Ainu man of
Hokkaidō, Japan in traditional dress
2.
Writing
–
Writing is a medium of human communication that represents language and emotion through the inscription or recording of signs and symbols. In most languages, writing is a complement to speech or spoken language, Writing is not a language but a form of technology that developed as tools developed with human society. Within a language system, writing relies on many of the structures as speech, such as vocabulary, grammar and semantics. The result of writing is called text, and the recipient of text is called a reader. Motivations for writing include publication, storytelling, correspondence and diary, Writing has been instrumental in keeping history, maintaining culture, dissemination of knowledge through the media and the formation of legal systems. As human societies emerged, the development of writing was driven by pragmatic exigencies such as exchanging information, maintaining financial accounts, codifying laws, in both ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica writing may have evolved through calendrics and a political necessity for recording historical and environmental events. H. G. Wells argued that writing has the ability to put agreements, laws and it made the growth of states larger than the old city states possible. It made a continuous historical consciousness possible, the command of the priest or king and his seal could go far beyond his sight and voice and could survive his death. The major writing systems—methods of inscription—broadly fall into four categories, logographic, syllabic, alphabetic, another category, ideographic, has never been developed sufficiently to represent language. A sixth category, pictographic, is insufficient to represent language on its own, a logogram is a written character which represents a word or morpheme. A vast number of logograms are needed to write Chinese characters, cuneiform, and Mayan, where a glyph may stand for a morpheme, many logograms have an ideographic component. For example, in Mayan, the glyph for fin, pronounced ka, was used to represent the syllable ka whenever the pronunciation of a logogram needed to be indicated. In Chinese, about 90% of characters are compounds of an element called a radical with an existing character to indicate the pronunciation. However, such phonetic elements complement the elements, rather than vice versa. A syllabary is a set of symbols that represent syllables. A glyph in a syllabary typically represents a consonant followed by a vowel, or just a vowel alone, phonetically related syllables are not so indicated in the script. For instance, the syllable ka may look nothing like the syllable ki, syllabaries are best suited to languages with a relatively simple syllable structure, such as Japanese. Other languages that use syllabic writing include the Linear B script for Mycenaean Greek, Cherokee, Ndjuka, an English-based creole language of Surinam, most logographic systems have a strong syllabic component
Writing
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Writing with a pen
Writing
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Olin Levi Warner,
tympanum representing Writing, above exterior of main entrance doors,
Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington DC, 1896.
Writing
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Globular envelope with a cluster of accountancy tokens, Uruk period, from
Susa.
Louvre Museum
Writing
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Narmer Palette, with the two serpopards representing unification of
Upper and
Lower Egypt,
3000 B. C.
3.
1st millennium BC
–
The 1st millennium BC encompasses the Iron Age and sees the rise of many successive empires, and spanned from 1000 BC to 1 BC. The Neo-Assyrian Empire develops, followed by the Achaemenids, in Greece, Classical Antiquity begins with the colonization of Magna Graecia and peaks with the rise of Hellenism. The close of the sees the rise of the Roman Empire. In South Asia, the Vedic civilization blends into the Maurya Empire, the early Celts dominate Central Europe while Northern Europe is in the Pre-Roman Iron Age. In China, the Spring and Autumn period sees the rise of Confucianism, towards the close of the millennium, the Han Dynasty extends Chinese power towards Central Asia, where it borders on Indo-Greek and Iranian states. The Maya civilization rises in Central America, while in Africa, Ancient Egypt begins its decline, rise of the Nubian Empire, the religions of Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism develop. Graeco-Roman Europe, India and China see the rise of literature, world population greatly increases in the course of the millennium, reaching some 170 to 400 million people at its close depending on the estimates used. Qin built and unified various sections of the Great Wall of China, Qin built Qin Shi Huangs Mausoleum guarded by the life-sized Terracotta Army. Late 3rd century BC or 2nd century BC—Veiled and masked dancer is made and it is now kept at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Genius of China,3000 years of science, discovery, New York, Simon and SchusterBased on the works of Joseph Needham Zimmer, Heinrich, Joseph Campbell, ed. Philosophy of India, London, E. C.4, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, Not in copyright
1st millennium BC
–
Human-headed winged bull facing. Bas-relief from the king
Sargon II 's palace at Dur Sharrukin in
Assyria (now Khorsabad in Iraq), c. 713–716 BC. From Paul-Émile Botta's excavations in 1843–1844.
4.
Pre-Columbian
–
For this reason the alternative terms of Precontact Americas, Pre-Colonial Americas or Prehistoric Americas are also in use. In areas of Latin America the term used is Pre-Hispanic. Other civilizations were contemporary with the period and were described in European historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Maya civilization, had their own written records, because many Christian Europeans of the time viewed such texts as heretical, men like Diego de Landa destroyed many texts in pyres, even while seeking to preserve native histories. Only a few documents have survived in their original languages, while others were transcribed or dictated into Spanish, giving modern historians glimpses of ancient culture. Indigenous American cultures continue to evolve after the pre-Columbian era, many of these peoples and their descendants continue traditional practices, while evolving and adapting new cultural practices and technologies into their lives. Now, the study of pre-Columbian cultures is most often based on scientific. Asian nomads are thought to have entered the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge, now the Bering Strait, genetic evidence found in Amerindians maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA supports the theory of multiple genetic populations migrating from Asia. Over the course of millennia, Paleo-Indians spread throughout North and South America, exactly when the first group of people migrated into the Americas is the subject of much debate. One of the earliest identifiable cultures was the Clovis culture, with sites dating from some 13,000 years ago, however, older sites dating back to 20,000 years ago have been claimed. Some genetic studies estimate the colonization of the Americas dates from between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago, the chronology of migration models is currently divided into two general approaches. The first is the short chronology theory with the first movement beyond Alaska into the New World occurring no earlier than 14, 000–17,000 years ago, followed by successive waves of immigrants. The second belief is the long chronology theory, which proposes that the first group of people entered the hemisphere at an earlier date, possibly 50. In that case, the Eskimo peoples would have arrived separately and at a later date, probably no more than 2,000 years ago. The North American climate was unstable as the ice age receded and it finally stabilized by about 10,000 years ago, climatic conditions were then very similar to todays. Within this timeframe, roughly pertaining to the Archaic Period, numerous archaeological cultures have been identified, the unstable climate led to widespread migration, with early Paleo-Indians soon spreading throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct tribes. The paleo-indians were hunter-gatherers, likely characterized by small, mobile bands consisting of approximately 20 to 50 members of an extended family and these groups moved from place to place as preferred resources were depleted and new supplies were sought. During much of the Paleo-Indian period, bands are thought to have subsisted primarily through hunting now-extinct giant land animals such as mastodon, Paleo-Indian groups carried a variety of tools
Pre-Columbian
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Hopewell mounds from the
Mound City Group in Ohio
Pre-Columbian
–
hunter-gatherers
Pre-Columbian
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Mississippian site in Arkansas,
Parkin Site, circa 1539. Illustration by Herb Roe.
Pre-Columbian
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One of the pyramids in the upper level of
Yaxchilán
5.
Literacy
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Literacy is traditionally understood as the ability to read, write, and use arithmetic. The concept of literacy is expanding in OECD countries to include skills to access knowledge through technology and ability to assess complex contexts. A person who travels and resides in a country but is unable to read or write in the language of the host country would also be regarded by the locals as being illiterate. The key to literacy is reading development, a progression of skills that begins with the ability to understand words and decode written words. The inability to do so is called illiteracy or analphabetism, Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society. Literacy is thought to have first emerged with the development of numeracy, script developed independently at least four times in human history in Mesopotamia, Egypt, lowland Mesoamerica, and China. The earliest forms of written communication originated in Sumer, located in southern Mesopotamia about 3500-3000 BCE, writing systems in Mesopotamia first emerged from a recording system in which people used impressed token markings to manage trade and agricultural production. The token system served as a precursor to early cuneiform writing once people began recording information on clay tablets, proto-cuneiform texts exhibit not only numerical signs, but also ideograms depicting objects being counted. Egyptian hieroglyphs emerged from 3300-3100 BCE and depicted royal iconography that emphasized power amongst other elites, the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing system was the first notation system to have phonetic values. Writing in lowland Mesoamerica was first put into practice by the Olmec and Zapotec civilizations in 900-400 BCE and these civilizations used glyphic writing and bar-and-dot numerical notation systems for purposes related to royal iconography and calendar systems. The earliest written notations in China date back to the Shang Dynasty in 1200 BCE and these systematic notations were found inscribed on bones and recorded sacrifices made, tributes received, and animals hunted, which were activities of the elite. These oracle-bone inscriptions were the ancestors of modern Chinese script and contained logosyllabic script. According to social anthropologist Jack Goody, there are two interpretations that regard the origin of the alphabet, many classical scholars, such as historian Ignace Gelb, credit the Ancient Greeks for creating the first alphabetic system that used distinctive signs for consonants and vowels. Thus, many argue that the ancient Semitic-speaking peoples of northern Canaan invented the consonantal alphabet as early as 1500 BCE. Much of this development is credited to English archeologist Flinders Petrie. Ten years later, English Egyptologist Alan Gardiner reasoned that these contain an alphabet. In 1948, William F. Albright deciphered the text using additional evidence that had been discovered subsequent to Goodys findings and this included a series of inscriptions from Ugarit, discovered in 1929 by French archaeologist Claude F. A. Schaeffer. Some of these inscriptions were mythological texts that consisted of a 32-letter cuneiform consonantal alphabet, another significant discovery was made in 1953 when three arrowheads were uncovered, each containing identical Canaanite inscriptions from twelfth century BCE
Literacy
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Brain areas involved in literacy acquisition
Literacy
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World illiteracy halved between 1970 and 2005.
