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 T H E I R WAY OF W R I T I NG
Scripts, Signs, and Pictographies in Pre-Columbian America
Dumba rton Oaks Pr e- C olumbia n Symposia a nd Colloqu ia

Series Editor
Joanne Pillsbury

Editorial Board
Elizabeth Hill Boone
Tom Cummins
Gary Urton
David Webster
 T H EI R WAY OF W R I T I NG
Scripts, Signs, and Pictographies
in Pre-Columbian America

ELIZABETH HILL BOONE and GARY URTON

Editors

DUMBARTON OAKS R ESEARCH LIBR ARY AND COLLECTION

WASHINGTON, D.C.
 2011 Dumbarton Oaks
Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, D.C.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America

15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Their way of writing : scripts, signs, and pictographies in Pre-Columbian

America / Elizabeth Hill Boone and Gary Urton, editors.
p. cm.(Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian symposia and colloquia)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-88402-368-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Indians of MexicoLanguagesWriting. 2. Indians of Central AmericaLanguagesWriting.
3. Indians of South AmericaPeruLanguagesWriting. 4. Picture writingMexico.
5. Picture writingCentral America. 6. Picture writingPeru.
7. Mayan languagesWriting. 8. Nahuatl languageWriting.
9. Quechua languageWriting.
I. Boone, Elizabeth Hill. II. Urton, Gary. III. Dumbarton Oaks.
f1435.3.w75t74 2011
497dc22
010050788

General Editor: Joanne Pillsbury

Art Director: Kathleen Sparkes
Text Design and Composition: Melissa Tandysh
Jacket Design: Kathleen Sparkes
Managing Editor: Sara Taylor

Volume based on papers presented at the Pre-Columbian Studies symposium Scripts, Signs, and Notational
Systems in Pre-Columbian America, organized with Elizabeth Hill Boone and Gary Urton and held at
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C., on October 1112, 2008.

Cover illustrations: Inka khipukamayuq, drawing 137 of Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, Nueva cornica y
buen gobierno, 1615, photograph courtesy of The Royal Library, Copenhagen. Mixtec scribe, detail, folio 48v
of the Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus.

www.doaks.org/publications
These books were written in symbols and pictures. This is their way of writing,
supplying their lack of an alphabet by the use of symbols.
f r i a r mo t ol i n i a, 15 4 1,
History of the Indians of New Spain

Before the Spaniards came the Indians of Peru had no knowledge of writing at
all..., but this did not prevent them from preserving the memory of ancient times,
nor did they fail to keep a reckoning for all their affairs whether of peace, war,
or government....[T]hey compensated in part for the lack of writing and let-
ters...principally, with quipus....What they achieved in this way is incredible,
for whatever books can tell of histories and laws and ceremonies and accounts of
business all is supplied by the quipus so accurately that the result is astonishing.
jo s de ac o sta, 159 0,
Natural and Moral History of the Indies
 con t en t s

for e wor d | ix
Joanne Pillsbury

1 i n t roduc t ion
Their Way of Writing: Scripts, Signs, and Pictographies
in Pre-Columbian America | 1
Gary Urton

2 The Cold War and the Maya Decipherment | 9

Michael D. Coe

3 All Things Must Change: Maya Writing over Time and Space | 21
Stephen D. Houston

4 The Flowering Glyphs: Animation in Cotzumalhuapa Writing | 43

Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos

5 Teotihuacan and the Development of Writing in Early Classic Central Mexico | 77

Karl Taube

6 The Written Surface as a Cultural Code: A Comparative Perspective

of Scribal Traditions from Southwestern Mesoamerica | 111
Javier Urcid

7 Elaboration and Abbreviation in Mexican Pictorial Manuscripts:

Their Use in Literary Themes | 149
Michel R. Oudijk

8 Writing, Images, and Time-Space in Aztec Monuments and Books | 175

Federico Navarrete

9 Ruptures and Unions: Graphic Complexity and Hybridity

in Sixteenth-Century Mexico | 197
Elizabeth Hill Boone

10 Moche as Visual Notation: Semasiographic Elements

in Moche Ceramic Imagery | 227
Margaret A. Jackson

v ii
 11 Chuquibamba Textiles and Their Interacting Systems of Notation:
The Case of Multiple Exact Calendars | 251
R. Tom Zuidema

12 Tocapu: What Is It, What Does It Do, and Why Is It Not a Knot? | 277
Thomas B. F. Cummins

13 Khipu Typologies | 319

Gary Urton and Carrie J. Brezine

14 Khipu from Colony to Republic: The Rapaz Patrimony | 353

Frank Salomon, Carrie J. Brezine, Reymundo Chapa, and Vctor Falcn Huayta

15 The Cultural Category of Scripts, Signs, and Pictographies | 379

Elizabeth Hill Boone

c on t r i bu t or s | 391
i n de x | 397

v i i i c on t e n ts
 fore word
T he first authors to write about the systems of
recording information used by the Aztec and
Inka, the dominant empires in the Americas in
the early sixteenth century, stressed the complex-
ity and efficacy of the scripts, signs, and notational
systems used to register dynastic histories, tax and
tribute lists, and other matters crucial to the opera-
tion of any large and complex state. The types of
systems used to record information in the ancient
Americas varied dramatically, from the glyphic
writing in Mesoamerica to the knotted cord
records, or khipus, that facilitated the expansion of
the Inka empire in South America. As Elizabeth
Boone and Gary Urton have noted, these early
modern authors distinguished such systems from
writing as they knew it, preferring, like Motolinia,
to use the phrase their way of writing or, as was
often the case in the Andes, simply accounts. Yet
there was no doubt in the minds of these sixteenth-
century authors that such systems were extremely
effective in conveying information.
The European fascination with Pre-Columbian
systems of recording information continued or
even increased in later centuries. The eighteenth-
century Neapolitan intellectual Raimondo di
Sangro, principe of Sansevero, was obsessed with
khipus and felt that they could replace European
writing systems, as he considered them a richer and
more efficient form of communication. Sansevero
saw them as the future, not just the past. Indeed, he
said he would spread the word about this great sys-
tem himself, were it not for all of his friends in the
printing business who would be put out of work.
The study of ancient American writing and
other systems of recording information did not
wane in the nineteenth century. Mesoamerican
systems, in particular, were the focus of many
studies. We should remember, however, how little
was known about ancient American writing at this
time. The U.S. writer John Lloyd Stephens, travel-
ing in the 1840s, described the spectacular monu-
ments at the Maya site of Copan. He recognized
that hieroglyphs had the potential to reveal rich
histories, but that they remained unintelligible and
functionally mute. By the late nineteenth century,
however, essential features of Maya writing, par-
ticularly numeration, had been worked out, setting
the stage for the spectacular decipherments of the
twentieth century.
With over a century of serious, sustained re
search on Pre-Columbian systems of recording
information, it is perhaps a good time to consider
our current state of knowledge. The present vol-
ume is based on papers presented at the sympo-
sium Scripts, Signs, and Notational Systems in
Pre-Columbian America, held at Dumbarton
Oaks on October 1112, 2008. Organized with
Elizabeth Boone and Gary Urton, this conference
was a particularly celebratory one, as it marked the
return of the annual Pre-Columbian symposium
ix
 to Washington, D.C., after four years of being
held off-site while renovations were completed on
the Main House at Dumbarton Oaks. Two papers
presented at this symposium, by David Stuart and
Alfonso Lacadena, were not available for publi-
cation in the present volume. Dumbarton Oaks
remains indebted to Elizabeth and Gary for their
vision in the scholarly organization of the sympo-
sium and for their expertise and tireless efforts in
editing the resulting volume. Their own work on
the subject of recording information in the ancient
Americas has set a high standard, and we are for-
tunate to have their consideration of the broader
framework for the study of writing and other nota-
tional systems.
I am grateful to Jan Ziolkowski, director of
Dumbarton Oaks; William Fash, of the Adminis
trative Committee of Dumbarton Oaks; and the
senior fellows in Pre-Columbian Studies for their
counsel and support in the organization of the
symposium and the creation of the present vol-
ume. The staff at Dumbarton Oaks was unfailingly
accommodating, from the symposium planning
stages to the preparation of this publication. No one
was more helpful than Emily Gulick, the program
assistant in Pre-Columbian Studies, whose creativ-
ity and hard work were behind every stage of this
project. Bridget Gazzo, Pre-Columbian librarian;
x f oreword
Miriam Doutriaux, exhibition associate; and Juan
Antonio Murro, assistant curator, organized two
stimulating exhibitions on the history of decipher-
ment designed to coincide with the symposium.
The present volume was prepared by the pub
lications department of Dumbarton Oaks, under
the directorship of Kathleen Sparkes. I am grateful
to Sara Taylor, art and archaeology editor, for her
thoughtful work on editorial and production mat-
ters. Outside of Dumbarton Oaks, I would like to
thank the two anonymous reviewers for their help-
ful advice.
The success of any scholarly gathering and
publication depends upon the free exchange of data
and ideas and the rigorous analyses and discussion
surrounding their presentation. I would like to
close by thanking the authors in this volume for
their willingness to share their research. We are
indebted, as well, to the many distinguished schol-
ars who attended the symposium; their good ques-
tions and comments contributed to the stimulating
discussion at the symposium itself and to the ongo-
ing dialogue about the nature of recording infor-
mation in the ancient Americas.
Joanne Pillsbury
Director of Studies, Pre-Columbian Program
Dumbarton Oaks

T he site of el bal earned a celebrated
place in Mesoamerican archaeology thanks
to the discovery, in the early 1920s, of a large stela
with a hieroglyphic inscription (Figure 4.1). Walter
Lehmanns (2000 [1926]) reading of the monu-
ments Long Count date as 7.19.7.8.12 (ad 29 in the
Goodman-Martnez-Thompson [GMT] correla-
tion of the Maya and Christian calendars) spurred a
major controversy at the time, eventually stimulat-
ing the eminent Maya epigrapher Eric Thompson
to undertake excavations at the site in 1942, partly
in order to refute the monuments early dating
(Graham 2008; Rodrguez Beteta 1929). While he
was unable to arrive at a secure conclusion on the
dating of the stela, Thompson did show that the
sites major occupation belonged to the Late Classic
period, and his work also included the first serious
scrutiny of Cotzumalhuapa writing.
Little has been added in the ensuing decades to
the study of Cotzumalhuapa writing. We now know,
however, that the impressive acropolis of El Bal
was the largest architectural compoundperhaps
4
The Flowering Glyphs
Animation in Cotzumalhuapa Writing
oswaldo chinchilla mazariegos
the royal palaceof an extensive city that also
included the monumental compounds at Bilbao
and El Castillo (Figure 4.2). A system of causeways
and bridges integrated these compounds with
each other and with the extensive surrounding
settlements. The citys major florescence and the
majority of its sculptures date to the Late Classic
period (ad 650950) (Chinchilla Mazariegos 1996;
Chinchilla Mazariegos et al. 2009).
Since Thompsons time, intensive agriculture,
modern urban development, and, to a lesser extent,
archaeological research have added numerous
examples to the corpus of Cotzumalhuapa inscrip-
tions. El Bal Monument 59 (Figure 4.3) was uncov-
ered sometime in the early 1990s and removed
from the site by unknown hands soon after. Juan
Antonio Sillers (Rivera and Siller 1995:85) photo-
graph is the only available documentation of a very
interesting example of the Cotzumalhuapa script.
The monument shows three notations, each con-
sisting of a series of ring-shaped numerals associ-
ated with a nonnumerical sign that is also inscribed
43
 figure 4.1
El Bal Monument 1.
(Drawing by the author.)
inside a ring. The shape of the stone bears heavily
on the inscriptions arrangement. No reading order
is evident, and the two head signs are oriented in
opposite directionsperhaps focusing atten-
tion on the central notation. These combinations
of signs and numerals apparently transmit self-
contained messages, since they are not associated
with images. Based on the evidence of other scripts
throughout Mesoamerica, we may presume that
they contain dates or calendrical names. Clearly,
4 4 c h i nc h i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
a considerable amount of ancillary information is
necessary to read these notations, which may be
classified as writing only in a broad sense of the
term (cf. Boone 2004).
Especially relevant for this essay is the vine
that grows from the central glyph, curling above
and blooming with beautiful flowers. Vines are fre-
quently featured in Cotzumalhuapa art, either as
speech scrolls or as prodigious plants. Indeed, the
glyph seems to play the role of a seed that sprouts
figure 4.2
Map of Cotzumalhuapa. The
dotted line corresponds to the
estimated extent of the Late
San Juan Perdido
Classic city, while the shaded areas colonial ruins
indicate the modern urban areas.

CausSachs
ve

eway
Ri
(Drawing by the author.)

al
b

ew on
ist

Seler
Cr

us ps
ay
Thompson

Ca om
Bridge

Th
t of
obsidian workshop
en it
em lim North Group
ttl d
se io
n er

ay
ba c-p

ew
C a isen
ur ssi

us
p a la
ua te C

E
alh a

ball court
m dL
tzu ate
Costim

El Bal er
e

Riv
iago
t
San

El Bal Bridge

El Convento
colonial ruins bridge
El Castillo

Caaveral

ay
s ew
C au
dt
en
ay

r
Be
sew
Cau

y
wa
bel

e
us
Ha

Ca
tet
re
v ar
a
G

N
Goln
Bilbao
0 500 m

The Flowering Glyphs 45

 figure 4.3
El Bal Monument 59.
(Drawing by the author.)
fresh vegetation. If nothing else, the flowering vine
marks this glyph as distinct from the others and
perhaps adds significance beyond the bare indica-
tion of a date or a personal name.
These observations highlight some of the que-
ries posed by the study of Cotzumalhuapa writing,
which remains one of the least-examined systems
in ancient Mesoamerica. In this chapter, I present
a brief description of the system, its sign inven-
tory, and its possible calendrical meanings; I also
address two major problems: (1) the relationship
of Cotzumalhuapa writing to other scripts, which
may have an important bearing on the history of
Mesoamerican writing; and (2) the extraordinary
degree of animation noticeable in some inscrip-
tions, where the signs may acquire full figures and
become active participants in narrative scenes.
Writing on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala
Through the centuries, the Pacific coast of Guate
mala has been a melting pot of peoples and lan-
guages. While the linguistic history of the area
remains poorly understood, there are archaeolog-
4 6 c h i nc h i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
ical indications of significant shifts that may cor-
relate with the influx of migrants during the Early
Classic and Postclassic periods. Documentary
sources narrate highland Maya and Aztec conquests
in the area in the last century before the Spanish
conquest (Chinchilla Mazariegos 1998). Such
dynamic demographic patterns may account for
the diversity of writing systems that were employed
by coastal peoples. Since the Preclassic period, at
least three different systems existed on the Pacific
coast: (1) the Preclassic system, exemplified on El
Bal Monument 1; (2) Teotihuacan writing, intro-
duced to the coast in the Early Classic period; and
(3) the Late Classic Cotzumalhuapa system.
Late Preclassic Writing
In addition to the stela at El Bal, Preclassic writ-
ing is in evidence at the coastal piedmont site of
Takalik Abaj (Figure 4.4). Stratigraphy and radio-
carbon dating of the recently uncovered Altar 48,
to between 400 and 200 bc, may place the develop-
ment of writing on the coast on a par with preco-
cious developments of writing in the Maya Lowlands
and elsewhere in Mesoamerica (Chinchilla Maza
riegos 1999; Coe 1976; Houston 2004; Marcus 1976;
 V. Sta. Mara
Lake Atitlan
Naranjo
Suchiate

V. San Pedro
Takalik Abaj Kaminaljuyu
V. Toliman Santa Rosa
V. Atitlan El Portal
V. Acatenango
Palo Gordo Lake Amatitlan
pa
Tila Palo Verde
V. Fuego Lake Ayarza
V. Pacaya
Finca San Cristbal Cotzumalhuapa
Aguna
Samal

Ajaxa
Los Cerritos Norte
te

eja

Cdiz-Ulapa V. Tecuamburro
ala

Vi

Lo
hu

dre

Ro Seco

sE
a
Na

Acom
N

Lind
Ma

scla
e
lat

vos
ra
Montana/Los Chatos
yo

Ma
Co

La Mquina

z
Pa
0 50 km
Pacific Ocean La Nueva

figure 4.4
Map of the Pacific coast of Guatemala showing sites mentioned in the text. The underlined names indicate sites with
inscriptions in the Cotzumalhuapa system. (Drawing by the author.)