Literacy
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Bill of sale of a male slave and a building in Shuruppak,
Sumerian tablet, circa 2600 BC
Literacy
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Dutch schoolmaster and children, 1662
6.
Mesoamerican writing systems
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Mesoamerica, along with Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and China, is among the five known places in the world where writing has developed independently. Mesoamerican scripts deciphered to date are a combination of logographic and syllabic values and they are often called hieroglyphs due to the iconic shapes of many of the glyphs, a pattern superficially similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs. The best documented and deciphered Mesoamerican writing system, and the most widely known, is the classic Maya script, an extensive Mesoamerican literature has been conserved partly in indigenous scripts and partly in the postconquest transcriptions in the Latin script. Early Olmec ceramics show representations of something that may be codices, suggesting that amatl bark codices and it was also long thought that many of the glyphs present on Olmec monumental sculpture, such as those on the so-called Ambassador Monument, represented an early Olmec script. This suspicion was reinforced in 2002 by the announcement of the discovery of similar glyphs at San Andres and this block was discovered by locals in the Olmec heartland and was dated by the archaeologists to approximately 900 BCE based on other debris. If the authenticity and date can be verified, this will prove to be the earliest writing yet found in Mesoamerica, another candidate for earliest writing system in Mesoamerica is the writing system of the Zapotec culture. Rising in the late Pre-Classic era after the decline of the Olmec civilization, on a few monuments at this archaeological site, archaeologists have found extended text in a glyphic script. Some signs can be recognized as calendric information but the script as such remains undeciphered, the earliest known monument with Zapotec writing is a Danzante stone, officially known as Monument 3, found in San Jose Mogote, Oaxaca. It has a relief of what appears to be a dead, first dated to 500–600 BCE, this was earlier considered the earliest writing in Mesoamerica. However doubts have been expressed as to dating and the monument may have been reused. The Zapotec script went out of use only in the late Classic period, a small number of artifacts found in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec show examples of another early Mesoamerican writing system. They can be seen to contain calendric information but are otherwise undeciphered, the longest of these texts are on La Mojarra Stela 1 and the Tuxtla Statuette. The writing system used is very close to the Mayan script, using affixal glyphs and Long Count dates and it has been suggested that this Isthmian or Epi-Olmec script is the direct predecessor of the Mayan script, thus giving the Mayan script a non-Mayan origin. Another artifact with Epi-Olmec script is the Chiapa de Corzo stela which is the oldest monument of the Americas inscribed with its own date, in a 1997 paper, John Justeson and Terrence Kaufman put forward a decipherment of Epi-Olmec. In the highland Mayan archaeological sites of Abaj Takalik and Kaminaljuyú writing has been dating to Izapan culture. It is likely that in this area in late Pre-Classic times an ancient form of a Mixe–Zoquean language was spoken, some glyphs in this scripts are readable as they are identical to Mayan glyphs but the script remains undeciphered. The advanced decay and destruction of archaeological sites make it improbable that more monuments with these scripts will come to light making possible a decipherment. The earliest inscriptions in an identifiably Maya script date back to 200–300 BCE, early examples include the painted inscriptions at the caves of Naj Tunich and La Cobanerita in El Petén, Guatemala
Mesoamerican writing systems
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Monument 3 at San Jose Mogote. The two shaded
glyphs between his legs are likely his name, Earthquake 1
Mesoamerican writing systems
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The 62 glyphs of the
Cascajal block.
Mesoamerican writing systems
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Detail showing three columns of glyphs from 2nd century CE
La Mojarra Stela 1 currently located at the Museum of Anthropology of Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. The two right columns are glyphs from the
Epi-Olmec script. The left column gives a Long Count date of 8.5.16.9.9, or 162 CE.
Mesoamerican writing systems
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Maya glyphs in stucco at the Museo de sitio in
Palenque, Mexico
7.
Writing systems
–
A writing system is any conventional method of visually representing verbal communication. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a form of information storage. The processes of encoding and decoding writing systems involve shared understanding between writers and readers of the meaning behind the sets of characters that make up a script, the general attributes of writing systems can be placed into broad categories such as alphabets, syllabaries, or logographies. Any particular system can have attributes of more than one category, in the alphabetic category, there is a standard set of letters of consonants and vowels that encode based on the general principle that the letters represent speech sounds. In a syllabary, each symbol correlates to a syllable or mora, in a logography, each character represents a word, morpheme, or other semantic units. Other categories include abjads, which differ from alphabets in that vowels are not indicated, alphabets typically use a set of 20-to-35 symbols to fully express a language, whereas syllabaries can have 80-to-100, and logographies can have several hundreds of symbols. Systems will also enable the stringing together of these groupings in order to enable a full expression of the language. The reading step can be accomplished purely in the mind as an internal process, writing systems were preceded by proto-writing, which used pictograms, ideograms and other mnemonic symbols. Proto-writing lacked the ability to capture and express a range of thoughts. Soon after, writing provided a form of long distance communication. With the advent of publishing, it provided the medium for a form of mass communication. Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that a system is always associated with at least one spoken language. In contrast, visual representations such as drawings, paintings, and non-verbal items on maps, such as contour lines, are not language-related. Some other symbols, such as numerals and the ampersand, are not directly linked to any specific language, every human community possesses language, which many regard as an innate and defining condition of humanity. However, the development of writing systems, and the process by which they have supplanted traditional oral systems of communication, have been sporadic, uneven, once established, writing systems generally change more slowly than their spoken counterparts. Thus they often preserve features and expressions which are no current in the spoken language. One of the benefits of writing systems is that they can preserve a permanent record of information expressed in a language. In the examination of individual scripts, the study of writing systems has developed along partially independent lines, thus, the terminology employed differs somewhat from field to field
Writing systems
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Writing systems
Writing systems
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Predominant national and selected regional or minority scripts
Writing systems
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Chinese characters (漢字) are morpho-syllabic. Each one represents a syllable with a distinct meaning, but some characters may have multiple meanings or pronunciations
Writing systems
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A Specimen of typefaces and styles, by
William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728
Cyclopaedia
8.
History of writing
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The history of writing traces the development of expressing language by letters or other marks and also the study and description of these developments. One of the earliest forms of expression is cuneiform. Writing numbers for the purpose of record keeping began long before the writing of language, see History of writing ancient numbers for how the writing of numbers began. It is generally agreed that true writing of language was conceived and developed in at least two places and possibly more. Egyptian script is dissimilar from Mesopotamian cuneiform, but similarities in concepts, similar debate surrounds the Indus script of the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization in Ancient India. In addition, the script is still undeciphered and there is debate whether the script is true writing at all. An additional possibility is the undeciphered Rongorongo script of Easter Island and it is debated whether this is true writing, and if it is, whether it is another case of cultural diffusion of writing. The oldest example is from 1851,139 years after their first contact with Europeans, one explanation is that the script was inspired by Spains written annexation proclamation in 1770. Recent examples are the Cherokee syllabary, invented by Sequoyah, symbolic communication systems are distinguished from writing systems in that one must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to comprehend the text. In contrast, symbolic systems such as signs, painting, maps. Every human community possesses language, a feature regarded by many as an innate, however the development of writing systems, and their partial supplantation of traditional oral systems of communication, have been sporadic, uneven and slow. Once established, writing systems on the change more slowly than their spoken counterparts. Writing allows societies to transmit information and share knowledge, scholars make a reasonable distinction between prehistory and history of early writing, but have disagreed concerning when prehistory becomes history and when proto-writing became true writing. Writing, in its most general terms, is a method of recording information and is composed of graphemes, the emergence of writing in a given area is usually followed by several centuries of fragmentary inscriptions. Historians mark the historicity of a culture by the presence of coherent texts in the writing system. The invention of writing was not an event, but a gradual process initiated by the appearance of symbols. A conventional proto-writing to true writing system follows a series of developmental stages, Picture writing system. Transitional system, graphemes refer not only to the object or idea which it represents, phonetic system, graphemes refer to sounds or spoken symbols, and the form of the grapheme is not related to its meanings
History of writing
–
Writing systems
History of writing
–
Sumer, an ancient civilization of southern
Mesopotamia, is believed to be the place where
written language was first invented around 3200 BC
History of writing
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Middle Babylonian legal tablet from Alalah in its envelope
History of writing
–
Sequence of ten Indus signs discovered near the northern gate of the Indus site
Dholavira
9.