Saturno et al. 2006; Schieber de Lavarreda and
Orrego Corzo 2009). Early inscriptions at Takalik
Abaj display linear formats, with signs placed in
more or less discreet cartouches that often contain
only one head sign but may also include sign clus-
ters. A trend toward a more standardized format of
glyph blocks and smaller cartouche sizes is evident
on Stela 5, whose Initial Series dates correspond to
ad 103 and 126, according to the GMT correlation.
The nonnumerical signs are badly preserved, but
they clearly contain sign clusters that suggest com-
plex word formation patterns.
At Cotzumalhuapa, El Bal Monument 1 re
mains the only example of Preclassic writing,
alt hough the supernatural head on the basal panel
of Bilbao Monument 42 may be interpreted as a
place-name (cf. Stuart and Houston 1994). Besides
its Long Count date, El Bal Monument 1 had a
long inscription carved in a linear, double-column
format on clearly demarcated panels. Poor preser-
vation makes it difficult to comment on the script,
although there is some indication of sign cluster-
ing. While the glyphic cartouches remain visible,
the details of noncalendrical signs were carved in a
very shallow relief that has been completely lost to
erosion and exfoliation.
The inscriptions at Takalik Abaj and Cotzum
alhuapa reveal the early development of scribal
communities across the coast, extending into the
highland site of Kaminaljuyu and all the way down
to Izapa in coastal Chiapas and Chalchuapa in El
Salvador. We still do not understand the cessation
of writing, at least on stone monuments, by the
end of the Preclassic period. This change happened
across the entire region, although there is little sub-
stantial evidence on its causes and on the specific
processes that were involved at each site.
Teotihuacan Writing
Karl Taube (2000; this volume) has shown that the
complex clusters of symbols first noted on Early
Classic Escuintla pottery by Nicholas Hellmuth

The Flowering Glyphs 47

 (1975) are examples of the Teotihuacan writing sys-
tem. He suggests that some notations may contain
the personal names of individuals and possibly top-
onyms (Taube 2000:1921). Teotihuacan glyphs are
found on mold-made pottery and other portable
objects. Almost without exception, these objects
are unprovenanced, although they reportedly orig-
inated from sites on the coastal plain of Escuintla
(see Figure 4.4; Berlo 1984; Hellmuth 1975; Shook
1965). Frederick Bove and Sonia Medranos (2003)
research suggests an intrusion of migrants who
carried Teotihuacan cultural traits and established
a major center at Montana, a large site located near
the modern town of La Gomera. While impor-
tant, this intrusion was geographically localized.
It barely reached the piedmont region, where
Cotzumalhuapa is located, and it did not extend to
the western coast, where Takalik Abaj remained a
substantial center throughout the Classic period.
Extensive research has yielded no examples of the
Teotihuacan script at Cotzumalhuapa or Takalik
Abaj, the known locations of Preclassic scribal
communities on the coast.
A description of Teotihuacan writing falls
beyond the scope of this essay. Some of Taubes
observations are relevant for comparison with the
Cotzumalhuapa system, however. Teotihuacan
glyphs are not bound by cartouches or other stan-
dardized shapes, with the exception of the probable
calendrical signs in round cartouches accompa-
nied by bar-and-dot coefficients that appear below
the probable day names (Caso 1966; Taube 2000).
Noncalendrical signs are usually grouped in clus-
ters that sometimes acquire a large and elaborate
emblematic shape but often are relatively con-
densed and simplified. In exceptional cases, texts
are arranged in linear format. While the system
is undeciphered, Taube highlighted the similarity
of Teotihuacan sign clusters to Zapotec and Aztec
writing. Alfonso Lacadenas (2008) recent explana-
tion of Aztec writing as a logosyllabic system raises
the question of whether the Teotihuacan system
was also logosyllabic.
Taube (2000:48) suggests that Teotihuacan
writing was probably the forebear of the Late
Classic and Postclassic systems of central Mexico,
4 8 c h i nc h i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
including the Xochicalco, Cacaxtla, and Aztec
scripts. For the purposes of this essay, the rel-
evant question is whether it was also ancestral to
Cotzumalhuapa writing. As shown in the follow-
ing sections, the answer to this question is prob-
ably no. The circular shape of probable calendrical
signs is a shared feature, but the signs themselves
differ noticeably from the possible Teotihuacan
day signs reported by Alfonso Caso (1966), James
Langley (1986), and Karl Taube (2000). Most
importantly, sign clusters are entirely absent from
Cotzumalhuapa sculptures, suggesting a radically
different approach to graphic communication. This
is not to deny the strong impact of Teotihuacan on
the Pacific coast. Cotzumalhuapa art incorporated
many elements that were first introduced to the
area by the Early Classic Teotihuacan migrants, but
it also departed from the Teotihuacan tradition in
significant ways that include writing.
Cotzumalhuapa Writing
The rise of Cotzumalhuapa coincided with the
demise of Montana around ad 650; the two events
may have been related (Chinchilla Mazariegos et al.
2009). While Cotzumalhuapa inherited cultural
elements from the earlier Teotihuacan-influenced
peoples of the coastal plain, its style and iconogra-
phy cannot be explained as a derivation from high-
land Mexican or Gulf Coast models, as interpreted
by earlier observers (Jimnez Moreno 1959; Parsons
1969:164170; Thompson 1948:2528). Far from imi-
tating Teotihuacan models, the Cotzumalhuapa
artists and their patrons may have consciously
reacted against the Teotihuacan presence at Mon
tana, tracing their roots back to Preclassic fore-
bears. Likewise, the citys script is more remarkable
for its innovations than for its adoption of elements
from the previously described writing traditions.
The Cotzumalhuapa people revitalized the
ancient tradition of monumental sculpture that was
largely abandoned at the Teotihuacan-influenced
Early Classic centers of the coastal plain. Bil
bao, the center of Preclassic activity in the area,
was aggrandized and bestowed with monuments
whose iconography suggests an ancestor cult. The
famous stelae 29 from the Bilbao Monument
Plaza replicate the Preclassic iconographic tradi- itself, which has forty-four inscribed monuments.
tion of representing gods or ancestors emerging Many come from the large compounds of El Bal
from supernatural openings on the monuments and Bilbao, but peripheral locations also boasted
upper registers, perhaps inspired by the example major monuments. Judging from their shape, the
of the Preclassic stela at El Bal (Hatch 1987:474). carved pillars from Goln (Figure 4.5) stood at
The serpent headdresses worn by the paramount the doorway of a large compound that remains
characters on the Late Classic stelae from Bilbao
may also relate to the serpent headdress of the main
character of El Bal Monument 1 (see Figure 4.1).
These traits suggest that the iconography of Late
Classic Cotzumalhuapa art has long roots on the
coast, but that it also incorporated Teotihuacan
elements that were introduced to the area during
the Early Classic period.
The Late Classic Cotzumalhuapans were aware
of the practice of writing by Preclassic peoples,
but they were most likely unable to understand
Preclassic inscriptions such as the text of El Bal
Monument 1. Yet they reset this stela at the major
royal and administrative center of the Late Classic
city, the El Bal acropolis. Moreover, they proba-
bly knew the Teotihuacan script, at least in a broad
fashion. But instead of following this model, they
developed a new system, abandoning the complex
sign clusters that characterize Teotihuacan and later
Aztec writing and relying exclusively on calendri-
cal notations. In this respect, the Cotzumalhuapa
script innovated in ways that foreshadowed the later
development of writing elsewhere in Mesoamerica.

The Cotzumalhuapa Inscriptions

Distribution
The corpus of Cotzumalhuapa writing consists of
no less than sixty-one sculpted monuments with
inscriptions, plus a small number of portable
objects. The inventory is small, but it compares
favorably with the number of known inscriptions
at roughly contemporaneous sites such as Cacaxtla,
El Tajin, Teotenango, and Xochicalco. Inscribed
monuments are a fraction of the known corpus
of sculptures in the Cotzumalhuapa style; in fact,
some of the largest carvings at Cotzumalhuapa
feature no glyphic notations. Two-thirds of the figure 4.5
monuments belong to the city of Cotzumalhuapa Goln Monuments 2 and 3. (Drawings by the author.)

The Flowering Glyphs 49

 unidentified. They were found in a peripheral loca-
tion in the southeastern part of the city. While
no standing architecture is visible, the causeway
that connected Goln with El Castillo highlights
the importance of this sector in the citys urban
landscape (see Figure 4.2; Chinchilla Mazariegos
et al. 2008).
Eight monuments with inscriptions come
from the second- and third-level sites of Palo
Verde, Aguna, Finca San Cristbal, and Ajaxa,
which are located within a ten kilometer range
of Cotzumalhuapa (Chinchilla Mazariegos et al.
2006). Further examples are scattered at other
sites within fifty kilometers of Cotzumalhuapa
(see Figure 4.4). A small but important concentra-
tion of four inscriptions comes from Palo Gordo
(Chinchilla Mazariegos 2002; Termer 1973). There
are two inscribed stelae at Los Cerritos Norte and
a carved boulder at Cdiz, near the modern city
of Escuintla. Further examples come from the site
of Santa Rosa and an unreported location in the
Antigua Guatemala Valley (Chinchilla Mazariegos
1996; Girard 1972; Parsons 1969; Robinson n.d.).
The sculptural style was spread over a much wider
area, but no inscriptions are known from sites on
the southeastern coast and highlands of Guatemala,
such as La Nueva, which has an important concen-
tration of Cotzumalhuapa-style sculptures. figure 4.6
Portable sculpture showing seated character with
General Features Star glyph (14). (Photograph by the author.)

Glyphs were carved on a variety of media, includ-

ing rocks, stelae, altars, wall panels, steps, pillars,
and pavement stones. Isolated glyphs are some-
times found on ceramic figurines, hachas, and
small stone carvings (Figure 4.6). Few lapidary
objects have been documented at Cotzumalhuapa,
but there is a glyphic notation on a jade plaque
in the Cotzumalhuapa style recovered from the
Chichen Itza cenote (Proskouriakoff 1974:191
192). Curiously enough, the Star glyph (appendix,
no. 14) is the only sign of the script to appear on
portable objects. This sign is also frequent on major
Cotzumalhuapa monuments (Cossich Vielman
and Chinchilla Mazariegos 2006).
Signs are usually inscribed in round car-
touches that may or may not have a raised border.
But there are many examples of exempt signs that
sometimes grow to disproportionate size. There
seems to be no rule regarding sign orientation
the same sign may appear oriented to the viewers
left or right. Moreover, head signs appear either
in frontal or profile view, sometimes on the same
carving. In such cases, there is no clue to deter-
mine whether they are part of a single notation
and whether the two signs are variants of each
other. In general, such variation appears to result
from the artists fancy, and choices may depend
on artistic composition rather than on any
fixed rule.

50 c h i nch i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
Numerals
A single example of a bar-and-dot numeral appears
on El Castillo Monument 1 (Figure 4.7). While
unique, it may relate to the Teotihuacan prac-
tice of writing bar-and-dot numerals underneath
day signs in an inverted fashionwith the dots
below the bars (Caso 1966; Taube 2000). This con-
trasts with coastal Preclassic monuments, where
numerals appear above day signs. Elsewhere at
Cotzumalhuapa, numerals appear as series of
plain circles or rings that function as coefficients
to nonnumerical signs. The longest documented
series reaches twelve units on El Bal Monument 56
(Figure 4.8), suggesting that numerical series may
correspond to trecena coefficients.
A peculiar feature of Cotzumalhuapa nota-
tions is the repetition of identical signs forming
series that may reach up to nine identical signs.
Presumably, repeating series stand for combina-
tions of day signs and numerals, such as 9 Monkey
on the right side of El Castillo Monument 1 (see
Figure 4.7). As Thompson (1948:32) pointed out,
figure 4.7
El Castillo
Monument 1, Side A.
(Drawing by the
author.)
The Flowering Glyphs 51

figure 4.8
El Bal Monument 56.
(Drawing by the author.)
this appears to contradict a basic principle of
Mesoamerican calendars: the independence of the
trecenas and the veintenas. Yet the same format
was employed in sixteenth-century documents
from central Mexico and Oaxaca. In the Matrcula
de Huexotzinco, Alfonso Lacadena (personal com-
munication 2008) notes calendrical names, such
as Omacatl (2 Reed) and Nauacatl (4 Reed), that
were written with repeated signs instead of com-
bining a single Reed sign with the corresponding
numerals. Likewise, on the map of the Relacin de
Macuilxochtil, the towns name (5 Flower) is writ-
ten with five flower symbols. Lacadena suggests
that this was a widespread, albeit uncommon,
practice in Mesoamerican scripts.
52 c h i nch i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
Identification of Signs
Thompson (1948) first offered an inventory of
Cotzumalhuapa signs, which has grown consider-
ably with new discoveries. My current list contains
thirty-two different signs, including numerals. In
the following discussion, the signs will be identified
by numerals corresponding to the list in the appen-
dix. The inventory is far from complete, since newly
found monuments often add previously undocu-
mented glyphic signs. Many signs are known from
isolated examples, and preservation problems make
it difficult to assess variants. For this sign list, I
decided to distinguish possible variants with sep-
arate numbers instead of lumping them together.
For example, signs 17 and 18 are probable vari-
ants of a Death sign. The first clearly portrays the
Cotzumalhuapa Death God, while the second is
simply a skull with no distinguishing features.
The graphic shape of some signs still eludes
identification, although much can be gained by
comparing them with iconographic depictions
in the art of Cotzumalhuapa and elsewhere. For
instance, a sign that represents a cross-armed
character (9) corresponds well with a widespread
sculptural genre at Cotzumalhuapa. Characterized
by their simplicity and general lack of adornment,
these sculptures show seated human characters or
human torsos with the arms crossed over the chest
(Parsons 1969:figs. 46ab, 47a). Comparison with
multiple representations in Mesoamerican art sug-
gests that they may represent mummy bundles.
While plausible, this interpretation provides no
key for their identification as day names.
Although the following paragraphs outline
broad issues related to the calendrical identification
of Cotzumalhuapa glyphs, a detailed discussion of
any single issue falls beyond the scope of this chap-
ter. A number of Cotzumalhuapa signs correspond
figure 4.9
The Skull Bird sign (11): a) detail from Bilbao
Monument 10 (reprinted from Habel 1878); and
b) sherd of Tiquisate ware in the collection of the
Museo Popol Vuh, note the birds beak in front
of the skulls mouth (photograph by the author).

closely with day names in Mesoamerican calen-

dars. These include Monkey (6), Deer (16), Death
(17 or 18), Vulture (20), Rabbit (25), Rain (13, rep-
resented by Tlalocs head), and possibly Serpent
(26), Reed (30), Movement (4), and Crocodile (22).
Problematic signs include Iguana (10), which is
clearly identified as such by the crests above and
below the animals head. A correspondence with
Lizard, the fourth day of highland Mexican calen-
dars, seems possible, but there is no known day list
that specifically identifies this day name as Iguana.
Other signs, such as Crab (19), are undocumented
elsewhere in Mesoamerican calendars.
The identification of day signs is further com-
plicated by the absence of a documented calen-
dar from the Pacific coastal region. There is no
record of a calendar from the Nahua-speaking
Pipil who inhabited Escuintla in colonial times. In
the sixteenth century, they shared the Cotzumal
huapa region with the Kaqchikel, whose presence
resulted from the Late Postclassic expansion of the
highland kingdom centered at Tecpan Guatemala
and Tecpan Atitlan (Chinchilla Mazariegos 1998).
While there is no assurance that the Kaqchikel
were present on the coast during the Classic period,
their calendar offers the closest available point
of comparison for the Cotzumalhuapa glyphs.
The colonial Kaqchikel calendar is known from
chronological records included in the Memorial de The problems of calendrical correlation are
Solol and from a calendar compiled in 1685, which also exemplified by the peculiar sign 11, known
included both Kaqchikel and Nahua day names only from Simeon Habels 1863 drawing of the now-
(Crespo 1957; Recinos 1950). Some day names appear lost Bilbao Monument 10 (Figure 4.9a). Thompson
to parallel signs in the Cotzumalhuapa script; for saw it as a probable eagle, failing to recognize that
instance, the seventeenth day, Noh, glossed as The it shows a human skull with a birds beak protrud-
Temple, may correspond with a Cotzumalhuapa ing from the nasal cavity. The full-bodied bird was
glyph that depicts a stepped platform (12). Yet such molded on a Tiquisate bowl, a type of pottery that
correspondences remain highly tentative. was widely used at Cotzumalhuapa (Figure 4.9b).

The Flowering Glyphs 53

 figure 4.10
Skull Bird with human body,
carrying a severed human head,
detail of Bilbao Monument 1.
(Drawing by the author.)
The same mythological character appears with a
human body on Bilbao Monument 1 (Figure 4.10;
Gmez 2005). The bird with a human skull recalls
some representations of owls in the Postclassic
codices of highland Mexico (Seler 1996:253), and
therefore, it may correspond with the sixteenth day
of the Kaqchikel calendar, listed as Tecolotl in the
Nahua list and Ahmac in the Kaqchikel list. The
Spanish gloss is El Buho (Crespo 1957). This inter-
pretation, however, opens the question of whether
this glyph is a variant of the Vulture sign (20), also
present in the script.
Sign Combinations
Signs do not cluster together in Cotzumalhuapa
writing. The absence of sign clusters marks a
major break with earlier coastal scribal traditions.
For the first time, there are no complex combina-
tions of signs such as those of the Preclassic and
Teotihuacan scripts. There is a unique exception on
Bilbao Monument 13, where the Stepped Platform
sign (12) is combined with crossed bars (Figure
5 4 c h i nch i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
4.11). This combination may be distinct from the
Stepped Platform glyph that appears by itself on
the closely related Monument 14 (Figure 4.12). Yet
the crossed bars do not appear elsewhere in the cor-
pus, casting doubt on whether this is an indepen-
dent sign or just a graphic variant of the Stepped
Platform glyph.
Combinations of different signs are extremely
rare. In fact, most sculptures carry only one nota-
tion, formed by a repeated sign or a combination
of a sign and a numeral. A single monument may
show two or more notations, but they tend to be
spatially separated from each other, and they sel-
dom include sequences of different signs. Of par-
ticular note is El Bal Monument 6, a rock carving
with a lone example of a linear text formed by five
different signs and no associated imagery (Figure
4.13). Robert Burkitt (1933) and Eric Thompson
(1948:32) offered interpretations that remain largely
untestable, especially because the series includes
very odd signs, three of which are absent from the
rest of the corpus.
 figure 4.11
Bilbao Monument 13.
(Drawing by the author.)

figure 4.12
Bilbao Monument 14.
(Drawing by the author.)

figure 4.13
El Bal Monument 6.
(Drawing by the author.)

Even more difficult to assess are the multiple

notations on the large stela known as El Castillo
Monument 1 (see Figure 4.7). I am tempted to
arrange them in a continuous series, although the
ordering principle remains unclear: 2 Crab, 3 Bun
dle, 4 and 5 (missing), 6 Star, 7 Bundle, 8 (missing),
9 Monkey. Perhaps the most revealing feature is the
budding vine that crowns the 9 Monkey series
the same kind of scroll used to depict the climbing
characters flowery utterance. As I will argue, the
series appears to be an extension of the characters
chant, growing to encircle the entire scene.

The Flowering Glyphs 55

 Oversized Signs
In some cases, the associated numerals provide the
only clue to identify glyphs that grow to occupy the
entire surface of large monuments. A case in point
is the full-bodied deer that occupies one whole
side of Ajaxa Monument 1, a boulder measuring
1.85 1.20 m (Chinchilla Mazariegos 1996:416420).
The numeral 9, partly carved on the deers back,
betrays its nature as an oversized notation that may
be paraphrased as 9 Deer.
Archaeological evidence shows that important
stations along the Cotzumalhuapa causeways were
marked with oversized 4 Death notations carved
on large pavement stones or steps (Figure 4.14;
Chinchilla Mazariegos et al. 2008). Archaeologically
documented examples that were part of cause-
ways include La Gloria Monument 1, El Castillo
Monument 16, and El Bal Monuments 67 and 68.
In addition, three unprovenanced monuments
share the same designan oversized visage of the
Cotzumalhuapa Death Godand probably served
the same function. Four of these carvings have an
associated numeral 4 carved below the Death God
face or, in the case of El Bal Monuments 67 and 68,
on a separate block that was found together with the
Death God carving. The numerals suggest that all

a b c

d e

figure 4.14
Pavement slabs and steps with Death God face and 4 Death collocations: a) El Bal
Monument 18, a carved step with the number four on riser; b) Bilbao Monument 29;
c) El Bal Monument 34; d) El Bal Monuments 67 and 68, found together on the
Seler-Sachs Causeway; and e) La Gloria Monument 1, found on the Habel Causeway.
(Drawings by the author.)

56 c h i nc h i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
of these carvings should be understood as oversized
glyphic notations. The reasons for their placement
as pavement stones on the causeways remain elusive.
Name Tags
Glyphic notations are often associated with human
characters, perhaps indicating their calendrical
names. For example, the notations 4 Deer and
8 Monkey on Bilbao Monument 18 (Figure 4.15)
likely convey the names of the main protagonists.
By contrast, a parallel scene on the obverse of
El Castillo Monument 1 includes no glyphic identi-
fication of the characters.
The Star glyph (14) is the most frequent sign
in the Cotzumalhuapa script, appearing not only
in glyphic notations, but also in headdresses and
other iconographic contexts, as well as on ceramic
and stone artifacts (see Figure 4.6). Eduard Seler
(1904:312) first identified this sign as a stellar eye
based on a comparison with the stars represented on
the murals of Mitla and on the codices of highland
Mexico. His interpretation is supported by exam-
ples that feature an eyelid on Goln Monuments 4
and 5 (Cossich Vielman and Chinchilla Mazariegos
2006). Most intriguing are the 6 Star collocations
that appear on no less than nine examples in the
figure 4.15
Bilbao Monument 18.
(Drawing by the author.)
The Flowering Glyphs 57
 Cotzumalhuapa corpus. Their frequent associa-
tion with the gargantuan maw of a reptilian mon-
ster suggests that this collocation may convey the
name of this mythical beast.
The parallel scenes on El Castillo Monument 1
(see Figure 4.7) and Vista Linda Monument 1 show
the monsters distinctive dentition, with alternat-
ing fangs and molars serving as a ladder for the
climbing characters. Elsewhere, I propose that
their goal is to reach a paradisiacal place of abun-
dance, full of prodigious vegetation associated with
flowers, fruits, and valuable objects such as jewels,
headdresses, and cacao pods. This is the Cotzu
malhuapa version of the Mesoamerican Flower
Worlds, the mythical places of abundance and
brilliance in Mesoamerican religions that are often
associated with the sun and the souls of ancestors
(Chinchilla Mazariegos 2008; cf. Hill 1992; Lpez
Austin 1994; Taube 2004). The monsters gigan-
tic maw is the entrance to this marvelous place,
and the 6 Star collocations behind the climb-
ing characters probably name the maw itself. The
strongest evidence appears on two pairs of pillars
(Monuments 33 and 84ac) that framed doorways
at the Bilbao acropolis, forming architectural ver-
sions of this gaping maw (Figure 4.16). Each pil-
lar shows the characteristic dentition, combined
with series of Star glyphs that are joined together
by the monsters bifid tongue. The doorway formed
by Monuments 33 and 84c has a 6 Star colloca-
tion on each pillar, while the other pair, formed
by Monuments 84a and b, shows three Star signs

figure 4.16
Bilbao Monuments 84a and 84b, pillars from a doorway that stood at the Bilbao
Monument Plaza, front and side views. Note the grooves on top of both pillars,
which were designed to hold a lintel. (Drawings by the author.)

5 8 c h i nc h i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
on each pillar, together forming the 6 Star colloca-
tion. Thus, the 6 Star collocation appears to mark
the monster and, more specifically, its gaping maw.
The 6 Star collocation also appears in the basal
panel of El Bal Monument 27. Here, the six glyphs
acquire the shape of seated characters with crossed
arms who carry the Star glyph as a headdress. This
configuration may represent a conflation with the
crossed arms sign (9) or perhaps an animated
form of the Star sign. Its position at the base of
the composition suggests that it may function as
a place-name (cf. Stuart and Houston 1994). Yet
another indication comes from the collocations
appearance on the upper register of Palo Verde
Monument 1, which hints of a celestial location. To
summarize, the 6 Star collocations frequent asso-
ciation with the maw of the reptilian monster sug-
gests that it might convey the name of this being or
perhaps the name of the paradisiacal place that is
entered through the monsters gigantic maw.
Flowering Glyphs, Singing Glyphs
As employed in this chapter, the term anima-
tion refers to the scribal practice of investing the
signs of a writing system with the attributes of liv-
ing creatures without necessarily changing their
reading. Animated signs are well known elsewhere
in Mesoamerica. In Maya writing, many signs are
shaped as the heads of gods or animals that some-
times acquire full bodies without changing their
reading. In such cases, the arrangement of full-
figure glyphs within the constraints of glyphic
cartouches was a testing ground for scribal fancy
and creativeness. Instead of simply clustering with
each other, as hieroglyphs normally do, full-figure
glyphs often interact by holding each other, car-
rying each other, and sometimes fighting each
other. Symbolic forms may also become animated,
acquiring human or animal faces and bodies. In
Maya writing, however, animated signs normally
stay within the bounds of glyphic cartouches; they
are easily distinguished from nonglyphic imagery.
By contrast, animated signs in Cotzumalhuapa
sculptures escape the bounds of glyphic cartouches
and sometimes become the actors of complex nar-
rative scenes.
Animated signs in the roughly contempo-
rary script of Xochicalco are especially close to the
Cotzumalhuapa examples. A glyphic collocation
from the feathered serpent pyramid shows a day
sign that has acquired arms and hands, with which
it pulls the rope that ties a neighboring sign (Figure
4.17). Seler (1991:77) interpreted the gestures as indi-
cating the measurement of time periods. This form
figure 4.17
Animated glyph from the Temple of
the Feathered Serpent at Xochicalco.
(Drawing by the author, after Seler 1991).
The Flowering Glyphs 59
 of animation seems especially close to the 3 Death
notation on Palo Gordo Monument 10 (Figure 4.18).
The central glyph is provided with a pair of oversized
hands that extend to hold his companions on either
side. While their shape is humanlike, these hands
most probably belong to the Death God, whose skel-
etal body normally includes fleshed hands and feet.
The inscription thus became a compressed portrait
of the Death God holding two portraits of himself.
At Cotzumalhuapa, hieroglyphic signs often ac-
quire the qualities of living creatures, such as plants,
animals, or humans. Moreover, glyphs are strongly
associated with the lush vegetation that symbolizes
flowery speech or songcategories that were largely
undistinguishable in ancient Mesoamerica (cf. King
1994; Monaghan 1994).
An unprovenanced relief, reportedly from the
Antigua Guatemala Valley (Figure 4.19), has two
animated glyphic notations: 4 Deer and perhaps
8 Coyote. Their size and dynamism make them
more than just notations. Both animals are impor-
tant elements in the composition, as they appear to
interact with the seated character who gestures in
front of a burning plate. Their awkward position

figure 4.18
Palo Gordo Monument 10.
(Drawing by the author.)

figure 4.19
Relief carving of unknown
provenance, reportedly from
the Antigua Guatemala Valley.
(Drawing by the author.)

6 0 c h i nch i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
suggests that they may be sacrificial victims, per-
haps likened to the human-faced fruit that burns
in the plate. In Cotzumalhuapa art, such fruits
stand for sacrificial victims. Moreover, both ani-
mals are linked with flowers, recalling the plant
symbolism that is often found in association with
Cotzumalhuapa glyphic notations. The animated
glyphs are at once participants in a sacrificial fire
ritual and notations that conceivably convey per-
sonal names or dates related to the event.
Another form of animation involves the repre-
sentation of glyphs as fruits, flowers, or seeds. In this
guise, glyphs are closely associated with the ubiq-
uitous vines that often function as speech scrolls.
Examples include a series of glyphs hanging like
fruits from a flowering plant on Bilbao Monument 11.
On El Bal Monument 30 (Figure 4.20), glyphic
annotations are placed along the vines that repre-
sent the characters utterances, like fruits or flowers
growing from them. As noted, the glyphic collo-
cations on El Castillo Monument 1 (see Figure 4.7)
appear to substitute almost entirely for the flower-
ing vines/speech scrolls that are commonly used to
represent speech or chant. The association of glyphs
with speech scrolls is familiar in other Mesoameri
can scripts, notably at Teotihuacan, where glyphic
collocations may allude to the content of the speak-
ers utterances. But this was taken a step further at
figure 4.20
El Bal Monument 30. (Drawing by the author.)
Cotzumalhuapa, where the glyphs themselves may
perform speech.
In lowland Maya art, Stephen Houston and
Karl Taube (2000) distinguish different types of
utterances, marked with variously shaped speech
scrolls. At least two types of utterances can be iden-
tified in Cotzumalhuapa art. The most common is
flowery speech (see Figures 4.204.21), which is
marked by abundant flowers and precious objects
that sprout from speech scrolls like fruits or flow-
ers. The second is fiery speech, which is marked
by undulating flamelike elements, such as the one
that grows from the mouth of a deer on Bilbao
Monument 14 (see Figure 4.12). On its compan-
ion, Bilbao Monument 13, the flame denoting fiery
speech hangs at the end of a series of ring-shaped
numerals that form the Death Gods utterance (see
Figure 4.11). Another example appears on El Bal
Monument 4 (Figure 4.22), where fiery speech is
clearly associated with human sacrifice.
The flames denoting fiery speech may be ori-
ented downward. Their identification with fire,
however, is suggested by comparison with the
flames on the burning plate featured in the Antigua
relief (see Figure 4.19). The contrasting, and perhaps
complementary, nature of both types of speech
becomes evident in the Goln pillars (see Figure
4.5). Both pillars have parallel glyphic annotations,
The Flowering Glyphs 61
 figure 4.21
Bilbao Monument 20. Note the
flowery speech scrolls coming out
of the mouths of both characters.
(Drawing by the author.)
consisting of two signs (26) that possibly represent
serpent heads. But there are different elements com-
ing out of the glyphs mouths on each pillar. The
flames that fill Goln Monument 3 contrast with
the flowery scrolls that appear in the midst of dense
spiraling bands on Goln Monument 2, perhaps
standing for water. These notations may comple-
ment each other in the manner of antithetical cou-
plets, a literary device that has been documented in
Mesoamerican indigenous texts (e.g., Christenson
2003:50). The contrasting water and fire utterances
62 c h i nch i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
figure 4.22
Detail of El Bal Monument 4,
showing a skeletal character with
a fiery speech scroll. Note the
bleeding heart in his hand.
(Drawing by the author.)
are reminiscent of the atl tlachinolli, water, burned
field, couplet used by the Aztec as a metaphor for
warfare. Moreover, both the flames and the flowery
scrolls come out of the mouths of the glyphic signs,
suggesting that these are their utterances.
Further examples of speaking or singing glyphs
appear in other sculptures. Palo Gordo Monument
25 (Figure 4.23) has some of the most remarkable
examples of animation in the Cotzumalhuapa
script. One unique feature is the animation of
numerical coefficients. Instead of the usual series

figure 4.23
Palo Gordo Monument 25. (Drawing by the author.)
of rings, the numerals on this carving are entwined
serpents, whose coils form the notations ten and
one. The first serves as a coefficient for a snarl-
ing beast, a full-figure glyph that probably names
the character to the observers left. The number one
serves as coefficient and seat for a full-figure glyph
shaped as a small mammal that takes an active role
in the scene. This animated glyph presents objects
perhaps gifts or tributeto the larger character. At
the same time, it probably names the short stand-
ing woman with a huge serpent emerging from her
back. Elsewhere, I have interpreted the composition
as representing a marital alliance because it employs
a pan-Mesoamerican convention for marriagea
man and a woman standing or sitting in front of
each other. If so, the glyphs action may be inter-
preted as the presentation of dowry (Chinchilla
Mazariegos 2002).
The glyphs performance on this stela also
includes verbal art, denoted by the scrolls that come
out of their mouths. Moreover, the fruit-laden plant
that grows from the serpent numeral 1 may also be
regarded as the numerals utterance. Considering
the usual interplay between plants and speech
scrolls in Cotzumalhuapa art, this tree may be
considered as like-in-kind with the scrolls that
come out of the animated glyphs mouths on the
same monument. By comparison, Monument 24
from the same site (Figure 4.24) shows an elabo-
rate vine growing from a ring-shaped numeral
placed in front of the mouth of a seated character.
Oddly enough, this numeral does not function as
a coefficient for another glyph. In both cases, the
numerals take the role of seeds that germinate lush
vegetation, which is largely associated with flowery
speech or song in Cotzumalhuapa art.
The contrast between the stiffness of the stand-
ing characters and the animation of their probable
name tags is noticeable on Monument 25 (see Figure
4.23). Indeed, the glyphs are the most active partici-
pants in this remarkable scene. The next step was
taken on Monument 1 from Finca San Cristbal, a
minor site in the vicinity of Cotzumalhuapa (Figure
4.25). As on the Goln pillars (see Figure 4.5), the
sculptor at Finca San Cristbal did away with the
characters, leaving only the glyphs. In a very per-
functory way, the annotations may be paraphrased
as 7 Rabbit and 3 Death, with the Death Gods
coefficient threaded by a flowering vine. There are
no associated characters, and the glyphs are the
sole actors in the monument. They engage in ver-
bal performance, and their utterances are depicted
as tightly entwined vines that split apart at the top
and bloom with beautiful flowers and sprouts. As
in the other sculptures we have discussed, these
calendrical annotations seem to substitute for the
portraits of two individuals thus named.
The Flowering Glyphs 63
 figure 4.24
Palo Gordo Monument 24.
(Drawing by the author.)

Several monuments at Cotzumalhuapa show

face-to-face characters engaged in flowery speech
or chant (see Figures 4.204.21). The nature of
their chanting becomes explicit on the grandest
example, the magnificent rock carving known as
Bilbao Monument 21 (Figure 4.26), on which the
main characters face each other as they utter flow-
ering speech scrolls. Most noticeable is the central
characters song, which flows out from his mouth
and from the mouth of a skull on his chest. Both
scrolls grow to enormous size, encircling the entire
scene, and both are ripe, not just with flowers, but
also with human-faced fruits and objects, such as
knives, ear spools, and other jewels. Elsewhere, figure 4.25
I propose that this characters chant evokes the Finca San Cristbal Monument 1.
Cotzumalhuapa version of the Mesoamerican (Drawing by the author.)