The Americas
–
The Americas, also collectively called America, encompass the totality of the continents of North America and South America. Together they make up most of the land in Earths western hemisphere, along with their associated islands, they cover 8% of Earths total surface area and 28. 4% of its land area. The topography is dominated by the American Cordillera, a chain of mountains that runs the length of the west coast. The flatter eastern side of the Americas is dominated by river basins, such as the Amazon, St. Lawrence River / Great Lakes basin, Mississippi. Humans first settled the Americas from Asia between 42,000 and 17,000 years ago, a second migration of Na-Dene speakers followed later from Asia. The subsequent migration of the Inuit into the neoarctic around 3500 BCE completed what is regarded as the settlement by the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The first known European settlement in the Americas was by the Norse explorer Leif Ericson, however, the colonization never became permanent and was later abandoned. The voyages of Christopher Columbus from 1492 to 1502 resulted in permanent contact with European powers, diseases introduced from Europe and Africa devastated the indigenous peoples, and the European powers colonized the Americas. Mass emigration from Europe, including numbers of indentured servants. Decolonization of the Americas began with the American Revolution in 1776, the population is over 1 billion, with over 65% of them living in one of the three most populous countries. As of the beginning of the 2010s, the most populous urban agglomerations are Mexico City, New York, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, all of them megacities. The name America was first recorded in 1507 in the Cosmographiae Introductio, apparently written by Matthias Ringmann and it first applied to both North and South America by Gerardus Mercator in 1538. Amerigen means land of Amerigo and derives from Amerigo and gen, America accorded with the feminine names of Asia, Africa, and Europa. When conceived as a continent, the form is generally the continent of America in the singular. However, without a context, singular America in English commonly refers to the United States of America. In some countries of the world, America is considered a continent encompassing the North America and South America subcontinents, the first inhabitants migrated into the Americas from Asia. Habitation sites are known in Alaska and the Yukon from at least 20,000 years ago, beyond that, the specifics of the Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are subject to ongoing research and discussion. Widespread habitation of the Americas occurred during the glacial maximum
The Americas
–
CIA political map of the Americas in
Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection
The Americas
–
The Americas
The Americas
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Parkin Site, a Mississippian site in Arkansas, circa 1539.
The Americas
–
World map of
Waldseemüller (Germany, 1507), which first used the name America (in the lower-left section, over South America)
10.
Latin alphabet
–
The classical Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is a writing system originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. During the Middle Ages the Latin alphabet was used for writing Romance languages, direct descendants of Latin, as well as Celtic, Germanic, Baltic and these Latin alphabets may discard letters, like the Rotokas alphabet, or add new letters, like the Danish and Norwegian alphabets. Letter shapes have evolved over the centuries, including the development in Medieval Latin of lower-case and it is generally believed that the Romans adopted the Cumae alphabet, a variant of the Greek alphabet, in the 7th century BC from Cumae, a Greek colony in Southern Italy. The Ancient Greek alphabet was in turn based upon the Phoenician abjad, from then on, ⟨G⟩ represented the voiced plosive /ɡ/, while ⟨C⟩ was generally reserved for the voiceless plosive /k/. The letter ⟨K⟩ was used rarely, in a small number of words such as Kalendae. After the Roman conquest of Greece in the 1st century BC, Latin adopted the Greek letters ⟨Y⟩ and ⟨Z⟩ to write Greek loanwords, an attempt by the emperor Claudius to introduce three additional letters did not last. Thus it was during the classical Latin period that the Latin alphabet contained 23 letters, ⟨Z⟩ was given its Greek name, zeta. This scheme has continued to be used by most modern European languages that have adopted the Latin alphabet, for the Latin sounds represented by the various letters see Latin spelling and pronunciation, for the names of the letters in English see English alphabet. Diacritics were not regularly used, but they did occur sometimes, the commonest being the apex used to long vowels. However, in place of taking an apex, the i was written taller. For example, what is today transcribed Lūciī a fīliī was written ⟨lv́ciꟾ·a·fꟾliꟾ⟩ in the inscription at right, the primary mark of punctuation was the interpunct, which was used as a word divider, though it fell out of use after 200 AD. A more formal style of writing was based on Roman square capitals and it was most commonly used from about the 1st century BC to the 3rd century, but it probably existed earlier than that. It led to Uncial, a script commonly used from the 3rd to 8th centuries AD by Latin. This script evolved into the medieval scripts known as Merovingian and Carolingian minuscule, prior to that, the former had been merely allographs of the latter. With the fragmentation of power, the style of writing changed and varied greatly throughout the Middle Ages. The languages that use the Latin script today generally use letters to begin paragraphs and sentences. The rules for capitalization have changed over time, and different languages have varied in their rules for capitalization. g, alle Schwestern der alten Stadt hatten die Vögel gesehen. The Latin alphabet spread, along with the Latin language, from the Italian Peninsula to the surrounding the Mediterranean Sea with the expansion of the Roman Empire
Latin alphabet
–
The
Duenos inscription, dated to the 6th century BC, shows the earliest known forms of the
Old Latin alphabet.
Latin alphabet
–
This map shows the countries in the world that use a Latin alphabet as the sole official (or de facto official) national script in dark green. The lighter green indicates the countries that use Latin as a co-official script at the national level.
Latin alphabet
–
The apices in this first-century inscription are very light. (There is one over the ó in the first line.) The vowel I is written taller rather than taking an apex. The interpuncts are comma-shaped, an elaboration of a more typical triangular shape.
Latin alphabet
–
Jeton from
Nuremberg, ca. 1553
11.
Spanish conquest of Mexico
–
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most significant events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Many of those on the Cortés expedition of 1519 had never seen combat before, in fact, Cortés had never commanded men in battle before. However, there was a generation of Spaniards who participated in expeditions in the Caribbean and Tierra Firme, learning strategy. The Spanish conquest of Mexico had antecedents with established practices, in their advance, the allies were tricked and ambushed several times by the people they encountered. When Cortés left Tenochtitlan to return to the coast and deal with the expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez, Alvarado allowed a significant Aztec feast to be celebrated in Tenochtitlan and on the pattern of the earlier massacre in Cholula, closed off the square and massacred the celebrating Aztec noblemen. The biography of Cortés by Francisco López de Gómara contains a description of the massacre, the Alvarado massacre at the Main Temple of Tenochtitlan precipitated rebellion by the population of the city. When the captured emperor Motecuhzoma II, now seen as a puppet of the invading Spaniards, attempted to calm the outraged populace. Cortés had returned to Tenochtitlan and his men fled the city during the Noche Triste in June,1520. The Spanish, Tlaxcalans and reinforcements returned a year later on August 13,1521 to a civilization that had wiped out by famine. This made it easier to conquer the remaining Aztecs, the fall of the Aztec Empire was the key event in the formation of the Spanish overseas empire, with New Spain, which later became Mexico, a major component. The Spanish conquerors could and did write accounts that narrated the conquest from the first landfalls in Mexico to the victory over the Mexica in Tenochtitlan on August 13,1521. Indigenous accounts are from particular native viewpoints and as the events had a impact on their polity. All accounts of the conquest, Spanish and indigenous alike, have biases, in general, Spanish accounts do not credit their indigenous allies support. Individual conquerors accounts exaggerate that individuals contribution to the conquest, downplaying other conquerors, indigenous allies accounts stress their loyalty to the Spanish and their particular aid as being key to the Spanish victory. Their accounts are similar to Spanish conquerors accounts contained in petitions for rewards and these were almost immediately published in Spain and later in other parts of Europe. Interestingly, Cortéss right-hand man, Pedro de Alvarado did not write at any length about his actions in the New World, two letters to Cortés about Alvarados campaigns in Guatemala are published in The Conquistadors. Rather than it being a petition for rewards for services, as many Spanish accounts were, the account was used by eighteenth-century Jesuit Francisco Javier Clavijero in his descriptions of the history of Mexico. On the indigenous side, the allies of Cortés, particularly the Tlaxcalans, wrote extensively about their services to the Spanish Crown in the conquest, the most important of these are the pictorial Lienzo de Tlaxcala and the Historia de Tlaxcala by Diego Muñoz Camargo
Spanish conquest of Mexico
–
Conquest of Mexico by
Cortés, oil on canvas.