64 c h i nc h i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
 figure 4.26
Bilbao Monument 21.
(Drawing by the author.)
Flower World (Chinchilla Mazariegos 2008; cf.
Hill 1992; Taube 2004). As he sings, the central
character dances to the music played by a third
participant, an uncanny-looking character who
beats a kettledrum with a human femur while
manipulating a puppet with his right hand. While
dancing, the main character wields a large knife
to harvest the human-faced fruits that grow from
his own speech scrollsa harvest that stands for
human sacrifice by decapitation. Briefly stated, this
is a sacrificial dance that may evoke the ultimate
destiny of warriors and sacrificial victims as a flow-
ery paradise, which is materialized by the main
characters chant.
Did the Finca San Cristbal sculpture (see Fig
ure 4.25) evoke similar images? Can we conclude
that it is a reduced version of a similar scene, with
the two chanters represented by their calendrical
names? Indeed, to the eye of the knowledgeable
reader, the animation of the 7 Rabbit and 3 Death
collocations was probably meant to evoke a com-
plex series of ritual events, mythical passages, and
supernatural places. We may also return to our
initial example, El Bal Monument 59 (see Figure
4.3). Is this another variation on the same theme,
the essential act of singing, enacted by a character
who was named by the central collocation? Did this
rather plain carving refer to and condense a com-
plex series of ritual events, mythical passages, and
supernatural places?
The answers to these questions will necessarily
remain in the realm of speculation. Nevertheless,
The Flowering Glyphs 65
 these comparisons highlight the fact that the Cot
zumalhuapa scribes and artists experimented with
various ways of encoding complex information,
sometimes relying entirely on iconographic con-
ventions and other times giving primary place to
glyphic annotations. Glyphs were occasionally
endowed with such a degree of animation that
they become active participants in iconographic
compositions. The information that the animated
glyphs convey is encoded as much in their actions
as in their intrinsic meanings, and the reader must
have had a considerable amount of background
information to decode such messages.
Cotzumalhuapa Writing in Ancient
Mesoamerica
The preceding description of the Cotzumalhuapa
script highlights some of its most salient features:
(1) A small number of signs that largely function
in combination with numerals, suggesting a
calendrical system that may include dates, per-
sonal names, and perhaps place-names.
(2) A nearly complete absence of sign clustering
or glyphic combinationsfeatures that are
associated with logosyllabic collocations in the
Maya and Aztec scripts.
(3) An extraordinary degree of animation that
sometimes turns notations into active partici-
pants in elaborate scenes.
These features set Cotzumalhuapa writing
apart from earlier writing traditions that were
used on the Pacific coast, including Preclassic and
Teotihuacan writing, and give the overall impres-
sion that Cotzumalhuapa scribes and artists devel-
oped a system of their own, rather than adapting
the Teotihuacan system. From the latter, Cotzu
malhuapa may have inherited features such as the
shape of calendrical signs, but not much else. In par-
ticular, the absence of sign clustering suggests that
the Cotzumalhuapa script relied largely on nonver-
bal ways of presenting graphic information. In some
respects, the closest correspondences are found in
6 6 c h i nc h i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
the Postclassic Mixtec codices that employ calendri-
cal annotations to identify dates and individuals and
use pictorial resources to convey much of the associ-
ated information, with only limited use of linguistic
resources (Jansen 2001).
According to Houston (2004:277278; Houston
et al. 2003:457), the spread of Teotihuacan influence
during the Early Classic period introduced a tra-
dition of open writing systems across much of
Mesoamerica. Such systems are less committed to
linguistic transparency and, therefore, are more
likely to depend on logographic signs and picto-
rial conventions. Indeed, our limited knowledge
indicates that the Teotihuacan script used glyphic
notations mainly as captions for iconographic
depictions that conveyed information in nonver-
bal ways. The Teotihuacan script contrasted mark-
edly with closed traditions, such as Isthmian
and lowland Maya writing, in which the trans-
mission of information relied almost exclusively
on verbal resources. Yet Teotihuacan writing still
shows complex patterns of sign clustering, perhaps
similar to the logosyllabic script used by the Aztec
(Lacadena 2008).
The trend toward open systems continued in
the Late Classic period. The Cotzumalhuapa system
was significantly more open than Teotihuacan nota-
tions on Early Classic ceramics from the coast. It also
seems to be more open than other Late Classic sys-
tems, such as Xochicalco and Cacaxtla, that appear
to have stronger roots in the Teotihuacan script.
The Cotzumalhuapa scribes largely abandoned
the use of verbal codes, relying entirely on picto-
rial conventions to convey complex messages. Their
limited use of the script to convey calendrical and
name information represented a major step beyond
Teotihuacan writing in the movement toward the
open, nonverbal writing tradition that characterized
the history of writing in much of Mesoamerica. This
usage was certainly an innovation in Late Classic
Mesoamerica and a step toward the open systems
that came to dominate much of the region in the
Postclassic period. More than a passive receiver of
outside influence, Cotzumalhuapa may have been a
source of innovation that left a mark on later devel-
opments in Pacific Guatemala and elsewhere.

Acknowledgments
My research at Cotzumalhuapa has been possible
thanks to the support of the Museo Popol Vuh,
Universidad Francisco Marroqun. Elizabeth Boone
and Gary Urtons invitation to participate in the
Dumbarton Oaks symposium provided the push I
needed to complete this long-overdue essay. Joanne
Pillsbury and Emily Gulicks hospitality and orga-
nizational skills made the symposium a rewarding
and congenial experience. I appreciate the stimulat-
ing comments of all symposium participants, espe-
cially Stephen Houston, Alfonso Lacadena, David
Stuart, Karl Taube, and Javier Urcid.

a p p e n d i x : l is t o f co t z um a l h ua pa g ly p h s

Note: The third column provides convenient designations are not offered as decipherments,
designations for signs based on a compari- though some find correspondences in Meso
son with Cotzumalhuapa iconography. These american calendars.

prov isiona l
n u m be r e x a m pl e s de signat ion

1 Ring Numeral

Plain Circle
2
Numeral

Bar-and-Dot
3
Numeral

4 Movement

The Flowering Glyphs 67

 Appendix (continued)

prov isiona l
n u m be r e x a m pl e s de signat ion

Unidentified
(El Bal
5
Monument 6,
second sign)

6 Monkey

Decapitated
7
Animal Head

Unidentified
8 (El Bal Monument
6, fifth sign)

9 Mummy Bundle

10 Iguana

Bird with
11
Human Skull

6 8 c h i nch i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
 prov isiona l
n u m be r e x a m pl e s de signat ion

12 Stepped Platform

13 Rain (Tlaloc head)

14 Star

Inverted Tassel
15
Headdress

16 Deer

17 Death (Death God)

18 Death (plain skull)

The Flowering Glyphs 69

 Appendix (continued)

prov isiona l
n u m be r e x a m pl e s de signat ion

19 Crab

20 Vulture

21 Tied Bundle

22 Crocodile

23 Fire

24 Reptilian Monster

25 Rabbit

70 c h i nc h i l l a m a z a ri e g o s
 prov isiona l
n u m be r e x a m pl e s de signat ion

26 Serpent (?)

Human Profile
27
Head

28 Joined Bands

29 Composite Animal

30 Reed (?)

31 Dog or Coyote (?)

32 Small Mammal

The Flowering Glyphs 71

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The Flowering Glyphs 75
 con t ribu tor s
Elizabeth Hill Boone
Elizabeth Hill Boone, a professor of art history,
holds the Martha and Donald Robertson Chair
in Latin American Art at Tulane University. She
is a specialist in the painted manuscripts of Pre-
Columbian and early colonial Mexico. Formerly
director of Pre-Columbian Studies at Dumbarton
Oaks (19831995), she has edited or coedited
eleven books, including The Aztec Templo Mayor
(1987), Collecting the Pre-Columbian Past (1993),
Writing without Words: Alternative Literacies in
Mesoamerica and the Andes (1994, with Walter
Mignolo), Native Traditions in the Postconquest
World (1998, with Tom Cummins), and Painted
Books and Indigenous Knowledge in Mesoamerica
(2005). Among her own books are The Codex
Magliabechiano (1983), The Aztec World (1994),
Stories in Red and Black: Pictorial Histories of the
Aztecs and Mixtecs (2000; winner of the Arvey
Prize of the Association for Latin American Art),
and Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican
Books of Fate (2007). She has held research fel-
lowships at the Institute for Advanced Study in
Princeton and the National Gallery of Art in
Washington, D.C. She was awarded the Order of
the Aztec Eagle by Mexico (1990) and was named
the Andrew W. Mellon Professor at the Center
for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts by the
National Gallery of Art (20062008). Her current
project examines changes in the indigenous tradi-
tion of pictography and manuscript painting after
the conquest.
Carrie J. Brezine
Carrie J. Brezine is a weaver and spinner with expe-
rience in both European and Andean textile con-
struction.Her undergraduate work in mathematics
at Reed College continues to inspire her research in
fabric structure and ethnographic weaving. From
20022005, she was the database administrator
for the Harvard Khipu Database Project, which
catalogued and deciphered the knotted-cord com-
munication devices of the Inka Empire. In the
summer of 2005, she described and analyzed the
patrimonial khipu of Rapaz, Peru. She is presently
a PhD candidate in the Archaeology Program
391
 of the Department of Anthropology at Harvard
University. Her dissertation research focuses on
changes in weaving technology and dress in colo-
nial Peru.
Reymundo Chapa
Reymundo Chapa earned his MA in anthropol-
ogy in 2009 from the University of Wisconsin-
Madison, where he studied with Frank Salomon
and Jason Yaeger. He has worked throughout the
Americas, focusing on the archaeology of the south-
ern Andes, particularly on ceremonial architecture
and its development during the rise of social com-
plexity in the Lake Titicaca basin. He has been an
active contributor to the research of several promi-
nent Pre-Columbian ceremonial centers, including
Tiwanaku, Chavin de Huntar, and Chankillo, and
he has contributed papers, such as Transforming
One Hundred Years of Archaeological Research
into Models of Evolving Ceremonial Form at
Tiwanaku, Bolivia and Aptapis and Archaeology:
How Aymara Celebrations at Kasa Achuta, Bolivia,
Give Meaning to the Past, at professional confer-
ences. He is currently a cultural resources project
manager at a small environmental consulting firm
in Austin, Texas.
Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos
Oswaldo Chinchilla graduated from the Universi
dad de San Carlos de Guatemala in 1990 and
earned his PhD from Vanderbilt University in 1996.
He is currently curator at the Museo Popol Vuh,
Universidad Francisco Marroqun, and professor
at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala.
His research focuses on the archaeology of the
Pacific coast of Guatemala, Classic Maya writing
and iconography, and the history of archaeology
in Guatemala. He has carried out extensive field
research in the Cotzumalhuapa region of the Pacific
piedmont of Guatemala, including recording and
analysis of the sculptural corpus, studies of settle-
ment patterns and urbanism, and documentary
research on the Pre-Columbian peoples of the area.
His recent papers concentrate on the mythological
interpretation of Classic imagery from the Pacific
392 c on t ri bu tor s
coast and the Maya Lowlands. He is the author
of Guatemala, corazn del mundo maya (1999),
Kakaw: Chocolate in Guatemalan Culture (2005),
and Imgenes de la mitologa maya (2010). He is
also the coeditor of The Decipherment of Ancient
Maya Writing (2001, with Stephen D. Houston and
David Stuart).
Michael D. Coe
Michael D. Coe is Charles J. McCurdy Professor
of Anthropology, Emeritus, at Yale University. His
research interests focus on the pre-Hispanic civi-
lizations of Mesoamerica (especially the Olmec
and Maya) and on the Khmer civilization of
Cambodia. He has also conducted archaeological
excavations on forts of the French and Indian War
in Massachusetts. Among his eighteen published
books are Mexico (1962, with four subsequent edi-
tions, two coauthored with Rex Koontz); The Maya
(1966, with seven subsequent editions); The Maya
Scribe and His World (1973); Lords of the Underworld:
Masterpieces of Classic Maya Ceramics (1978); In the
Land of the Olmec (1980, with Richard A. Diehl);
Breaking the Maya Code (1992); The True History of
Chocolate (1996, with Sophie D. Coe); The Art of the
Maya Scribe (1997, with Justin Kerr); Reading the
Maya Glyphs (2001, with Mark Van Stone); Angkor
and the Khmer Civilization (2003); Final Report: An
Archaeologist Excavates His Past (2006); and The
Line of Forts: Historical Archaeology on the Colonial
Frontier of Massachusetts (2006). He has been a
Member of the National Academy of Sciences since
1986. He has been given the Tatiana Proskouriakoff
Award by Harvard University (1989); the James D.
Burke Prize in Fine Arts by the Saint Louis Art
Museum (2001); the Order of the Quetzal by the
Government of Guatemala (2004); the Orden del
Pop by the Museo Popol Vuh (2006); and the Linda
Schele Award by the University of Texas (2008). He
is currently coauthoring a book on Maya cities with
the photographer Barry Brukoff.
Thomas B. F. Cummins
Tom Cummins is the Dumbarton Oaks Professor
of the History of Pre-Columbian and Colonial Art
and the chair of the Department of the History of
Art and Architecture at Harvard University. He
received his MA and PhD in art history from the
University of California, Los Angeles, and has pub-
lished essays and books on early Pre-Columbian
Ecuadorian ceramics and on colonial art and archi-
tecture in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Mexico.
He is the author of Toasts with the Inca: Andean
Abstraction and Colonial Images on Kero Vessels
(2002) and the coeditor of The Getty Mura: Essays
on the Making of Martn de Muras Historia gen-
eral del Piru, J. Paul Getty Museum Ms. Ludwig
XIII 16 (2008, with Barbara Anderson).
Vctor Falcn Huayta
Vctor Falcn Huayta holds a Licenciado degree
in archaeology from the Universidad Nacional
Mayor de San Marcos, and is a candidate for a
masters degree in Andean studies at the Pon
tificia Universidad Catlica del Per. He was a staff
archaeologist of the Instituto Nacional de Cultura
from 1991 to 2009. As a museum researcher, he
relates collected objects to current field findings.
His publications include La Huayllaquepa de
Punkur: Costa Nor-Central del Per (Anales,
Museo de Amrica, Madrid, 2005); Reconstruc
tion of the Burial Offering at Punkur in the
Nepea Valley of Perus North-Central Coast
(Andean Past, 2009); and Un tambor de cuero
pintado del Museo Nacional de Arqueologa,
Antropologa e Historia del Per (Anales, Museo
de Amrica, Madrid, 2008). His research on the
Lima cultura is published in Playa Grande: Entre
la aldea y el santuario; Un caso de interpre-
tacin arqueolgica ambigua? (Arqueolgicas,
Museo Nacional de Arqueologa, Antropologa e
Historia del Per, 2000); El motivo interlocking a
travs del dolo de Playa Grande (Arqueolgicas,
2003); and Morir en Playa Grande: El rescate de
un entierro de la cultura Lima (Actas del Primer
Congreso Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales y
Humanidades, 2004). He also conducts research on
the rock art of the central Andes, including current
work on Inka pictography in the Yucay Valley at
Inkapintay (Ollantaytambo).
Stephen D. Houston
Stephen D. Houston holds the Dupee Family Pro
fessorship of Social Science at Brown University,
where he has taught since 2004. His previous posi-
tion was as Jesse Knight University Professor at
Brigham Young University. He took his BA at the
University of Pennsylvania and his MPhil and PhD
at Yale University. He is the author, coauthor, and
editor of several books, including The Memory
of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience among the
Classic Maya (2006, with David Stuart and Karl
Taube), Veiled Brightness: A History of Ancient
Maya Color (2009, with various colleagues), The
Classic Maya (2009, with Takeshi Inomata), as well
as The First Writing: Script Invention as History and
Process (2004), Classic Maya Place Names (1994,
with David Stuart), and Function and Meaning in
Classic Maya Architecture (1998). The recipient of fel-
lowships from Dumbarton Oaks, the Guggenheim
Foundation, the School of American Research, and
the National Endowment for the Humanities, he
has also directed archaeological projects at Piedras
Negras and, more recently, at El Zotz in Guatemala.
With Dan Finamore, he curated the exhibition and
edited the exhibition catalogue for Fiery Pool: The
Maya and the Mythic Sea (2010).
Margaret A. Jackson
Margaret A. Jackson is currently assistant pro-
fessor of art history at the University of New
Mexico. As an art historian, her research focuses
on the ancient cultures of the Andes, with particu-
lar emphasis on the imagery and iconography of
the Moche of Peru. Additional research interests
include the visual cultures of ancient Mesoamerica
and systems of visual communication. She com-
pleted her PhD in Pre-Columbian art history at
the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the
president of the Association for Latin American
Art and an active member of the College Art
Association. Most recently, she was coeditor of
Invasion and Transformation: Interdisciplinary
Perspectives on Images of the Conquest of Mexico
(2008, with Rebecca Brienen). Her book Moche Art
and Visual Culture in Ancient Peru (2008) was the
c ontribu tors 393
 recipient of the Association for Latin American Art
book award in 2010.
Federico Navarrete
Federico Navarrete is a historian and anthropolo-
gist at the Instituto de Investigaciones Histricas
of the Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico.
His work centers on the nature and workings of the
historical traditions of Mesoamerican, and more
generally Amerindian, societies. He is the author
of La migracin de los mexicas (1998) and editor
of Indios, mestizos y espaoles: Interculturalidad e
historiografa en la Nueva Espaa (2007, in collab-
oration with Danna Levin). His latest book, Los or-
genes de los pueblos del Valle de Mxico, is in press.
He has also published articles in Estudios de cul-
tura nhuatl and Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics.
Another line of his research concerns the history of
Amerindian societies after European colonization,
their cultural transformations, and their relation-
ship with colonial empires and the independent
nation-states of the Americas. In this area, he has
published the books La conquista de Mxico (2000),
Las relaciones intertnicas en Mxico (2004), and La
invencin de los canbales (2006). He has also writ-
ten the historical novel Huesos de Lagartija (1998).
Michel R. Oudijk
Michel Oudijk received his PhD from the Uni
versiteit Leiden in the Netherlands. After com-
pleting his degree, he worked for three years as
associate professor at the Kbenhavns Universitet
in Denmark. Since 2004, he has been a researcher
at the Instituto de Investigaciones Filolgicas at
the Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico
in Mexico City, where he is currently working on
the translation and analysis of Zapotec colonial
texts. He has published extensively on Zapotec his-
tory and Mesoamerican pictographic documents,
including Historiography of the Bniza (2000) and
Los lienzos pictogrficos de Santa Cruz Papalutla,
Oaxaca (2010, with Sebastin van Doesburg). His
recent research concerns the interaction between
indigenous and Spanish colonial societies. He is the
coeditor of Indian Conquistadors: Indigenous Allies
in the Conquest of Mesoamerica (2007, with Laura
394 c on t ri bu tor s
Matthew) and coauthor of La conquista indgena
de Mesoamrica: El caso de don Gonzalo Mazatzin
Moctezuma (2008, with Matthew Restall).
Frank Salomon
Frank Loewen Salomon is the John V. Murra
Professor of Anthropology at the University of
Wisconsin. Born in New York in 1946, he took
his BA from Columbia University in 1968 and his
MA and PhD from Cornell University in 1974 and
1978. He joined the Department of Anthropology
at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1982.
A historical ethnographer of the Andean peoples,
he has discovered and analyzed unsuspected
sources on the northern reaches of the Inka
Empire, which are treated in Native Lords of Quito
(1986). In 1991, he published, with George Urioste,
the first English version of the Quechua-language
Huarochir manuscript (1608?), the only known
book presenting an Andean sacred tradition
in an Andean language. He coedited the South
American volumes of the Cambridge History of
the Native Peoples of the Americas (1999, with
Stuart Schwartz). Since 1994, he has been engaged
in field study of Peruvian communities that pre-
serve as sacred patrimony khipus (knotted-cord
records, a perennially enigmatic lost script). A
resulting book, The Cord Keepers, was published
in 2004.
Karl Taube
Karl Taube received his PhD from Yale University
in 1988 and is currently a professor of anthropol-
ogy at the University of California, Riverside.
He has conducted fieldwork in Honduras, Gua
temala, Mexico, Ecuador, and Peru. He is cur-
rently the project iconographer for the San Bartolo
Project in the Peten of Guatemala. His primary
research concerns the archaeology and ethnol-
ogy of Mesoamerica and the American Southwest,
including the development of agricultural symbol-
ism and the relationship between Teotihuacan and
the Classic Maya. Among his publications are The
Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan (1992), Gods and
Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya (1993,
with Mary Ellen Miller), Aztec and Maya Myths
(1993), The View from Yalahau: 1993 Archaeological
Investigations in Northern Quintana Roo, Mexico
(1995, with Scott Fedick), The Writing System of
Ancient Teotihuacan (2000), Olmec Art at Dumbar
ton Oaks (2004), The Murals of San Bartolo, El
Peten, Guatemala, Part 1: The North Wall (2005,
with William Saturno and David Stuart), and
The Murals of San Bartolo, Part 2: The West Wall
(2010, with William Saturno, David Stuart, and
Heather Hurst).
Javier Urcid
Javier Urcid is an anthropological archaeologist
interested in the role of ancient literacy in the
formation and maintenance of social complex-
ity, in the origins and alternative developments
of writing systems, and in the semantic and pho-
netic decipherment of extinct scripts. His other
interests center on archaeological approaches to
ancient political economies and on bioarchaeol-
ogy, particularly the social dimensions of mortu-
ary practices and cultural/ritual modifications
of human remains. His main research focuses on
Mesoamerican scribal traditions. He is the author
of Zapotec Hieroglyphic Writing (2001) and the
coauthor of The Lords of Lambityeco: Political
Evolution in the Valley of Oaxaca during the Xoo
Phase (2010, with Michael D. Lind). He has also
written articles on uie, Central Mexican, and
Mixteca-Puebla scripts.
Gary Urton
Gary Urton is the Dumbarton Oaks Professor
of Pre-Columbian Studies in the Department of
Anthropology at Harvard University. His research
focuses on a variety of topics in pre-Hispanic and
early colonial intellectual history in the Andes,
drawing on materials and methods in archaeology,
ethnohistory, and ethnology. His research on Inka
khipus has resulted in the description of two hun-
dred and fifty samples from museums in Europe,
the United States, and South America. He is the
author of numerous articles, books, and edited
volumes on Andean/Quechua cultures and Inka
civilization. His books include At the Crossroads of
the Earth and the Sky (1981), The History of a Myth:
Pacariqtambo and the Origin of the Incas (1990),
The Social Life of Numbers: A Quechua Ontology of
Numbers and Philosophy of Arithmetic (1997), Inca
Myths (1999), Signs of the Inka Khipu: Binary Coding
in the Andean Knotted-String Records (2003), and
Los khipus de la Laguna de los Cndores (2007).
He is director of the Khipu Database Project at
Harvard University.
R. Tom Zuidema
R. Tom Zuidemas initial academic studies were at