Spanish: Conquista de México por Cortés
Spanish conquest of Mexico
–
Coat of arms of Villa Rica, Veracruz. First town council founded by Spaniards. Tile mosaic located in
Mexico City.
Spanish conquest of Mexico
–
Cortés scuttling fleet off Veracruz coast
Spanish conquest of Mexico
–
Palacio de Gobierno,
Tlaxcala city: Murals - Discussions between Tlaxcalans and Hernán Cortés.
12.
Codex Borbonicus
–
The Codex Borbonicus is an Aztec codex written by Aztec priests shortly before or after the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The codex is named after the Palais Bourbon in France and it is held at the Bibliothèque de lAssemblée Nationale in Paris. In 2004 Maarten Jansen and Gabina Aurora Pérez Jiménez proposed that it be given the indigenous name Codex Cihuacoatl, the Codex Borbonicus is a single 46. 5-foot long sheet of amatl paper. Although there were originally 40 accordion-folded pages, the first two and the last two pages are missing, like all pre-Columbian codices, it was originally entirely pictorial in nature, although some Spanish descriptions were later added. There is dispute as to whether the Codex Borbonicus is pre-Columbian, Codex Borbonicus can be divided into three sections, The first section is one of the most intricate surviving divinatory calendars. Each page represents one of the 20 trecena, in the tonalpohualli, most of the page is taken up with a painting of the ruling deity or deities, with the remainder taken up with the 13 day-signs of the trecena and 13 other glyphs and deities. With these 26 symbols, the priests were able to create horoscopes, the first 18 pages of the codex show considerably more wear than the last sections, very likely indicating that these pages were consulted more often. The second section of the documents the Mesoamerican 52-year cycle. These days are correlated with the nine Lords of the Night, the third section is focused on rituals and ceremonies, particularly those that end the 52-year cycle, when the new fire must be lit. Aztec calendar Aztec codices Codex Borgia Famsi. org, Links to each of the 36 pages of Codex Borbonicus The Guardian Aztec manuscript under the microscope
Codex Borbonicus
–
The original page 13 of the Codex Borbonicus, showing the 13th
trecena of the Aztec sacred calendar. This 13th trecena was under the auspices of the goddess
Tlazolteotl, who is shown on the upper left wearing a flayed skin, giving birth to
Cinteotl. The 13 day-signs of this trecena, starting with 1 Earthquake, 2 Flint/Knife, 3 Rain, etc., are shown on the bottom row and the right column.
13.
Trecena
–
A trecena is a 13-day period used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican calendars. The 260-day calendar was divided into 20 trecenas, trecena is derived from the Spanish chroniclers and translates to a group of thirteen in the same way that a dozen relates to the number twelve. It is associated with the Aztecs, but is called different names in the calendars of the Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, many surviving Mesoamerican codices, such as Codex Borbonicus, are divinitory calendars, based on the 260-day year, with each page representing one trecena. Aztec calendar Maya calendar Tonalpohualli Katun
Trecena
–
The original page 13 of the
Codex Borbonicus, showing the 13th trecena of the Aztec sacred calendar. This 13th trecena was under the auspices of the goddess
Tlazolteotl, who is shown on the upper left wearing a flayed skin, giving birth to
Cinteotl. The 13 day-signs of this trecena, starting with 1 Earthquake, 2 Flint/Knife, 3 Rain, etc., are shown on the bottom row and the column along the right side.
14.
Tonalpohualli
–
The tonalpohualli Nahuatl pronunciation, a Nahuatl word meaning count of days, is an Aztec version of the 260-day calendar in use in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. This calendar is neither solar nor lunar, but rather consists of 20, each trecena is ruled by a different deity. The basis of the tonalpohualli, is unknown, the other major Aztec calendar, the xiuhpohualli, is a 365-day year, based on 18 months of 20 days and five nameless days. A xiuhpohualli was designated by the name of its first tonalpohualli day, for example, Hernán Cortés met Moctezuma II on the day 8 Wind in the year 1 Reed. The xiuhpohualli and the tonalpohualli would coincide approximately every 52 years, note that the symbols are arranged counterclockwise around the calendar stone
Tonalpohualli
–
Page 11 reverse from
Codex Magliabechiano, showing four day-symbols of the tonalpohualli: (Ce = one) Flint/Knife
tecpatl, (Ome = two) Rain quiahuitl, (Yei = three) Flower
xochitl, and (Nahui = four) Caiman/Crocodile (
cipactli), with Spanish descriptions.
Tonalpohualli
–
Tonalpohualli calendar representation
Tonalpohualli
–
Flower, Rain, Flint, Earthquake
Tonalpohualli
–
Reed, Grass, Monkey, Dog
15.
Aztec
–
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to 16th centuries. The Nahuatl words aztecatl and aztecah mean people from Aztlan, a place for the Nahuatl-speaking culture of the time. Often the term Aztec refers exclusively to the Mexica people of Tenochtitlan, situated on an island in Lake Texcoco, who referred to themselves as Mēxihcah Tenochcah or Cōlhuah Mexihcah. From the 13th century, the Valley of Mexico was the heart of Aztec civilization, here the capital of the Aztec Triple Alliance, the Triple Alliance formed a tributary empire expanding its political hegemony far beyond the Valley of Mexico, conquering other city states throughout Mesoamerica. At its pinnacle, Aztec culture had rich and complex mythological and religious traditions, as well as achieving remarkable architectural and artistic accomplishments. Subsequently, the Spanish founded the new settlement of Mexico City on the site of the ruined Aztec capital, the term extends to further ethnic groups associated with the Aztec empire such as the Acolhua and Tepanec and others that were incorporated into the empire. In older usage the term was used about modern Nahuatl speaking ethnic groups. In recent usage these ethnic groups are referred to as the Nahua peoples. Linguistically the term Aztecan is still used about the branch of the Uto-Aztecan languages that includes the Nahuatl language and its closest relatives Pochutec, to the Aztecs themselves the word aztec was not an endonym for any particular ethnic group. Rather it was a term used to refer to several ethnic groups, not all of them Nahuatl speaking. In the Nahuatl language aztecatl means person from Aztlan and this usage has been the subject of debate in more recent years, but the term Aztec is still more common. For the same reason the notion of Aztec civilization is best understood as a horizon of a general Mesoamerican civilization. Particular to the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan was the Mexica patron God Huitzilopochtli, twin pyramids, the Aztec Empire was a tribute empire based in Tenochtitlan that extended its power throughout Mesoamerica in the late postclassic period. Soon Texcoco and Tlacopan became junior partners in the alliance, which was de facto led by the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, the empire extended its power by a combination of trade and military conquest. The political clout of the empire reached far south into Mesoamerica conquering cities as far south as Chiapas and Guatemala, the Nahua peoples began to migrate into Mesoamerica from northern Mexico in the 6th century. They populated central Mexico, dislocating speakers of Oto-Manguean languages as they spread their influence south. As the former nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples mixed with the civilizations of Mesoamerica, adopting religious and cultural practices. During the Postclassic period they rose to power at such sites as Tula, in the 12th century the Nahua power center was in Azcapotzalco, from where the Tepanecs dominated the valley of Mexico
Aztec
–
The Aztec Pyramid at
St. Cecilia Acatitlan, State of Mexico
Aztec
–
Aztec
wood mask
Aztec
–
Large ceramic statue of an Aztec Eagle Warrior
Aztec
–
Aztec cosmogram in the pre-Hispanic
Codex Fejérváry-Mayer —the fire god
Xiuhtecuhtli is in the center
16.
260-day Mesoamerican calendar
–
Mesoamerican calendars are the calendrical systems devised and used by the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica. Besides keeping time, Mesoamerican calendars were used in religious observances and social rituals. The existence of Mesoamerican calendars is known as early as ca.500 BCE, with the essentials already appearing fully defined and these calendars are still used today in the Guatemalan highlands, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico. Among the various systems in use, two were particularly central and widespread across Mesoamerica. Common to all recorded Mesoamerican cultures, and the most important, was the 260-day calendar, apparently the earliest Mesoamerican calendar to be developed, it was known by a variety of local terms, and its named components and the glyphs used to depict them were similarly culture-specific. However, it is clear that this calendar functioned in essentially the same way across cultures, the second of the major calendars was one representing a 365-day period approximating the tropical year, known sometimes as the vague year. Because it was an approximation, over time the seasons and the tropical year gradually wandered with respect to this calendar. There is little evidence to suggest that the ancient Mesoamericans used any intercalary days to bring their calendar back into alignment. However, there is evidence to show Mesoamericans were aware of this gradual shifting and these two 260- and 365-day calendars could also be synchronised to generate the Calendar Round, a period of 18980 days or approximately 52 years. The completion and observance of this Calendar Round sequence was of significance to a number of Mesoamerican cultures. Most commonly, five such cycles in a modified vigesimal count were used. The use of Mesoamerican calendrics is one of the traits that Paul Kirchoff used in his original formulation to define Mesoamerica as a culture area. Therefore, the use of Mesoamerican calendars is specific to Mesoamerica and is not found outside its boundaries, in the 260-day cycle 20 day names pairs with 13 day numbers, totalling a cycle of 260 days. This cycle was used for purposes to foretell lucky and unlucky days. The date of birth was used to give names to both humans and gods in many Mesoamerican cultures, some cultures used only the calendar name whereas others combined it with a given name. Each day sign was presided over by a god and many had associations with natural phenomena. The exact origin of the 260-day count is not known, one theory is that the calendar came from mathematical operations based on the numbers thirteen and twenty, which were important numbers to the Maya. The numbers multiplied together equal 260, another theory is that the 260-day period came from the length of human pregnancy
260-day Mesoamerican calendar
–
Stelae 12 and 13 from
Monte Alban, provisionally dated to 500-400 BCE, showing what is thought to be one of the earliest calendric representations in Mesoamerica.
260-day Mesoamerican calendar
–
The back of Stela C from
Tres Zapotes, an Olmec archaeological site. This is the second oldest Long Count date yet discovered. The numerals 7.16.6.16.18 translate to September 1, 32 BCE (Gregorian). The glyphs surrounding the date are what is thought to be one of the few surviving examples of
Epi-Olmec script.
260-day Mesoamerican calendar
–
Image of an ancient Mexican calendar
17.
Mayan codices
–
This sort of paper was generally known by the word āmatl in Nahuatl, and by the word huun in Mayan. The folding books are the products of professional scribes working under the patronage of such as the Tonsured Maize God. The Maya developed their huun-paper around the 5th century, which is roughly the time that the codex became predominant over the scroll in the Roman world. However, Maya paper was more durable and a writing surface than papyrus. The codices have been named for the cities where they eventually settled, the Dresden codex is generally considered the most important of the few that survive. There were many books in existence at the time of the Spanish conquest of Yucatán in the 16th century, however most were destroyed by the Conquistadors, in particular, many in Yucatán were ordered destroyed by Bishop Diego de Landa in July 1562. Such codices were the primary records of Maya civilization, together with the many inscriptions on stone monuments. However, their range of subject matter in all likelihood embraced more topics than those recorded in stone and buildings, however, not all were unaware of the books value, Fr. The last codices destroyed were those of Nojpetén, Guatemala in 1697, with their destruction, access to the history of the Maya and opportunity for insight into some key areas of Maya life was greatly diminished. There are only four codices whose authenticity is beyond doubt and these are, The Dresden Codex also known as the Codex Dresdensis, The Madrid Codex, also known as the Tro-Cortesianus Codex, The Paris Codex, also known as the Peresianus Codex. The Grolier Codex, also known as the Sáenz Codex, the Dresden Codex is held in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek, the state library in Dresden, Germany. It is the most elaborate of the codices, and also an important specimen of Maya art. Many sections are ritualistic, others are of an astrological nature, the codex is written on a long sheet of paper that is screen-folded to make a book of 39 leaves, written on both sides. It was probably written just before the Spanish conquest, somehow it made its way to Europe and was bought by the royal library of the court of Saxony in Dresden in 1739. The only exact replica, including the huun, made by a German artist is displayed at the Museo Nacional de Arqueología in Guatemala City, since October,2007. Between 1880 and 1900, Dresden librarian Ernst Förstemann succeeded in deciphering the Maya numerals, subsequent studies have decoded these astronomical almanacs, which include records of the cycles of the Sun and Moon, including eclipse tables, and all of the naked-eye planets. The Serpent Series, pp. 61–69, is an ephemeris of these phenomena that uses a base date of 1.18.1.8.0.16 in the prior era. The Codex was discovered in Spain in the 1860s, it was divided into two parts of differing sizes that were found in different locations, the Codex receives its alternate name of the Tro-Cortesianus Codex after the two parts that were separately discovered
Mayan codices
–
Page 9 of the Dresden Codex (from the 1880
Förstemann edition)
Mayan codices
–
plates 10 and 11 of the Dresden Maya Codex. Drawing by Lacambalam, 2001
Mayan codices
–
Rain-bringing snakes, Madrid Codex
18.
Aztec codices
–
Aztec codices are books written by pre-Columbian and colonial-era Aztecs. These codices provide some of the best primary sources for Aztec culture, the pre-Columbian codices mostly do not in fact use the codex form and are, or originally were, long folded sheets. They also differ from European books in that they mostly consist of images and pictograms, the colonial era codices not only contain Aztec pictograms, but also Classical Nahuatl, Spanish, and occasionally Latin. Some are entirely in Nahuatl without pictorial content, although there are very few surviving pre-conquest codices, the tlacuilo tradition endured the transition to colonial culture, scholars now have access to a body of around 500 colonial-era codices. Colonial-era Nahuatl language documentation is the texts of the New Philology. The Codex Borbonicus is a written by Aztec priests around the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Like all pre-Columbian Aztec codices, it was pictorial in nature. Codex Bornobicus is held at the Library of the National Assembly of France, the Boturini Codex was painted by an unknown Aztec author some time between 1530 and 1541, roughly a decade after the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Pictorial in nature, it tells the story of the legendary Aztec journey from Aztlán to the Valley of Mexico, rather than employing separate pages, the author used one long sheet of amatl, or fig bark, accordion-folded into 21½ pages. There is a rip in the middle of the 22nd page, unlike many other Aztec codices, the drawings are not colored, but rather merely outlined with black ink. Also known as Tira de la Peregrinación, it is named one of its first European owners. It is now held in the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City, the Codex Mendoza is a pictorial document, with Spanish annotations and commentary, composed circa 1541. It is divided into three sections, a history of each Aztec ruler and their conquests, a list of the tribute paid by each province. It is held in the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, the Florentine Codex is a set of 12 books created under the supervision of Bernardino de Sahagún between approximately 1540 and 1585. It is a copy of original materials which are now lost. Perhaps more than any source, the Florentine Codex has been the major source of Aztec life in the years before the Spanish conquest. Anderson published English translations of the Nahuatl text of the books in separate volumes. A full color, facsimile copy of the codex was published in three bound volumes in 1979
Aztec codices
–
Detail of first page from the
Boturini Codex, depicting the departure from
Aztlán.
Aztec codices
–
Codex Féjervary-Mayer (Lacambalam 2014)
Aztec codices
–
Part of the first page of
Codex Mendoza, depicting the founding of
Tenochtitlan.
Aztec codices
–
Section of page 34 (folio 496) of Codex Osuna showing the glyphs for
Texcoco,
Tenochtitlan, and
Tlacopán.
19.
Ideographic
–
An ideogram or ideograph is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases. In proto-writing, used for inventories and the like, physical objects are represented by stylized or conventionalized pictures, for example, the pictorial Dongba symbols without Geba annotation cannot represent the Naxi language, but are used as a mnemonic for reciting oral literature. Some systems also use ideograms, symbols denoting abstract concepts, the term ideogram is often used to describe symbols of writing systems such as Egyptian hieroglyphs, Sumerian cuneiform and Chinese characters. However, these symbols are logograms, representing words or morphemes of a language rather than objects or concepts. In these writing systems, a variety of strategies were employed in the design of logographic symbols, pictographic symbols depict the object referred to by the word, such as an icon of a bull denoting the Semitic word ʾālep ox. Some words denoting abstract concepts may be represented iconically, but most other words are represented using the rebus principle, many signs in hieroglyphic as well as in cuneiform writing could be used either logographically or phonetically. Semantic compounds are semantic combinations of characters, such as 明 míng bright, composed of 日 rì sun and 月 yuè moon, or 休 xiū rest, composed of 人 rén person and 木 mù tree. An example of ideograms is the collection of 50 signs developed in the 1970s by the American Institute of Graphic Arts at the request of the US Department of Transportation, the system was initially used to mark airports and gradually got more widespread. An early proposal was An Essay towards a Real Character, a recent example is the system of Blissymbols, which was proposed by Charles K. Bliss in 1949 and currently includes over 2,000 symbols, emoji Heterogram Icon Lexigram List of symbols List of writing systems Logotype Therblig Traffic sign The Ideographic Myth Extract from DeFrancis book. American Heritage Dictionary definition Merriam-Webster OnLine definition
Ideographic
–
Ideogram in the
Church of the Visitation, Jerusalem
Ideographic
–
"No Dogs!" sign in Spain. The dog illustration is a
pictogram. The red circle and bar is an ideogram representing the idea of "no" or "not allowed".