the Universiteit Leiden on the languages, laws, and
anthropology of the former Netherlands Indies.
Since he could not go to Indonesia, he turned his
interests to the Andes, first studying in Spain and
defending a PhD at the University of Madrid (1953)
and then completing fieldwork in Peru and defend-
ing a second thesis at the University of Leiden (1962)
on the ceque system of Cuzco. From 1956 to 1964,
he was curator of the Americas and Siberia at the
State Museum of Anthropology, Leiden, and from
1964 to 1967, he was professor at the Universidad
Nacional de San Cristbal de Huamanga in
Ayacucho, Peru. From 1967 until 1993, he taught
at the University of Illinois, with interruptions to
teach elsewhere. His principal interests in Peruvian
anthropology have been kinship, social and ritual
organization, iconography, and Andean astron-
omy and calendars, in particular the Inka calendar
as it functioned in Cuzco.
c ontribu tors 395
 inde x
Page numbers in italics indicate illustrative material.
abbreviation. See elaboration and abbreviation
abstract or conventional versus iconic systems, 386
Acatempo Stela, 93, 94, 104
Acosta, Jos de, v, 168n56, 306n3, 309n15, 387
acsus (female dresses) in Chuquibamba textiles, 252253
Aguna, Cotzumalhuapa inscriptions at, 50
Ahuitzotl, 188, 190, 191, 192
ajaw signs, 24, 31
Ajaxa: inventory of Cotzumalhuapa inscriptions at, 50;
Monument 1, 56
alabaster carved vessels, 134139, 136
alphabetic writing: hybridity of graphic systems after
Spanish conquest, 201, 204210, 205210; quilca
and, 278
Alvarado, Pedro de (Tonatiuh), 211, 212
Alvarez de Arenales, Juan Antonio, 368370, 369, 373
anabil, 23
Anahuac, Late Postclassic concept of, 103
Anales de Chimalpahin, 158
Anales de Tlatelolco, 158, 168169n56
Angulo, Jorge, 84
animal bones, carved, 135, 137, 139
animation of Cotzumalhuapa writings, 4446, 46, 5965,
5966
Anna, Timothy, 371
anthropology in Stalins USSR, 1112
Antigua Guatemala Valley, Cotzumalhuapa writing
from, 50, 60, 6061
Codex Aute (Codex Selden), 114, 115, 150, 151, 167, 169n8
Apoala, 158, 163, 165, 167
Armstrong, W. E., 1718
Arroyo de Piedra, identification of scribes producing
Maya glyphs in, 23
Ascher, Marcia and Robert, 320, 339
Atahuallpa, 259
Atetelco, White Patio mural at, 96
atl tlachinolli, water, burned field, couplet in Aztec
writing, 62, 186
Atlee, Clement, 9
Atonaltzin, 165
Atzompa, ceramic vessels from, 134, 135
Codex Aubin, 168n5, 178, 179, 180, 181, 186, 215
Axayacatl, 188, 192
Axtapalulca Plaque, 81, 82, 100
ayllu, 288, 306n5, 354355
Codex Azcatitlan, 168169n57, 178, 179, 180, 181, 188, 215,
216, 217
Aztec writing, 175195; atl tlachinolli, water, burned
field, couplet in, 62, 186; chronotopes (time-space
representations) and rgime dhistoricit (historical
sensibility) in, 176178, 181, 184, 188, 190, 191;
conquests of Mexica rulers, depiction of, 178, 181,
184, 186; Dumbarton Oaks conferences on codices, 2;
genres or classes of documents in, 190191; in Mexica
codices, 178, 178184, 179, 180, 182, 183; on Mexica
397
 stone monuments, 184190, 185, 187, 189; Moche
ceramic imagery compared, 238; New Fire ceremony,
186, 192; oral and performative literary traditions,
relationship to, 175176, 191192; places of origin in,
157158; social and cultural meaning, importance
of, 190192; Spanish conquests, adaptation to, 191;
succession of year signs and tlatoque (rulers) in, 178
181, 184, 186; Templo Mayor, Mexico-Tenochtitlan,
depictions of, 177, 178, 179181, 184186; Teotihuacan
writing and, 48, 66, 77, 87
Aztlan, 157158, 162
Baird, Ellen, 202
Bakhtin, Mikhail, 176
Balancan Stela, 27
Codex Baranda, 170n22
Barthel, Thomas S., 16, 307308n8
Bateson, Gregory, 18
Bayer, Herman, 30
Beazley, John, 23
Benedict, Ruth, 12
Beria, Lavrenty, 16
Berlo, Janet, 77
Bertonio, Ludovico, 287288
Beyer, Hermann, 81
Bilbao: architectural compound at, 43, 45; Monument
1, 54; Monuments 29, 48; Monument 4, 61, 62;
Monument 10, 53; Monument 11, 61; Monument 13,
54, 55, 61; Monument 14, 54, 55, 61; Monument 18, 57;
Monument 20, 61, 62, 64; Monument 21, 6465, 65;
Monument 29, 56; Monument 33, 5859; Monument
42, 47; Monuments 84ac, 58, 5859; possible ancestor
cult at, 4849
Codex Bodley, 152153, 153, 157, 167, 168n3, 169n8
Bolvar, Simn, 367368, 368, 370371
Boltz, William, 2930
Boone, Elizabeth Hill, ix, x, 2, 3, 156, 179, 191, 197, 232, 379,
391392
Bonampak murals, 34
Codex Borgia, 103, 198, 382
Borgia Group codices, 2, 103, 153
Codex Boturini, 199, 215. See also Tira de la
Peregrinacin
boustrophedon sequence, 114115, 215
Bove, Frederick, 48
Brasseur de Bourbourg, Abb, 15
Brezine, Carrie J., 319, 353, 360, 391
Browder, Jennifer, 84
Burkitt, Robert, 54
Cacaxtla script: inventory of inscriptions compared to
Cotzumalhuapa, 49; lack of study of, 77; Teotihuacan
writing and, 48, 66, 82, 96
Cdiz, Cotzumalhuapa inscription at, 50
Calakmul dynasty and Maya glyph changes, 32
39 8 i n de x
calendrical notations: calendar khipus, 345; in
Chuquibamba textiles (See Chuquibamba textile
notation systems); Cotzumalhuapa writings, largely
calendrical system suggested by, 65; Monte Albn
objects marked with calendrical names of owners,
134, 135; in uie scribal tradition, 78; Tovar
calendar, 206
canuto khipus, 322323, 323, 350n3
Caracol, absolute size and relative proportion of Maya
glyphs at, 24
Cartilla (Pedro de Gante, 1569), 205
cartillas de ensear a leer, 205
Caso, Alfonso, 48, 78, 82, 83, 85, 140, 190
catechisms, pictorial, 205206, 205210
Catholicism: foundation/migration stories involving,
166; glyph representing change from indigenous
religion to, 162; images, influence on viewing and
reading of, 278; indigenous pictography as vehicle for
ideology of, 198; khipus and, 290, 358; uncu for Christ
Child statue with tocapu, 290, 291
Cave Seven, Oaxaca, 158
celts and celtiform stelae, 99, 100
census khipus, 344, 345
ceque systems: at Cuzco, 259, 259260, 266, 267, 272, 344;
khipus recording, 345
Cerro Bernal inscriptions, 144n2
Cerro de la Caja and environs, carved stones from,
117122, 120, 121
Cerro de la Campagna, Santiago Suchilquitongo, Tomb
5, 125, 126127, 128
Cerro de las Mesas Stela 15, 80
Cerro de los Tepalcates, Chacahua, Oaxaca, 123, 124
Cerro del Rey, Ro Grande, Stela 1, 133, 134
Cerro Nuyoo, Tomb 5, 130, 132
Cerro Yucuniza mortuary slab, 130, 132
Cerron Palomino, Rodolfo, 286, 288
Champollion, Jean-Franois, 18
Chapa, Reymundo, 353, 392
Chiapanec scribal tradition, 112, 113
Chiapas, Teotihuacan writing at, 78
Chicanel pottery, Late Preclassic, 7778
Chichen Itza: size of glyphs on jades from, 25;
Teotihuacan glyphs and, 82, 84; Yukatekan terms in
script at, 27
Chichimecateuctli, don Pedro, 213, 214
Chicomoztoc, 158, 159, 160, 162
Chimalpahin, 168169n56
chinampas at Tenochtitlan, El Plano del Papel de
Maguey showing, 88, 89
Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo, 43, 387, 392
Choltian hypothesis for Maya glyphs, 27, 36n6
Cholula: lack of writing tradition at, 77; Relacin
geogrfica of, 152153, 160; Tlachihualtepec or Great
Pyramid of, 160, 161
Choque, Rosa and Rosala, 360
chronotopes (time-space representations) in Aztec
writing, 176178, 181, 184, 190, 191
chullpas, tocapu-like designs on, 290, 292
Chuquibamba textile notation systems, 251275; in
archaeological, ethnohistorical, and art historical
contexts, 269272, 270, 271; and ceque system,
Cuzco, 259, 259260, 266, 267; different calendars
represented in, 256257, 257; eight-pointed star
motif and, 269, 271, 271272; feathered ponchos and,
269272, 271; felines, llamas, and toads, symbolic
use of, 261262; female dresses (acsus) and large
shawls, 252253; forty-one, forty, and forty-two,
textiles referring to, 259, 259260, 263, 263264,
264; historical and geographic origins, 256, 269;
Kosok shawls standardized sidereal calendar within
solar year, 256, 267269, 268; male tunics (uncus),
loincloths, and ponchos, 252, 252253; Merrin Gallery
shawl, 263, 263264; Museo Banco Central de Reserva
del Per loincloth, 264; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,
shawl with sidereal lunar calendar, 254, 255, 258263,
259, 265266, 267, 268; Ohara shawl with modules
of three different calendars, 261, 265, 265267, 269;
Peabody Museum uncu with solar calendar, 252, 253,
257258, 258, 266, 268, 269; Pleiades constellation
and, 259, 267; types of intentional orders used in,
251253, 252255
classes or genres of documents: in Aztec writing, 190
191; ethnoiconological context provided by, 150151
closed versus open writing systems, 66, 384
coastal writing tradition: defined and described, 112, 113;
mortuary contexts, 130134, 133; Teotihuacan and
Citzumalhuapa writings in context of, 4748, 66
Coatepec, 161, 162, 165, 166
Coatlinchan, unfinished monumental figure from, 100
Cobo, Bernab, 308n9
codices: Aubin, 168n5, 178, 179, 180, 181, 186, 215;
Azcatitlan, 168169n57, 178, 179, 180, 181, 188, 215,
216, 217; Baranda, 170n22; Bodley, 152153, 153, 157,
167, 168n3, 169n8; Borgia, 103, 198, 382; Borgia Group,
2, 103, 153; Boturini, 199, 215; Colombino, 152, 168n3;
Dehesa, 170n22; Dresden, 5, 15, 35n2; Egerton, 170n22;
Fejrvry-Mayer, 103, 153, 155, 198, 200; Florentine,
168169n56, 169n10, 202204, 203, 204; Gmez
de Orozco, 158; Kingsborough, 88, 89; Madrid, 15,
35n2, 80, 81; Magliabechiano, 202, 206; in Mayan
imagery, 35n2; Mendoza, 85, 178, 179, 181, 182, 184,
185, 188, 217, 218, 219, 279, 309n17; Mexica codices, 2,
177184, 178, 179, 180, 182, 183, 198, 199; Mexicanus,
168169n56, 178, 179, 181, 185, 186, 212, 213215, 215;
Mexicayotl, 168n5; Osuna, 212; Paris, 35n2, 80, 81; de
Santa Mara Asuncin, 85; Selden (Aute), 114, 115,
150, 151, 167, 169n8; Telleriano-Remensis, 178, 179, 180,
181, 183, 188, 202, 206, 212; Tudela, 202, 206; Tulane,
170n22; Vaticanus A/Ros, 178, 180, 206; Vaticanus
B, 103; Vienna, 385; Vindobonensis, 159, 164165, 165;
Zouche-Nuttall (Tonindeye), 115, 152, 158, 167, 169n8.
See also Mixtec codices
Coe, Michael D., 9, 24, 392
Coixtlahuaca valley through-cave inscriptions, 144n6
Cola de Palma, near El Ciruelo, Stela 3, 130134, 133
Cold War and Maya decipherment. See Knorosov, Yuri
Valentinovich, decipherment of Maya glyphs by
Colhuacatepec, 158, 159, 160
Codex Colombino, 152, 168n3
comparative dialogue, importance of, 36, 18
Condesuyu: Inka province of, 251, 256, 269, 272, 298;
references to dress in, 269272, 271
Conklin, William, 2, 321322, 325
conquests of Mexica rulers, Aztec writings depicting,
178, 181, 184, 186
Contreras, Carlos, 368
conventional or abstract versus iconic systems, 386
Copan: absolute size and relative proportion of glyphs
at, 24; Structure 10L-16, Stairway Block 2, 100101;
Structure 26, 91; vowel notations at, 32
Copan Hieroglyphic Stairway: consonant sensitivity in
glyphs from, 33; heterography at, 34; production of,
2324
Corts, Hernn, 166
costume and performance in Moche culture, 228, 229
Cotzumalhuapa writings, 4375; animation of, 4446, 46,
5965, 5966; architectural compounds at El Bal, El
Castillo, and Bilbao, 43, 45; cartouches, 50; in context
of coastal writing tradition, 4649, 47, 66; distribution
and inventory of inscriptions, 4950; head signs in
frontal or profile view, 50; human sacrifice in, 65;
iconographic depictions, comparison of signs with,
52; largely calendrical system suggested by, 65; in Late
Classic period, 4849; Late Preclassic system, 4647;
media, variety of, 50; Mixtec codices compared, 66;
name tags, use of, 57, 5759, 58; numerals, 51, 5152,
52; orientation of signs, 50; oversized signs in, 56,
5657; sign combinations, rarity of, 5455, 55, 66; sign
inventory, 5254, 6771; 6 Star collocations with maw
of reptilian monster, 5759, 58; Star glyph, use of, 50,
5759, 58; Teotihuacan writing and, 4849, 95
Couch, Christopher, 202
counted offerings in ritual petitions, 153, 155
Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastin de, 287, 300301
Coyolxauhqui circular monument, Templo Mayor of
Mexico-Tenochtitlan, 122123
Crnica mexicyotl (Tezozmoc), 181
Cross Panels of Palenque, 190
cross-reading, use of, 15
Cruz, Juan de la, 201, 205
cryptography and decipherment, lack of connection
between, 16
Cueto, Marcos, 368
cuicatl, 175, 191
Cuicuilco, lack of writing tradition at, 77
Cuilapan, Oaxaca cloister stone with Zapotec
inscriptions, 117, 118
cultural category, writing systems as, 379390; access to/
interpretation of message, 382383; commonalities
of, 380384; glottographic versus semasiographic
systems, 384385; hieroglyphic script versus
pictographic systems, 386387; historical significance
of surviving documents, 383384; iconic versus
index 399
 conventional or abstract systems, 386; Mesoamerican
and Andean terms for, 380; pictures versus glyphs,
385386; recording process, 381; scripts, signs, and
pictographies covered by, 379380; speech and
performance compared, 380381; typology of, 384
388; vehicle for message, 381382; writing as term,
problem of, 379380, 387388
cultural code, written surface as, 111148; in Aztec writing,
190192; performance and place-making, relationship
of writing to, 114116, 114123, 118121, 123, 124;
personhood and human body in mortuary contexts,
notions of, 125139, 126129, 131133, 135138; scribal
error, semiology of, 139143, 141, 142; semiological
theory of writing behind, 111112; in six scribal
traditions in southwestern Mesoamerica, 112, 112113
cultural encyclopedias, 206
cultural superiority associated with possession of
writing system, 306n3
Cummins, Thomas B. F., 277, 386, 392393
Cunil, Jacinto, 18
Cuzco: ceque system, 259, 259260, 266, 267, 272,
344; Condesuyu, references to dress in, 269272,
271; guinea pig sacrifices, 262; khipus from, 328;
napa or puca llama, 262; painted tablas at, 300;
Tawantinsuyu, concept of, 298299, 299
dart-thrower carved with owners name, 134, 135
Dvila, Francisco, 309n11
Davletshin, Albert, 30
de Young stela, 22, 2223
dedication stone, Templo Mayor, Mexico-Tenochtitlan,
188190, 189, 191192
Codex Dehesa, 170n22
diagramming tradition, 221n2
Dibble, Charles, 385
difrasismo, 161, 169n14, 170n2021
diglossia in Maya glyphs, 28, 37n10
direct historical approach, 151
disjunction, 151
Doctrina (Pedro de Gante, 1553), 205
Doctrina christiana (1548), 205
Doctrina christiana en la lengua guasteca con la lengua
castellana (Juan de la Cruz, 1571), 201, 205
Doctrina Xpiana en lengua misteca (Hernndez), 161,
161162
Donnan, Christopher, 239
Dos Pilas, identification of scribes producing Maya
glyphs in, 23
Dresden Codex, 5, 15, 35n2
Dubois, Cora, 12
Dumbarton Oaks conferences on Pre-Columbian
writing systems, ixx, 13
Durn, Diego, 190, 202, 206
eagles devouring hearts in Teotihuacan art, 103, 105n6
effigy figure, skin as writing surface on, 138, 139
40 0 i n de x
effigy vessels, 125130, 127, 129, 132, 139
Codex Egerton, 170n22
eight-pointed star motif and Chuquibamba textile
notation systems, 269, 271, 271272
El Bal: acropolis at, 43, 45; Monument 1, 43, 44, 47, 49;
Monument 6, 54, 55; Monument 18, 56; Monument
27, 59; Monument 30, 61, 64; Monument 34, 56;
Monument 56, 51, 52; Monument 59, 4346, 46, 65;
Monuments 67 and 68, 56
El Castillo: architectural compound at, 43, 45; causeway
connecting Goln with, 50; Monument 1, 51, 55, 58, 61;
Monument 16, 56
El Fraile, 289
El Mundo Perdido, Tikal: marcador from, 83, 90, 101;
stucco-painted vessel from, 95, 96
El Palmillo, genealogical slab probably from, 125, 128
El Tajin, inventory of inscriptions at, 49
El Zotz, identification of scribes producing Maya glyphs
in, 23
elaboration and abbreviation, 149174; analogies between
ethnographic present and historical past, 153154,
155; ethnoiconological methodology of approach to,
150154, 151, 153, 154, 155; foundation/toma de posesin/
taking hold of the bundle theme, 150, 166; genre of
document, context provided by, 150151; historical
sources for, 156157; migration theme, 156, 162168,
163, 165; minimal pictographic elements, identifying,
150; nose-piercing theme, 152153, 153; origin theme
and places of origin, 156, 157162, 159, 160; sacred birth
theme, 167; thematic focus, determining, 151153, 152,
154, 155; thematic units commonly found in historical
sources, 156
Elkins, James, 233, 380
Eloxochitlan de Flores Magn burial, Sierra Mazateca,
carved human mandible from, 134, 136
emblematic glyphs (toponyms, titles, and personal
names), 8488, 85, 86, 87, 385
encyclopedias, cultural, 206
Engels, Friedrich, 11, 12, 17
errors in writing, semiology of, 139143, 141, 142
Escalante, Pablo, 191, 202
Escuintla: Early Classic pottery and Cotzumalhuapa
writing, 4748; Teotihuacan glyphs and, 84
Estela Lisa, Monte Albn, 91, 93
Estrada-Belli, Francisco, 88
ethnoiconological approach to elaboration and
abbreviation, 150154, 151, 153, 154, 155
Etla district mausoleum facade and effigy vessel, 125, 127
Ex-Arzobispado Stone, 187, 188
Falcn Huayta, Victor, 353, 364, 393
feather paintings, 202203, 203
feathered ponchos and Chuquibamba textile notation
systems, 269272, 271
Codex Fejrvry-Mayer, 103, 153, 155, 198, 200
felines, llamas, and toads, Chuquibamba textiles
symbolic use of, 261262
Fierro, Pancho, 366, 368
Finca San Cristbal: inventory of Cotzumalhuapa
inscriptions at, 50; Monument 1, 63, 64, 65
Florentine Codex, 168169n56, 169n10, 202204, 203, 204
Flower World, Cotzumalhuapa version of, 58, 6465
Fonds mexicain 399 manuscript, 209, 209210, 210