Ideographic
–
Writing systems
20.
Mayan languages
–
The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million Maya peoples, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, in 1996, Guatemala formally recognized 21 Mayan languages by name, and Mexico recognizes eight more within their territory. The Mayan language family is one of the best-documented and most studied in the Americas, modern Mayan languages descend from the Proto-Mayan language, thought to have been spoken at least 5,000 years ago, it has been partially reconstructed using the comparative method. The proto-Mayan language diversified into at least six different branches, the Huastecan, Quichean, Yucatecan, Qanjobalan, Mamean and Cholan-Tzeltalan branches, Mayan languages form part of the Mesoamerican language area, an area of linguistic convergence developed throughout millennia of interaction between the peoples of Mesoamerica. All Mayan languages display the diagnostic traits of this linguistic area. For example, all use relational nouns instead of prepositions to indicate spatial relationships, during the pre-Columbian era of Mesoamerican history, some Mayan languages were written in the logo-syllabic Maya script. Its use was widespread during the Classic period of Maya civilization. Mayan languages are the descendants of a proto-language called Proto-Mayan or, in Kiche Maya, the Proto-Mayan language is believed to have been spoken in the Cuchumatanes highlands of central Guatemala in an area corresponding roughly to where Qanjobalan is spoken today. The earliest proposal was that of Sapper which identified the Chiapas-Guatemalan highlands as the cradle of Mayan languages was published by the German antiquarian. Terrence Kaufman and John Justeson have reconstructed more than 3000 lexical items for the proto-Mayan language, Proto-Yucatecan and Proto-Cholan speakers subsequently split off from the main group and moved north into the Yucatán Peninsula. Speakers of the branch moved south into the areas now inhabited by Mamean and Quichean people. When speakers of proto-Tzeltalan later separated from the Cholan group and moved south into the Chiapas highlands, in the Archaic period, a number of loanwords from Mixe–Zoquean languages seem to have entered the proto-Mayan language. This has led to hypotheses that the early Maya were dominated by speakers of Mixe–Zoquean languages, in the case of the Xincan and Lencan languages, on the other hand, Mayan languages are more often the source than the receiver of loanwords. Mayan language specialists such as Campbell believe this suggests a period of contact between Maya and the Lencan and Xinca people, possibly during the Classic period. During the Classic period the major branches began diversifying into separate languages, the split between Proto-Yucatecan and Proto-Cholan had already occurred by the Classic period, when most extant Maya inscriptions were written. Both variants are attested in inscriptions at the Maya sites of the time. They propose that it originated in western and south-central Petén Basin, the language of the classical lowland inscriotions then would have been proto-Cholan. During the Spanish colonization of Central America, all languages were eclipsed by Spanish
Mayan languages
–
Maya civilization
Mayan languages
–
Location of Mayan speaking populations. See below for a detailed map of the different languages.
Mayan languages
–
Page 9 of the
Dresden Codex showing the classic Maya language written in
Mayan hieroglyphs (from the 1880 Förstermann edition)
Mayan languages
–
Maya glyphs in stucco at the Museo de sitio in
Palenque, Mexico
21.
Nahuatl languages
–
The Nahuan or Aztecan languages are those languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family that have undergone a sound change, known as Whorfs Law, that changed an original *t to /tɬ/ before *a. Subsequently, some Nahuan languages have changed this /tɬ/ to /l/ or back to /t/, the best known Nahuan language is Nahuatl. As of 2008, the Mexican government recognizes thirty varieties that are spoken in Mexico as languages, Nahuan languages include not just varieties known as Nahuatl, but also Pipil and the extinct Pochutec language. The distinction between the Nahuatl and Pochutec is now thought to be due to contact, see Pochutec language for details. Thus, by that criterion, they could be considered different languages, the ISO divisions referenced below respond to intelligibility more than to historical or reconstructional considerations. Like the higher-level groupings, they also are not self-evident and are subject to considerable controversy and this binary division of Aztecan was already the majority opinion among specialists, but Campbell and Langackers new arguments were received as being compelling. Furthermore, in adopt the term General Aztec, they may in fact have been the ones to introduce this designation, part of their reconstruction of the Proto-Aztecan vowels was disputed by Dakin. She shows that verbs in -oa and -ia are historically and grammatically distinct from verbs in -iya and -owa and she also explains the historical development of the applicative suffix with the shape -lia and -lwia as coming from a single suffix of the shape -liwa. Dakin has proposed a historical internal classification of Nahuan, e. g. Dakin and she asserts two groups of migrations in central Mexico and eventually southwards to Central America. Centuries later, the group of migrations produced Western dialects. But many modern dialects are the result of blending between particular Eastern dialects and particular Western dialects, Campbell in his grammar of Pipil discussed the problem of classifying Pipil. Pipil is either a descendant of Nahuatl or still to this day a variety of Nahuatl, Dakin is a book-length study of the phonological evolution of Proto-Nahuatl. Dakin suggested that irregularities in the modern Nahuatl system of possessive prefixes might be due to the presence in Proto-Nahuan of distinct grammatical marking for two types of possession. In the 1990s, two papers appeared addressing the old problem of the saltillo in Nahuatl, a lost paper by Whorf. A Center-Periphery scheme was introduced by Canger in 1978, and supported by historical data in 1980. Lastra de Suarez dialect atlas that divided dialects into center and peripheral areas based on strictly synchronic evidence, the subsequent 1988 article by Canger adduced further historical evidence for this division. Until the middle of the 20th century, scholarship on Nahuan languages was limited almost entirely to the language that existed approximately 1540–1770. Since the 1930s, there have appeared several grammars of modern dialects
Nahuatl languages
–
Map showing the areas of Mesoamerica where Nahuatl dialects are spoken today (white) and where it is known to have been spoken historically (grey)
22.
Classic Maya language
–
Classic Maya is the oldest historically attested member of the Mayan language family. It is the main language documented in the inscriptions of the Classic Era Maya civilization. It is now thought that the codices and other Classic texts were written by scribes, usually members of the Maya priesthood, there is also some evidence that the Maya script may have been occasionally used to write Mayan languages of the Guatemalan Highlands. However, if languages were written, they may have been written by Ch’olti’ scribes. The writing system has some similarities in function other logosyllabic writing systems such as the cuneiform originating in Sumer, for example, in one common pattern many verb and noun roots are given by logographs, while their grammatical affixes were written syllabically, much like the Japanese writing system. Like most other Mayan languages, Classic Maya is verb–subject–object and is an ergative–absolutive language, being polysynthetic, it uses both prefixes and suffixes to show grammatical function. Nouns are not inflected for case or gender, there is also an entire class of intransitives that convey the objects spatial position. In addition, the language employs counter words when quantifying nouns, verbs are not conjugated according to tense, but rather are semantically altered by a series of aspect particles
Classic Maya language
–
Part of an inscription at
Palenque
23.
Iconography
–
The word iconography comes from the Greek εἰκών and γράφειν. A secondary meaning is the production of images, called icons, in the Byzantine and Orthodox Christian tradition. In art history, an iconography may also mean a depiction of a subject in terms of the content of the image, such as the number of figures used, their placing. Sometimes distinctions have been made between iconology and iconography, although the definitions, and so the distinction made, varies, when referring to movies, genres are immediately recognizable through their iconography, motifs that become associated with a specific genre through repetition. Gian Pietro Bellori, a 17th-century biographer of artists of his own time, describes and analyses, not always correctly, many works. Lessings study of the classical figure Amor with a torch was an early attempt to use a study of a type of image to explain the culture it originated in. These early contributions paved the way for encyclopedias, manuals, mâles lArt religieux du XIIIe siècle en France translated into English as The Gothic Image, Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century has remained continuously in print. In the United States, to which Panofsky immigrated in 1931, students such as Frederick Hartt, the period from 1940 can be seen as one where iconography was especially prominent in art history. These are now being digitised and made online, usually on a restricted basis. For example, the Iconclass code 71H7131 is for the subject of Bathsheba with Davids letter, whereas 71 is the whole Old Testament and 71H the story of David. A number of collections of different types have been classified using Iconclass, notably types of old master print, the collections of the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. These are available, usually on-line or on DVD, the system can also be used outside pure art history, for example on sites like Flickr. Central to the iconography and hagiography of Indian religions are mudra or gestures with specific meanings, the symbolic use of colour to denote the Classical Elements or Mahabhuta and letters and bija syllables from sacred alphabetic scripts are other features. Under the influence of art developed esoteric meanings, accessible only to initiates. The art of Indian Religions esp, for example, Narasimha an incarnation of Vishnu though considered a wrathful deity but in few contexts is depicted in pacified mood. Conversely, in Hindu art, narrative scenes have become more common in recent centuries, especially in miniature paintings of the lives of Krishna. Having Veena in hands to denote necessity of resonating with what you going to learn, holding pear garland to indicate concentration is required to learn about some thing. A book on other hand to indicate one should relay on authentic source of learning, dressed in white colour cloth to indicate a learner should not having any own colour but inclusive to all colours
Iconography
–
Holbein 's
The Ambassadors is a complex work whose iconography remains the subject of debate.
Iconography
–
A painting with complex iconography:
Hans Memling 's so-called
Seven Joys of the Virgin - in fact this is a later title for a
Life of the Virgin cycle on a single panel. Altogether 25 scenes, not all involving the Virgin, are depicted. 1480,
Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
Iconography
–
A 17th century Central
Tibetan thanka of
Guhyasamaja Akshobhyavajra.
Iconography
–
The Theotokos of
Tikhvin of ca. 1300, an example of the
Hodegetria type of
Madonna and Child.
24.
Rebus principle
–
A rebus is an allusional device that uses pictures to represent words or parts of words. It was a form of heraldic expression used in the Middle Ages to denote surnames. For example, in its form, three salmon are used to denote the surname Salmon. A more sophisticated example was the rebus of Bishop Walter Lyhart of Norwich, Rebuses are used extensively as a form of heraldic expression as a hint to the name of the bearer, they are not synonymous with canting arms. A man might have a rebus as an identification device entirely separate from his armorials. An example of canting arms proper are those of the Borough of Congleton in Cheshire consisting of an eel, a lion. This word sequence conger-leo-tun enunciates the towns name, similarly, the coat of arms of St. Ignatius Loyola contains wolves and a kettle, said by some to be a rebus for Loyola. The arms of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon feature bows and lions, a modern example of the rebus used as a form of word play is, H + = Hear, or Here. By extension, it uses the positioning of words or parts of words in relation to each other to convey a hidden meaning, for example, p walk ark. A rebus made up solely of letters is known as a gramogram, grammagram, the term rebus also refers to the use of a pictogram to represent a syllabic sound. A precursor to the development of the alphabet, this process one of the most important developments of writing. Fully developed hieroglyphs read in rebus fashion were in use at Abydos in Egypt as early as 3400 BCE, the writing of correspondence in rebus form became popular in the 18th century and continued into the 19th century. Lewis Carroll wrote the children he befriended picture-puzzle rebus letters, nonsense letters, and looking-glass letters, Rebus letters served either as a sort of code or simply as a pastime. In linguistics, the principle is the use of existing symbols, such as pictograms, purely for their sounds regardless of their meaning. Many ancient writing systems used the principle to represent abstract words. An example that illustrates the Rebus principle is the representation of the sentence I can see you by using the pictographs of eye—can—sea—ewe, some linguists believe that the Chinese developed their writing system according to the rebus principle, and Egyptian hieroglyphs sometimes used a similar system. A famous rebus statue of Ramses II uses three hieroglyphs to compose his name, Horus, for Ra, the child, mes, and the plant, su. Canada 1980s childrens game show Kidstreet featured a rebus during the bonus round, united Kingdom Catchphrase was a long-running game show which required contestants to decipher a rebus
Rebus principle
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A German rebus, circa 1620.
Rebus principle
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Three rebus-style "escort cards" from the 1860s or 1870s.
Rebus principle
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Ramesses II as child: Hieroglyphs: Ra-mes-su.
Rebus principle
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A rebus for the names of Japanese provinces, from around 1800.
25.
Symbology
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A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different concepts and experiences, all communication is achieved through the use of symbols. Symbols take the form of words, sounds, gestures, ideas or visual images and are used to other ideas. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for STOP, on a map, a blue line might represent a river. Alphabetic letters may be symbols for sounds, personal names are symbols representing individuals. A red rose may symbolize love and compassion, the variable x, in a mathematical equation, may symbolize the position of a particle in space. In cartography, a collection of symbols forms a legend for a map The word derives from the Greek symbolon meaning token or watchword. It is an amalgam of syn- together + bole a throwing, a casting, the sense evolution in Greek is from throwing things together to contrasting to comparing to token used in comparisons to determine if something is genuine. The meaning something which stands for something else was first recorded in 1590, later, expanding on what he means by this definition Campbell says, a symbol, like everything else, shows a double aspect. We must distinguish, therefore between the sense and the meaning of the symbol. The term meaning can only to the first two but these, today, are in the charge of science – which is the province as we have said, not of symbols. The ineffable, the unknowable, can be only sensed. Heinrich Zimmer gives an overview of the nature, and perennial relevance. Concepts and words are symbols, just as visions, rituals, through all of these a transcendent reality is mirrored. They are so many metaphors reflecting and implying something which, though thus variously expressed, is ineffable, though thus rendered multiform, Symbols hold the mind to truth but are not themselves the truth, hence it is delusory to borrow them. Each civilisation, every age, must bring forth its own, in the book Signs and Symbols, it is stated that A symbol. Is a visual image or sign representing an idea -- a deeper indicator of a universal truth, Symbols are a means of complex communication that often can have multiple levels of meaning. This separates symbols from signs, as signs have only one meaning, human cultures use symbols to express specific ideologies and social structures and to represent aspects of their specific culture
Symbology
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The square and compasses, symbol of the Freemasons
Symbology
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A red
octagon symbolizes "stop" even without the word.
Symbology
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Topics and terminology
26.
Naranjo
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Naranjo is a Pre-Columbian Maya city in the Petén Basin region of Guatemala. It was occupied from about 500 B. C. to 950 A. D, the site is part of Yaxha-Nakum-Naranjo National Park. The city lies along the Mopan and Holmul rivers, and is about 50 km east of the site of Tikal, Naranjo has been the victim of severe looting. The site is known for its polychrome ceramic style Naranjo in Spanish means Orange Tree, the emblem glyph of the Naranjo is transliterated as Saaal “the place where gruel abounds. ”The Naranjo dynastic rulers are said to be the Holy Lords of Saaal. The area of Naranjo covers at least 8 km² with the center covering about 2.25 km². There are currently 389 recorded buildings in the area and over 900 around the center. The epicenter consists of six triadic complexes, two ballcourts, two compounds, and one E-group. C-9 is the largest triadic complex in the city, Structure C-9 is the complexes main pyramid, and the Largest at the site. Because it occupies the top of a hill with a cave located inside. A hieroglyphic stairway, that is believed to have taken from Caracol, was added to structure B-18 sometime in the seventh century AD. The site was first mapped and photographed by Teoberto Maler in 1905, in 1908 Maler excavated the hieroglyphic stairway from structure B-18, parts of which are now housed in the British Museum in London. In the 1910s, further investigations of the site were made by Sylvanus G. Morley, investigations of the site of Xunantunich suggests that it was part of Naranjos realm. By the 1920s, many of the ancient sculptures had already disappeared, the problem worsened in the 1960s, when many of the sites large sculptures were smashed into fragments by looters in order to sneak them out of the country. In 1972-1973,19 stela were taken from Naranjo by the Department of Prehispanic Monuments of the IDAEH to be protected from looters, from 1997 to 2001 the site was controlled by looters. From 2002 to 2004, a project was undertaken to evaluate the extent of the looting which found about 270 tunnels, archaeologist Vilma Fialko has been instrumental in this project. A conservation project by the Ministry of Culture and Sport began in 2002, in 2006 Naranjo was added to the World Monuments Watch. In 2013, a building from about 600 AD was found at nearby Holmul with a giant stucco frieze showing a central ruler, the frieze is very well preserved. Below it runs an inscription from which it appears that the construction was commissioned by Aj Wosal of Naranjo
Naranjo
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Inscription relating to the reign of king Itzamnaaj K'awil, 784-810.
Naranjo
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Belize
27.
Naj Tunich
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Naj Tunich is a natural cave and an important archaeological site in Guatemala. The discovery of the Naj Tunich caves, in Poptún southern Peten, Guatemala, the investigation of the site throughout the 1980s and the attempt to understand its obvious importance was the catalyst that led to the formation of the field of Maya cave archaeology. Naj Tunich has dozens of texts and figures, as well as some handprints. Naj Tunich is the Maya term for cave and literally means house, because caves were conceived of as places where the gods lived. But among caves, Naj Tunich must always have been something extraordinary, during the Late Pre-Classic and Classic Maya era, Naj Tunich was an important pilgrimage center on at least a regional scale. Initially, the corpus of inscriptions and paintings located deep within the tunnel system received the greatest attention. In carrying out the survey of the cave, Dr. Andrea Stone and Dr. James Brady, undertook the task of recording each. In 1988, geologist George Veni found a previously unknown passage that dramatically increased the size of the cave, ph. D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles. Brady, James E. y Sandra Villagrán de Brady,1991 -La arqueología de la cueva Naj Tunich, en II Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala,1988, pp. 179–186. Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología, Guatemala, Andrea Stone—Regional Variation in Maya Cave Art. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 59, 33-42, science News 1998 Vol 154 No.4 Maya Caves, Description and Gallery
Naj Tunich
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Maya civilization
Naj Tunich
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Part of a Naj Tunich wall drawing of a man in rare 3/4 profile performing ritual genital bloodletting.