foundation/toma de posesin/taking hold of the bundle
theme, 150, 166
four steps on the road to God, 161, 161162
Fraccin Mujular: inscriptions, 144n2; Stela 3, 79, 80
Frame, Mary, 256, 267, 269, 284
funerary contexts. See mortuary contexts
Galvin manuscript, 301, 302, 303
Gamarra, Agustn, 369
Gante, Pedro de, 205
Gante I manuscript, 206, 206209, 207, 208
Garca-Des Lauriers, Claudia, 87
genealogical records, inscriptions of, 125, 126128
genres or classes of documents: in Aztec writing, 190
191; ethnoiconological context provided by, 150151
Gerson, Juan, 202
Gisbert, Teresa, 290
glottochronology applied to Maya glyphs, 27
glottographic versus semasiographic systems, 201,
232233, 384387
glyphs versus pictures, 385386
Goln: Monuments 2 and 3, 49, 4950, 6162, 63; human bones, carved, 134, 136
Monuments 4 and 5, 57
Gmez Chvez, Sergio, 82, 88
Codex Gmez de Orozco, 158
Gonzlez Holgun, Diego, 287
Gorbachev, Mikhail, 10, 11, 16
Graulich, Michel, 188
grids, central Mexican examples of writing in, 87,
8890, 89
Grube, Nikolai, 30
Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe: Chuquibamba textile
notations and, 262, 269272, 270; Nueva cornica y
buen gobierno, authorship of, 310n24; tocapus and,
279280, 280, 281, 283, 286, 288, 297, 298, 299,
301305, 304
Guchte, Maarten van de, 290
Guerrero: Lienzo de Petlacala, 150; Rufino Tamayo stela,
possibly from, 79, 94; Teotihuacan writing at, 78, 79,
9397, 9398, 94, 104
guinea pig sacrifices, Cuzco, 262
Guzmn, Manuel de, 214
Habel, Simeon, 53
Haddon, Alfred, 17
Hamilton, Andrew, 338
Harris, Roy, 111
Hartog, Franois, 176, 177
head signs: Cotzumalhuapa writings, frontal or profile
view in, 50; Teotihuacan writing, frontal view in, 104
Heggarty, Paul, 345
Hellmuth, Nicholas, 47
helmets as icons for Warrior theme in Moche ceramic
imagery, 234238, 236, 237
herders use of khipus, 354, 371, 373
Hernndez, Benito, 161, 161162
Heyerdahl, Thor, 16
hieroglyphic script: Mayan identified as type of, 15,
386387; pictographic systems versus, 386387
Historia del origen y genealoga real del los reyes ingas del
Per (Martn de Mura, 1590), 298, 299, 302
Historia general del Per (Martn de Mura, ca. 1615), 303
Historia tolteca-chichimeca, 152, 158162, 159, 160, 169n6,
175, 176
historical sensibility: Aztec writing, rgime dhistoricit
in, 176178, 184, 188, 190, 191; in Moche ceramic
imagery, 245
El Hombre de Tikal, 90, 9091
Houston, Stephen D., 21, 61, 66, 382, 384, 386, 393
Huaca de la Luna, 227, 294, 294297, 295, 296
Huajuapan de Len, uie mortuary material from area
of, 130, 132
Huamelulpan, carved stones from, 122
huatancha, 355
huehuetlatolli, 175, 191
Huitzilopochtli, 123, 157, 177, 181, 187
human body and personhood, writing conveying
notions of, 125139, 126129, 131133, 135138
human sacrifice: in Cotzumalhuapa writings, 65; in
Moche culture, 227; San Jos Mogote, Monument 3,
and 122123, 123; Stone of Tizoc and, 188, 191192;
Templo Mayor, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, foundation/
renovations of, 180, 181; in Teotihuacan writings,
102, 103
human skin, as writing surface, 138, 139
Humboldt Fragment 1, 85
Hun Nal Ye cave, stone coffer from, 27
hybridity of graphic systems after Spanish conquest,
197225; alphabetic writing, 201, 204210, 205210;
changes to graphic systems following conquest,
202, 219220; comparison of Mesoamerican and
European graphic expression, 197198; diagramming,
221n2; different graphic systems in sixteenth-century
Mexico, 197201; mimetic figuration, 201, 202204,
203, 204; pictography, 198200, 199, 200, 210219,
211219; pictorial catechisms, 205210; semasiography
and, 198, 233
hyperdiffusionism, 18
iconic versus conventional or abstract systems, 386
Icxicouatl, 158
ideograms (logograms) and Knorosovs decipherment of
Maya script, 1516
Ilhuicatepec, 162
Inka: caves of origin at Pacaritambo, 297, 298; lost writing
system, efforts to unveil, 278, 306n6, 307308n8;
index 401
 supposed lost paintings of, 306307n7; writing system,
lack of, 281283, 308n9. See also Chuquibamba textile
notation systems; Cuzco; khipu; tocapu
Inka-type khipus, 323325, 326
Inti Raymi, feast of, 262
inverted signs, semiology of, 140143, 142
Isthmian script: as closed system, 66; decipherment
proposals, 35n1; glottographic nature of, 384; length
of use of, 21
Ixcaquixtla, Tomb 1, 130, 132
Jackson, Margaret A., 227, 380, 385, 393
jaguars devouring hearts in Teotihuacan art, 102, 103
Jama-Coaque vessels with tocapus, 296, 297, 305
Jansen, Maarten, 150, 385
Japanese script and Maya glyphs, 16
Jara, Victoria de la, 283284, 297, 310n28, 312n42
Kaha Wayi (khipu house) and Pasa Qullqa (storehouse),
Rapaz, 355360, 356, 357, 358, 359, 373
kanji writing, 16, 19n3
Kaqchikel and Cotzumalhuapa writings, 53, 54
Kauffman Doig, Federico, 363364
KCCS (Khipu Color Code System), 339
KDB (Khipu Database), 320, 325, 326, 329, 334, 338,
350n5, 361
Keber, Eloise Quiones, 179
Kelley, David, 1, 16
key-type Wari khipus, 321, 322
khipu: ancestral mummies, entrusted to, 5;
Chuquibamba textile notation systems and, 256;
in colonial and Catholic contexts, 290, 353355;
defined, 320321; distinguished from other cord
constructions, 320; Dumbarton Oaks conferences on,
2; herders use of, 354, 371, 373; metacategory of khipu,
representing, 306n3; Pachacamac archive, 328, 335,
344, 345, 348, 361; Paracas cords, possible origins in,
350n1; study of, 277278; tocapus and, 279284, 288,
289290, 300301; Toledan-era viceroyalty, khipus
of governance under, 353; in Tupicocha, 354, 354355,
374; as writing systems, 387. See also khipu typologies;
patrimonial khipus in Rapaz
khipu typologies, 319352; archival images or icons, 342
343, 342344; archival similarities and differences,
328329, 342344; archives of Inka-type khipus based
on provenience, construction of, 325327, 326, 327;
canuto khipus, 322323, 323, 350n3; ceque system
khipus, 345; color values and patterns, 338339, 340,
341, 342343; comparing and distinguishing types,
325; cord attachment methods, 331332, 332; fiber type
and cord construction, 329331, 330, 331; functional
types, 344345; Inka-type khipus, 323325, 326;
KCCS (Khipu Color Code System), 339; KDB (Khipu
Database), 320, 325, 326, 329, 334, 338, 350n5, 361;
key-type Wari khipus, 321, 322; knot construction
and directionality, 332338, 333, 334337; measuring
402 i n de x
significance of differences using SplitsTree4 and
NeighborNet algorithm, 345348, 346, 347; Middle
Horizon/Wari khipus, 321, 321322, 322, 325, 350;
patrimonial khipus of Rapaz not fitting, 363364, 374;
sizes of archives and khipu samples, 328; subsidiaries,
presence/absence and number of, 328329, 329
King, Mark, 175
King, Timothy, 82, 88
Codex Kingsborough, 88, 89
Kinich Yax Kuk Mo, Teotihuacan cultural ties of,
100101
Kirchhoff, Paul, 157
Kirov, Sergei, 10
Knorosov, Yuri Valentinovich, decipherment of Maya
glyphs by, 920; and anthropology in Stalins USSR,
1112; background, education, and career, 1214;
death of Stalin, dissemination of Knorosovs work
following, 1617; Great Purge/Great Terror in USSR
(1936), effect on intellectual life, 1011; language
of glyphs importance of, 16, 18; methodology of,
1416; photograph of, 10; publication of article on
decipherment by, 14; reasons for success of, 17, 18;
recognition of achievements of, 18; and Thompson,
John Eric Sidney, 10, 1418
Kosok, Paul, 256, 267
Kroeber, Alfred L., 269
Kubler, George, 1, 151, 219, 284
Kuna-Lacanha, Chiapas, Early Classic stela from, 99, 100
La Cinega, Zimatlan, genealogical slab from, 125, 128
La Gloria, Monument 1, 56
La Herredura, Tlaxcala, temple sign from, 86
La Mojarra stela, 144n4
La Nueva, concentration of Cotzumalhuapa-style
sculptures at, 50
La Serna, Viceroy, 369, 370
La Sufricaya, Early Classic painted grids from, 87, 88
La Ventilla, Teotihuacan: corpus of glyphs from, 84;
marcador from, 82, 83; Plaza de los Glifos (See Plaza
de los Glifos, Teotihuacan); shields depicted at, 103;
zoomorphic vehicles at, 92, 93
Lacadena, Alfonso, x, 30, 48, 52, 77, 177, 385
Lagoon of Primordial Blood (Quelatinizoo), 158162, 166
Lake Titicaca and ruins of Tiwanaku, association of
tocapus with, 288
Lambityeco: Tomb 6, Mound 195, 125, 127, 128; Tomb 11,
Mound 195, carved baton or spatula made of deer
tibia from, 134, 135
Landa, Diego de, 13, 1415, 16, 18, 278, 386
Langley, James, 48, 102, 103
language. See speech and language
Lpida de Bazan, Monte Albn, 91, 92
Larco Hoyle, Rafael, 229231, 246n1
Las Colinas, Tlaxcala, Teotihuacan-style ceramic bowl
from, 84
Later Oaxacan scribal tradition, 113, 134, 139, 143
Leakey, L. S. B., 18
Lehmann, Walter, 43, 239
Leibsohn, Dana, 2, 176
Len, Cieza de, 308309n11
Lettera apologetica (Raimondo di Sangro Sansevero,
1750), 284
Lvi-Strauss, Claude, 139, 145n16
Levillier, Roberto, 353
Lienzo de Amoltepec, 162164, 163, 169n16
Lienzo de Chiepetlan, 162
Lienzo de Cuauhquechollan, 162
Lienzo de Guevea, 153, 154
Lienzo de Jicalan or Jucutacato, 162
Lienzo de Petlacala, 150, 162
Lienzo de Tequixtepec I, 158
Lienzo de Tira de Xalatzala, 162
Lienzo de Tlapiltepec, 158, 165
Lienzo de Tlaxcala, 88, 102
liminal places, migration from, 162, 166
literacy, 23, 190
literary themes, elaboration and abbreviation of. See
elaboration and abbreviation
llamas, Chuquibamba textiles symbolic use of, 261262
llutu kuychi (mourning/dark rainbow) textile colors, 339
Locke, Leland, 278
Lockhart, James, 219
logograms, and Knorosovs decipherment of Maya
script, 1516
logographic functions in Moche ceramic imagery,
238239
Loo, Peter van der, 150, 151, 153
Los Cerritos Norte, Cotzumalhuapa inscription at, 50
Los Horcones: Stela 2, 79, 80; Teotihuacan writing at, 78
Lounsbury, Floyd, 1, 16
Lowland Maya writing, as closed system, 66
Lysenko, Trofim, 11, 16
machc, 239
Mackey, Carol J., 354
Macuilxochitl, carved human mandible from, 134, 136
Madrid Codex, 15, 35n2, 80, 81
Codex Magliabechiano, 202, 206
Maksimov, A. N., 12
Malinowski, Bronislaw, 11
Manco Capac, 297, 301305, 302, 303, 304
Mapa de Cuauhtlanzinco, 162
Mapa de Teozacualco, 157, 158
marcadors: El Mundo Perdido, Tikal, 83, 90, 101; La
Ventilla, Teotihuacan, 82, 83
Marcus, Joyce, 91, 385
marked beans (pallares) in Moche ceramic imagery, 229,
230
Marr, Nikolai Y., 11
marriage alliances and genealogical slabs, 144n9
Marx, Karl, 11, 12
Matatlan, genealogical slab probably from El Palmillo
embedded in wall of house in, 125, 128
Matrcula de Huexotzinco, 52
Maya glyphs, 2130; absolute size and relative proportion
of, 2426, 25; Choltian hypothesis, 27, 36n6; content
used for, 26; diglossia in, 28, 37n10; Dumbarton Oaks
conferences on, 12; glottochronology applied to, 26,
28; heterography (variation at any one time), 34; as
hieroglyphic script, 15, 386387; Japanese script and,
16; living essence attributed to, 26; morphosyllables,
2830, 29; non-Maya glyphs with, 26, 27; phonic and
linguistic characteristics, 2630; polycode nature
of, 24; production of, 22, 2224; somatic framework
for, 26; supernatural resonances of, 24; surviving
examples and media, 2122; Teotihuacan writing
and, 7778, 90, 9093, 91, 92. See also Knorosov, Yuri
Valentinovich, decipherment of Maya glyphs by;
variations in Maya glyphs over space and time
McClelland, Donna, 239
McCormac, F. G., 364
Medina Susano, R. Clorinda, 371
Medrano, Sonia, 48
Memoria de Juquila (Memoria probanza de Yetzegoa),
166
Memoria de Yacuini (Memoria probanza de Yacuini), 166
Memorial de Solol, 53
Mndez, Cecilia, 373
Codex Mendoza, 85, 178, 179, 181, 182, 184, 185, 188, 217,
218, 219, 279, 309n17
Mendoza, Antonio de, 212
Mendoza y Velasco, don Juan de, 166
Mexica codices, 2, 177184, 178, 179, 180, 182, 183, 198, 199.
See also specific codices
Mexica stone monuments, 184190, 185, 187, 189
Codex Mexicanus, 168169n56, 178, 179, 181, 185, 186,
212, 213215, 215
Cdice Mexicayotl, 168n5
Mexico-Tenochtitlan: Aztec writing at, 177181, 182,
184187, 192, 192n1; elaboration and abbreviation of
literary themes at, 157, 166; founding of, 217, 220;
El Plano del Papel de Maguey showing chinampas at,
88, 89. See also Templo Mayor, Mexico-Tenochtitlan
Mexico-Tlatelolco, 180, 181, 192n1
Middle Horizon/Wari khipus, 321, 321322, 322, 325, 350
migration theme, 156, 162168, 163, 165
Millon, Clara, 84, 103
miniaturized items, 139, 145n16
mistakes in writing, semiology of, 139143, 141, 142
Mixtec codices: Cotzumalhuapa writing and, 66; darts,
use of, 95; decipherment efforts, 2; Dumbarton Oaks
conferences on, 2; emblematic play in, 385; events and
places, manuscripts organized around, 177; jewels
in feminine names in, 150; Later Oaxacan scribal
tradition and, 113; migration theme and, 162165;
Moche ceramic imagery compared, 238; places of
origin, 158, 161; sacred birth theme and, 167; thematic
units in, 156
Moche ceramic imagery, 227249; compounded signs,
239240, 240; iconic signs with logographic functions,
239; machc, 239; marked beans (pallares), 229, 230;
Mixtec and Aztec traditions compared, 238; molds,
index 403
 manufacture and use of, 233234, 234, 235; mortuary
contexts of, 229; notational elements, Larco Hoyles
theories regarding, 228, 229, 229231, 230; oral literary
tradition and, 245; phases in, 246n1; porras (conical
mace heads), 235, 236, 239; preadaptation toward visual
signing in, 233; rebus devices, 239; relationship to
monumental and performance art, 228, 229; Revolt of
the Objects scene, semasiographic nature of, 241244,
241245; semasiography defined and described,
231233; speech or language, not reducible to, 240
241; stepped pyramid motif, logographic aspects of,
238, 238239; Warrior theme demonstrating use of
conventionalized signs, 234238, 235, 236, 237, 240
Moche costume and performance, 228, 229
Moche murals, tocapu-like figures in, 293297, 294, 295,
296, 305
Moche pyramid complexes and monumental art, 228,
229
Moctezuma, in Codex Mendoza, 218, 219
Molina el Cuzqueo, Cristbal de, 288, 289, 297, 300,
307n7
Monaghan, John, 175
Montana site: Cotzumalhuapa writings and decline of,
48; Teotihuacan cultural traits at, 48
Monte Albn: Building J, 140, 142; Building L-sub, 114,
114117, 116, 138, 139, 140, 145n17; calendrical names of
owners, objects marked with, 134, 135; Estela Lisa, 91,
93; Fragments S11 and S16, South Platform, 140, 142;
Lpida de Bazan, 91, 92; Middle Formative danzante
sculptures at, 100; miniature items from, 137, 139;
Monument SP2, South Platform, 140, 141; Monument
SP8a, South Platform, 140, 142; Monument SP9, South
Platform, 140, 142; Mound II slab, 117, 119; scribal
error at, 140143, 141, 142; Stela 1, 92, 93; Stela 7, 91;
Teotihuacan writing at, 83, 91, 9193, 94; Terrace
79 house, ceramic plaque from, 134, 135; Tomb 7,
miniature weaving baton from, 137, 139; Tomb 104, 125,
126127, 134, 135, 140; Tomb 158, Terrace 27, carved lintel
from, 130, 131; Tombs 139141, Terrace 21, 140, 142
Morgan, Lewis Henry, 11, 12, 17
Morley, Sylvanus, 14, 18, 30
morphosyllables in Maya glyphs, 2830, 29
mortuary contexts: of coastal writing tradition, 130134,
133; of Moche ceramic imagery, 229; of uie scribal
tradition, 130, 132; personhood and human body,
notions of, 125139, 126129, 131133, 135138; of
Zapotec writing, 125130
Moteuhczoma Ilhuicamina, 186, 188
Moteuhczoma Xocoyotzin, 186, 192
Motolinia [Toribio de Benavente], ix, 202
Muchic or Yunga language, 239
mummified remains, writing on skin of, 138, 139
Mura, Martn de: on khipus, 326; on tocapus, 281, 287,
298, 301305, 302, 303, 310n22, 310n24
Nahua and Nahuatl: Cotzumalhuapa writings and
Nahua day names, 53; migration theme and, 162, 164;
404 i n de x
non-Maya glyphs, use of, 26; places of origin and,
157162; Teotihuacan writing and, 77, 78, 84, 85, 88,
89; thematic units in, 156
napa or puca llama, 262
Naples documents and the khipu, 284, 306n6, 310n24,
312n42
Naranjo, identification of scribes producing Maya glyphs
in, 23
Navarrete, Federico, 175, 383, 385, 393394
NeighborNet, 345348, 346, 347
New Fire ceremony, 117, 158, 186, 192
Nicholson, H. B., 1, 2, 151, 190
Noriega, Mound 4, genealogical slab from cist in, 125, 128
Nowotny, Karl Anton, 2, 153
Nueva cornica y buen gobierno (Guaman Poma, 1615),
279280, 280, 283, 301, 304, 310n24
uie scribal tradition: alabaster carved vessels, 134;
calendric notation in, 78; defined and described, 112,
113; mortuary contexts, 130, 132
Nun Yax Ayiin, Tikal Stelae 31 and 32, 99, 100
Ocelotzin, 213, 214
Okladnikov, A. P., 16
Olderogge, Dmitri Alexeyevich, 14, 16
Olivier, Guilhem, 186, 187
open versus closed writing systems, 66, 384
oral literary tradition: Aztec writing and, 175176,
191192; ethnoiconological analogies drawn from, 156;
khipus and tocapus in, 279; Moche ceramic imagery
and, 245; written transmission versus, 45
origin theme and places of origin, 156, 157162, 159, 160
orthographical issues, 6
orthostats: human skin as writing surface on, 138, 139;
preservation of performance and place-making in,
114116, 114123, 118121, 123, 124; scribal error on, 140
Codex Osuna, 212
Oudijk, Michel R., 149, 385, 394
Pacaritambo, Inka caves of origin at, 297, 298, 308n11
Pachacamac khipus, 328, 335, 344, 345, 348, 361
Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamaygua, Santa Cruz, 279, 297,
298, 299, 311n38
Palacios, Enrique, 185
pallares (marked beans) in Moche ceramic imagery, 229,
230
Palo Gordo: inventory of Cotzumalhuapa inscriptions