Naj Tunich
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Belize
28.
Yaxchilan
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Yaxchilan is an ancient Maya city located on the bank of the Usumacinta River in what is now the state of Chiapas, Mexico. In the Late Classic Period Yaxchilan was one of the most powerful Maya states along the course of the Usumacinta, architectural styles in subordinate sites in the Usumacinta region demonstrate clear differences that mark a clear boundary between the two kingdoms. Yaxchilan was a center, important throughout the Classic era. It dominated such smaller sites as Bonampak, and had a rivalry with Piedras Negras and at least for a time with Tikal, it was a rival of Palenque. The site is known for its well-preserved sculptured stone lintels set above the doorways of the main structures. These lintels, together with the stelae erected before the major buildings, epigraphers think that the ancient name for the city was probably the same as that of its realm, Pa Chan. Pronounced, meaning Cleft Sky. pronounced, Teoberto Maler gave it its modern name, for some time, the Emblem Gylph was read as Siyaj Chan, or Sky Born. Yaxchilan is located on the bank of the Usumacinta River. This loop defends the site on all sides except for a land approach from the south. The site is 40 kilometres upriver from the ruins of Piedras Negras, Yaxchilan is 21 kilometres from the ruins of Bonampak. The site lies in Ocosingo Municipality in the state of Chiapas, on the Mexican side of the border with Guatemala. It is 80 kilometres downriver from the Maya site Altar de Sacrificios, Yaxchilan has its origins in the Preclassic Period. Some retrospective inscriptions appear to have used to rewrite Yaxchilans dynastic history to suit king Bird Jaguar IV. Before the rule of king Itzamnaaj Balam II, who reigned from 681 to 742, the city-state then grew to a regional capital and the dynasty lasted into the early 9th century. The known history of Yaxchilan starts with the enthronement of Yopaat Balam I and he was the founder of a long dynasty, and took the throne when Yaxchilan was still a minor site. Hieroglyphic inscriptions dating to the Late Classic describe a series of wars in the Early Classic between the city and its neighbours, the long running rivalry with Piedras Negras had already begun by the fifth century AD, with both cities struggling to dominate the Usumacinta trade route. King Moon Skull was credited with gaining a victory over Piedras Negras in 460 and with capturing the enemy king, by the middle of the 5th century Yaxchilan had formal contacts with the great city of Tikal. Bird Jaguar II, the king of Yaxchilan, captured a vassal of the king of Piedras Negras around 478
Yaxchilan
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Structure 33 at Yaxchilan
Yaxchilan
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West Acropolis of Yaxchilan
Yaxchilan
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Maya civilization
Yaxchilan
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View of the Main Plaza at Yaxchilan
29.
Tikal
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Tikal is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. Ambrosio Tut, a gum-sapper, reported the ruins to La Gaceta, a Guatemalan newspaper, after the Berlin Academy of Sciences magazine republished the report in 1853, archeologists and treasure hunters began visiting the forest. Today, tourism to the site may protect the rainforest. It is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization and it is located in the archaeological region of the Petén Basin in what is now northern Guatemala. Situated in the department of El Petén, the site is part of Guatemalas Tikal National Park, Tikal was the capital of a conquest state that became one of the most powerful kingdoms of the ancient Maya. Though monumental architecture at the dates back as far as the 4th century BC, Tikal reached its apogee during the Classic Period. There is evidence that Tikal was conquered by Teotihuacan in the 4th century AD, following the end of the Late Classic Period, no new major monuments were built at Tikal and there is evidence that elite palaces were burned. These events were coupled with a population decline, culminating with the site’s abandonment by the end of the 10th century. The name Tikal may be derived from ti akal in the Yucatec Maya language, the name was apparently applied to one of the sites ancient reservoirs by hunters and travelers in the region. It has alternatively been interpreted as meaning the place of the voices in the Itza Maya language, Tikal, however, is not the ancient name for the site but rather the name adopted shortly after its discovery in the 1840s. Hieroglyphic inscriptions at the ruins refer to the ancient city as Yax Mutal or Yax Mutul, the kingdom as a whole was simply called Mutul, which is the reading of the hair bundle emblem glyph seen in the accompanying photo. The closest large modern settlements are Flores and Santa Elena, approximately 64 kilometres by road to the southwest, Tikal is approximately 303 kilometres north of Guatemala City. It is 19 kilometres south of the contemporary Maya city of Uaxactun and 30 kilometres northwest of Yaxha, the city was located 100 kilometres southeast of its great Classic Period rival, Calakmul, and 85 kilometres northwest of Calakmuls ally Caracol, now in Belize. The city has been mapped and covered an area greater than 16 square kilometres that included about 3,000 structures. The topography of the consists of a series of parallel limestone ridges rising above swampy lowlands. The major architecture of the site is clustered upon areas of higher ground, the area around Tikal has been declared as the Tikal National Park and the preserved area covers 570 square kilometres. The ruins lie among the tropical rainforests of northern Guatemala that formed the cradle of lowland Maya civilization, the city itself was located among abundant fertile upland soils, and may have dominated a natural east–west trade route across the Yucatan Peninsula. Conspicuous trees at the Tikal park include gigantic kapok the sacred tree of the Maya, tropical cedar, jaguars, jaguarundis, and cougars are also said to roam in the park
Tikal
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Tikal Temple I rises 47 metres (154 ft) high.
Tikal
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Emblem glyph for Tikal (Mutal)
Tikal
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Maya civilization
Tikal
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The great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the
Valley of Mexico appears to have decisively intervened in Tikal politics.
30.
Palenque
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Palenque, also anciently known as Lakamha, was a Maya city state in southern Mexico that flourished in the 7th century. The Palenque ruins date from ca.226 BC to ca and it is located near the Usumacinta River in the Mexican state of Chiapas, about 130 km south of Ciudad del Carmen,150 m above sea level. It averages a humid 26 °C with roughly 2160 mm of rain a year, the most famous ruler of Palenque was Kinich Janaab Pakal, or Pacal the Great, whose tomb has been found and excavated in the Temple of the Inscriptions. By 2005, the area covered up to 2.5 km². Mythological beings used a variety of glyphs in their titles indeed suggests a complex early history. For instance, Kuk Bahlam, the founder of the Palenque dynasty, is called a Toktan Ajaw in the text of the Temple of the Foliated Cross. The famous structures that we know today probably represent an effort in response to the attacks by the city of Calakmul. He is best known through his funerary monument, dubbed the Temple of Inscriptions after the text preserved in the temples superstructure. At the time Alberto Ruz Lhuillier excavated Pakals tomb it was the richest and best preserved of any scientifically excavated burial then known from the ancient Americas. It held this position until the discovery of the rich Moche burials at Sipan, Peru, the extensive iconography and textual corpus has also allowed for study of Classic period Maya mythology and ritual practice. After him, a king came to power, nicknamed Casper by archaeologists, the next two kings were probably Caspers sons. Little was known about the first of these, Butz Aj Sak Chiik, until 1994, the first tablet mentioned his successor Ahkal Mo Naab I as a teenage prince, and therefore it is believed that there was a family relation between them. For unknown reasons, Akhal Mo Naab I had great prestige, when Ahkal Mo Naab I died in 524, there was an interregnum of four years, before the following king was crowned en Toktán in 529. Kan Joy Chitam I governed for 36 years and his sons Ahkal Mo Naab II and Kan Balam I were the first kings who used the title Kinich, which means the great sun. This word was used also by later kings, Balam was succeeded in 583 by Yohl Iknal, who was supposedly his daughter. The inscriptions found in Palenque document a battle that occurred under her government in which troops from Calakmul invaded and sacked Palenque and these events took place in 599. A second victory by Calakmul occurred some years later, in 611, under the government of Aj Ne Yohl Mat. In this occasion, the king of Calakmul entered Palenque in person, consolidating a significant military disaster, Aj Ne Yohl Mat was to die in 612
Palenque
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Collage of Palenque.
Palenque
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Palenque
Palenque
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Stone carving of
Pacal the Great, one of the main figures responsible for the city's art and architecture.
Palenque
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A
bas-relief in the Palenque museum that depicts Upakal K'inich, the son of
K'inich Ahkal Mo' Naab III.