at, 50; Monument 10, 60; Monument 24, 63, 64;
Monument 25, 6263, 63
Palo Verde: inventory of Cotzumalhuapa inscriptions at,
50; Monument 1, 59
Panofsky, Erwin, 150, 151
Paris Codex, 35n2, 80, 81
Parry, Milman, 149
pars pro toto convention in Teotihuacan writing, 95, 98,
98100
Pasa Qullqa (storehouse) and Kaha Wayi (khipu house),
Rapaz, 355360, 356, 357, 358, 359, 373
Pasin, absolute size and relative proportion of Maya
glyphs at, 24
patrimonial khipus in Rapaz, 353377; Catholicism,
no association with, 358; dating of, 364368, 373;
figurines, 362, 363, 364, 365, 367, 371, 373; historical
context, 353354; Kaha Wayi (khipu house) and Pasa
Qullqa (storehouse), 355360, 356, 357, 358, 359, 373;
khipu collection, 358, 360364, 361, 362, 363; meaning
attributed to, 363; military history and Peruvian War
of Independence in Rapaz area, 364373, 366369, 372;
Pre-Columbian khipus, not resembling, 363364, 374;
scholarly study of, 355; Tupicocha khipus and, 354,
354355, 374; village, description of, 355356
Peirce, Charles S., 111, 233
performance: in Aztec writing tradition, 175176,
191192; elaboration and abbreviation of literary
themes and, 114116, 114123, 118121, 123, 124; in
Moche culture, 228, 229; writing as cultural category
compared to, 380381
personhood and human body, writing conveying
notions of, 125139, 126129, 131133, 135138
Peten, San Diego wall carving at, 25
Peterson, Jeanette, 202
Philip II (king of Spain), death inventory of, 300
pictographic systems versus hieroglyphic script, 386387
pictures versus glyphs, 385386
Piedra Labrada: Stela 1, 81, 82; Stela 3, 133, 134; Stela 11,
130, 133; stela with Teotihuacan water sign, 83, 84;
Teotihuacan writing at, 78, 81, 82, 83, 84
Piedras Negras: identification of scribes producing Maya
glyphs in, 23; Panel 2, 87
Pillsbury, Joanne, x, 3
Pintura de la Peregrinacin de los Culhuaque-Mexitin
(Mapa Sigenza), 162, 168169n56
Pipil and Cotzumalhuapa writings, 53
Pizarro, Pedro, 259
place-making and performance, relationship of writing
to, 114116, 114123, 118121, 123, 124
places of origin and origin theme, 156, 157162, 159, 160
El Plano del Papel de Maguey, 88, 89
Plaza de los Glifos, Teotihuacan: day signs, 80, 81, 82;
Early Classic painted grids at, 87, 88; emblematic
glyphs (toponyms, titles, and personal names), 84, 85;
jaguars devouring hearts, 102; Tlaloc and quincunx
sign, 102, 103
Pleiades constellation and Chuquibamba textile notation
systems, 259, 267
polychrome mural fragment with Teotihuacan day sign,
83, 8384
polycode nature of Maya glyphs, 24
Ponce Monolith, Tiwanaku, 289
Popol Vuh, 164
Porras, Bartolom de, 300
porras (conical mace heads) in Moche ceramic imagery,
235, 236, 239
Porter, James, 100
Post-Monte Albn scribal tradition, 112, 113
Prem, Hans, 385
Primeros memoriales (Sahagn), 102, 202
Probanza de Yetzelalag (seventeenth century), 166
processualism, 4
propagative syllables in Maya glyphs, 3234, 33
Proskouriakoff, Tatiana, 1, 104
puca or napa llama, 262
puka kuychi (red rainbow) textile colors, 339
pyramid complexes, Moche, 228, 229
pyramid motif, stepped, in Moche ceramic imagery,
logographic aspects of, 238, 238239
Pyramid of the Moon, Burial 2, five Tlaloc water jars
from, 103
Pyramid of the Plumed Serpents, Xochicalco, 93
Pyramid of the Sun, Late Preclassic Chicanel pottery in
interior fill of, 78
Quelatinizoo (Lagoon of Primordial Blood), 158162, 166
queros with tocapus, 285, 286, 287, 297, 305
Quetzalcoatl, 152, 164
Quetzalteueyac, 158
Quicopecua, Tomb 1, Mound 1, 125, 126127
quilca, 278, 308n9
Quilter, Jeffrey, 2
quincunx motif: Tlaloc head with quincunx in mouth,
Teotihuacan, 81, 90, 96, 98, 101, 101103, 102; tocapus
and, 297, 299
quipu. See khipu
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R., 11
Rapaz. See patrimonial khipus in Rapaz
Rawlinson, Henry, 18
rebus writing and rebus devices, 77, 210, 222n16, 234, 238,
239, 384, 387
rgime dhistoricit (historical sensibility) in Aztec
writing, 176178, 184, 188, 190, 191
Relacin de la provincia de los Collaguas (Juan de Ulloa
Mogolln, 1583), 272
Relacin de las antigedades del Pir (Santa Cruz
Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamaygua, ca. 1613), 279, 297, 298
Relacin de las cosas de Yucatn (Diego de Landa), 13,
1415, 16, 278
Relacin de las fbulas y los ritos de los incas (Molina el
Cuzqueo, ca. 1575), 288, 307n7
Relacin de Macuilxochtil, 52
Relacin geogrfica of Cholula, 152153, 160
Reptiles Eye glyph in Teotihuacan writing, 81, 8182
Revolt of the Objects scene in Moche ceramic imagery,
241244, 241245
Ro Grande 2, coastal Oaxaca, carved stones from, 122
ritual petitions, counted offerings in, 153, 155
River of Jade and Quetzal Feathers, 158, 162
Rivers, W. H. R., 17
Robertson, Donald, 177
Roman Catholicism. See Catholicism
index 405
 Roman y Zamora, Jernimo, 281
Rosny, Lon de, 15
Rowe, Ann, 256
Rowe, John, 284
Roys, Ralph, 18
Rufino Tamayo stela, possibly from Guerrero, 79, 94,
9495
Ruz Estrada, Arturo, 355, 363, 364
Rulers 13 and 15, Copan, 23, 24
Russia. See Knorosov, Yuri Valentinovich, decipherment
of Maya glyphs by
sacred birth theme, 167
Sahagn, Bernardino de, 168169n56, 169n10, 202204, Soviet Union. See Knorosov, Yuri Valentinovich,
206
Salomon, Frank, 353, 394
San Baltazar Chichicapan, genealogical slab attributed
to, 125, 128
San Bartolo: origins of Maya glyphs and, 31; size of Maya
glyphs used at, 25, 26
San Bartolome Lachixova, title of, 166
San Jose de Moro, 227, 228
San Jos Mogote, Monument 3, 122123, 123
San Juan Tabaa, title of, 166
San Martn, Jos de, 368370
San Pedro Aae, alabaster vessel from, 134139, 136
San Pedro Quiatoni, stone miniature replica of tomb
facade, 125, 127
Sangro Sansevero, Raimondo di, ix, 284
Cdice de Santa Mara Asuncin, 85
Santa Mara Camotlan, writing on skin of mummified
remains from, 138, 139
Santa Rosa site, Cotzumalhuapa inscription at, 50
Sarmiento de Gamboa, Pedro, 281, 288, 300, 307n7
Saussure, Ferdinand de, 111, 232
Schele, Linda, 1
Schellhas, Paul, 13
Schultze-Jena, Leonhard, 153
scribal error, semiology of, 139143, 141, 142
seated character with Cotzumalhuapa Star glyph,
portable sculpture, 50
Codex Selden (Codex Aute), 114, 115, 150, 151, 167, 169n8
Selden Roll, 164
Seler, Eduard, 57, 59
self-sacrifice rituals, 188190
semasiography, 231233; dialectic model of, 232233;
glottography versus, 384385; hybrid graphic systems
as semasiographic, 198, 233; mathematical notation
as semasiographic, 231232; Mexican pictography as
semasiographic system, 198; in Moche Revolt of the
Objects scene, 241244, 241245; musical notation as
semasiographic, 231; origins and meaning of term,
221n3; road signs as semasiographic, 232; triadic
model of, 233
semiological theory of writing, 111112
serpents devouring hearts in Teotihuacan art, 102, 103
shawls. See Chuquibamba textile notation systems
40 6 i n de x
shields, Teotihuacan monumental rendering of, 99,
100103
singing canine heads and weapon bundles, Teotihuacan-
style, 95, 96
Sipan, 227, 228
size of signs: Cotzumalhuapa writings, oversized signs
in, 56, 5657; Maya glyphs, absolute size and relative
proportion of, 2426, 25
skull birds in Cotzumalhuapa writing, 53, 5354, 54
Smith, Mary Elizabeth, 1, 191
social and cultural meaning. See cultural category,
writing systems as; cultural code, written surface as
somatic framework: for Maya glyphs, 26; for Maya stelae,
36n5
decipherment of Maya glyphs by
space. See time and space
Spanish conquest: Aztec writing and, 191;
ethnoiconological approach to representations
of, 166; khipus in colonial and Catholic contexts,
290, 353355; Moteuhczoma Xocoyotzins failure to
build sacrificial stone and, 192; tocapus, colonial
understanding of, 278283, 287288, 305. See also
hybridity of graphic systems after Spanish conquest;
patrimonial khipus in Rapaz
Spear-Thrower Owl, 90, 101
speech and language: Moche ceramic imagery not
reducible to, 240241; writing as cultural category
compared to, 380381; writing, relationship to, 111112
SplitsTree4, 345348
Spranz, Bodo, 1
Squier, E. G., 290
Stalin, Joseph, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16
Star glyph, Cotzumalhuapa writings, 50, 5759, 58
Stephens, John Lloyd, ix
stepped pyramid motif in Moche ceramic imagery,
logographic aspects of, 238, 238239
Stone of Tizoc, 181, 184, 186188, 187, 191192
Stuart, David, x, 1, 24, 28, 32, 34, 88, 104
Sucre, Jos Antonio de, 370371, 373
syllabary, identification of Maya script as, 15
synharmony, principle of, 15
syntagmic relationships in spoken and written language,
111112
Takalik Abaj: Classic period, as important center
through, 48; Late Preclassic writings from, 4647
Talum carved vessels, 133, 134
Tamarindito, identification of scribes producing Maya
glyphs in, 23
tattooed mummified remains from Santa Mara
Camotlan, 138, 139
Taube, Karl, 4748, 61, 77, 134, 385, 394395
Tawantinsuyu, 298299, 299
tecalli bowl carved with Reptiles Eye glyph, 81, 82
tecalli plumed serpent with Teotihuacan day names, 78, 79
tecalli sculpture with Tlaloc and quincunx sign, 101
Techinantitla, Teotihuacan writing at, 84
Codex Telleriano-Remensis, 178, 179, 180, 181, 183, 188,
202, 206, 212
Temple of the Sun, Cuzco, 259
Temple-Plaza-Altar complexes, 117, 118, 125
temple signs, Teotihuacan, 86, 8687
Templo Mayor, Mexico-Tenochtitlan: Aztec writing
depicting, 177181, 184186; Coatepec, representing,
161; Coyolxauhqui monument at base of staircase,
122123; dedication stone, 188190, 189, 191192;
deposition on cult images removed from, 212213,
213, 219
Tenoch, enthronement of, Codex Azcatitlan, 216, 216217
Tenochtitlan. See Mexico-Tenochtitlan
Tenosique Bowl, non-Maya glyphs in Maya inscriptions
on, 27
Teocalli de la Guerra Sagrada, 181, 184186, 185, 187,
190, 192
(Teo)Colhuacan, 158, 162
Teohuaonohualli, 213, 214
Teotenango script: inventory of inscriptions compared
to Cotzumalhuapa, 49; lack of study of, 77
Teotihuacan: grid plan of metropolis, 88. See also
La Ventilla, Teotihuacan; Plaza de los Glifos,
Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan-style statuette with day sign, 79, 80
Teotihuacan writing, 77109; in context of coastal writing
tradition, 4748, 66; Cotzumalhuapa writings and,
4849, 95; day signs in, 7884, 7983; development
of Early Classic central Mexican writing and, 7778;
emblematic glyphs (toponyms, titles, and personal
names), 8488, 85, 86, 87, 385; grids, central Mexican
examples of writing in, 87, 8890, 89; Guerrero,
monumental texts from, 78, 79, 9397, 9398, 94,
104; head signs in frontal view, 104; human sacrifice,
depictions of, 102, 103; Maya influence, 7778, 90,
9093, 91, 92; open systems, trend toward, 66; tlatoque (ruler) successions in Mexica codices, 178181, 184
pars pro toto convention, 95, 98, 98100; shields,
monumental rendering of, 99, 100103; speech scrolls
in, 61; symmetry as characteristic of, 100; Tlaloc head
with quincunx in mouth, 81, 90, 96, 98, 101, 101103,
102; Zapotec writing and, 48, 7778, 83, 90, 9093, 91,
92, 100, 104; zoomorphic vehicles, 92, 93
Tepantitla, Teotihuacan writings from, 84, 85, 96, 102,
103
Tepecuacuilco: Stela 1, 9596, 96; Stela 2, 96, 97, 98;
Teotihuacan writing at, 78
Tepelmeme de Morelos, Oaxaca, Protoclassic murals,
80, 81
Tepeyollotl-Tezcatlipoca, 186
Testerian manuscripts, 206209, 206210
Tetitla, Teotihuacan emblematic glyphs from, 86
Texcocan manuscripts, organization of, 177
textiles: color system for, 339; costume and performance
in Moche culture, 228, 229; tocapus and, 278, 287, 289.
See also Chuquibamba textile notation systems; khipu
Tezcatlipoca, 103, 186, 187
Tezozmoc, Fernando Alvarado, 181
Thomas, Cyrus, 15
Thompson, John Eric Sidney: Cold War decipherment of
Maya glyphs and, 10, 1418; Cotzumalhuapa writings
and, 43, 5152, 54
Tikal: Burial 116, incised bone from, 90, 9091;
identification of scribes producing Maya glyphs in,
23; somatic framework of stelae at, 36n5; Stela 1, 90;
Stela 31, 99, 100, 105n6; Stela 32, 99, 100, 104; Temple
of the Inscriptions, 24, 25; Teotihuacan arrival at, 88,
104; Teotihuacan writing at, 78, 83, 90, 9091
Tikal dynasty: Maya glyph changes and, 32; probable
usurpation by Teotihuacan, 88, 104
Tilantongo, 157, 167
time and space: Aztec writing, chronotopes in, 176178,
181, 184, 190, 191; tocapus used to represent significant
spaces, 297300, 298, 299. See also variations in Maya
glyphs over space and time
Tiquisate bowl, Cotzumalhuapa writing and, 53
Tira de la Peregrinacin, 168169n56. See also Codex
Boturini
Tira de Tepechpan, 192n2, 199, 211, 215
Tiwanaku monoliths and tocapus, 288289, 289
Tizoc: dedication stone, Templo Mayor, Mexica-
Tenochtitlan, 188, 190; Stone of Tizoc, 181, 184,
186188, 187, 191192
Tlachihualtepec or Great Pyramid of Cholula, 160, 161
tlacochcalco, 87
Tlaloc heads: in Cotzumalhuapa writing, 53;
Teotihuacan Tlaloc head with quincunx in mouth,
81, 90, 96, 98, 101, 101103, 102
Tlaltecuhtli, 185, 186, 187, 188
Tlamanalco church choir paintings, 202
Tlapacoya, lack of writing tradition at, 77
Tlapanecs, ritual use of counted bundles by, 153, 155
Tlatelolco. See Mexico-Tlatelolco
Tlatolatl, 212
Tlaxcallan property plan, 213, 214
Tlaxiaco, alabaster vessel from, 134139, 136
Tlazolteotl, 208
toads, Chuquibamba textiles symbolic use of, 261262
tocapu, 277317; ancestral mummies wrapped in
textiles with, 5; arrangement of, variations in, 292;
Berlin cross painted with, 284287, 285; on chullpas,
290, 292; color schemes, significance of, 286287;
defining, 286288; Dumbarton Oaks conferences
on, 2; fixed set of signs, problem with interpretation
as, 305; Inkas lack of writing system and, 281283,
308n9; Jama-Coaque vessels with, 296, 297, 305;
khipus and, 279284, 288, 289290, 300301; Lake
Titicaca and ruins of Tiwanaku, association with,
288; in Manco Capac portraits, 301305, 302, 303,
304; Moche murals, tocapu-like figures in, 293297,
294, 295, 296, 305; multiple media, appearances in,
290293; on queros, 285, 286, 287, 297, 305; quilca,
relationship to, 278; quincunx motif and, 297, 299;
as seales (signs), 300301; significant spaces, used
to represent, 297300, 298, 299; Spanish conquest,
index 407
 in writings and images after, 278283, 287288, 305;
specific meanings for individual forms, efforts to
decipher, 283284; symbolic meanings attached
to, 288290; textiles, relationship to, 278, 287, 289;
Tiwanaku monoliths and, 288289, 289; uncus (male
tunics) with, 281, 282, 284287, 290, 291, 293294,
295, 300, 301305, 302, 303, 304; urpus painted as if
wearing uncus with, 290, 293
Tokarev, Sergei Aleksandrovich, 12, 13
Toledan-era viceroyalty, khipus of governance under, 353
Tollan, 159161
Tollan Cholollan, 152
Tolstov, Sergei Pavlovich, 1112, 13, 14
Codex Tonindeye (Codex Zouche-Nuttall), 115, 152, 158,
167, 169n8
Torres Straits Expedition (1898), 17
Totometla, Tlaloc and quincunx sign from, 101
Tovar calendar, 206
Townsend, Richard, 186
Tozzer, Alfred, 18
tribute khipus, 344, 345
Codex Tudela, 202, 206
tukapu. See tocapu
Tula: lack of study of, 77; Teotihuacan writing and, 82, 87
Codex Tulane, 170n22
tunics, male. See uncus
Tupicocha khipus, 354, 354355, 374
U-shaped element serving as toponymic sign for
Teotihuacan and Xochicalco, 96, 97
Uaxactun Stela, 27
Ulloa Mogolln, Juan de, 272
Umberger, Emily, 186, 187, 188
uncus (male tunics), 252253; Peabody Museum
Chuquibamba uncu with solar calendar, 252, 253,
257258, 258, 266, 268, 269; with tocapu designs, 281,
282, 284287, 290, 291, 293294, 295, 300, 301305, 302,
303, 304; urpus painted as if wearing, 290, 293
Urcid, Javier, 2, 111, 382, 386, 395
urpus painted as if wearing uncus with tocapu designs,
290, 293
Urton, Gary, ix, x, 1, 2, 319, 320, 323, 324, 334, 338, 339, 345,
380, 395
USSR. See Knorosov, Yuri Valentinovich, decipherment
of Maya glyphs by
Uxmal, Yukatekan terms in script at, 27
Uxul stelae, size of glyphs on, 24, 25
variations in Maya glyphs over space and time, 2142;
in absolute size and relative proportion, 2426,
25; consonant sensitivity, development of, 32, 33;
diversity, accounting for, 3034; heterography
(variation at any one time), 34; Middle and Late
Classic-period glyphs, 3234; morphosyllables,
2830, 29; number of glyphs in use at any one
time and place, 3031; phonic and linguistic
40 8 i n de x
characteristics, 2630; Postclassic-period glyphs,
34; Preclassic- and Early Classic-period glyphs,
31; propagative syllables, use of, 3234, 33; social
circumstances affecting, 23, 31, 32, 3435; vowel
notations, introduction of, 32
Codex Vaticanus A/Ros, 178, 180, 206
Codex Vaticanus B, 103
Vega, Garcilaso de la, 281, 326, 328
Ventris, Michael, 18
Veracruz: Teotihuacan writing at, 78, 100; Xochicalco
Glyph A on monument probably from, 82, 83
Codex Vienna, 385. See also Codex Vindobonensis
Codex Vindobonensis, 159, 164165, 165. See also Codex
Vienna
Viracocha, 288
Vista Linda, Monument 1, 58
Von Winning, Hasso, 82, 86, 103
Wari/Middle Horizon khipus, 321, 321322, 322, 325, 350
Warrior theme in Moche ceramic imagery, 234238, 235,
236, 237, 240
White Patio mural at Atetelco, 96
Whittaker, Gordon, 385386
Wichmann, Sren, 30
women and writing: Chuquibamba textiles for women,
252253 (See also Chuquibamba textile notation
systems); ethnoiconology of representations of
women, 150, 151; Maya glyphs, female literacy in, 23
writing systems in Pre-Columbian America, ixx,
17; comparative dialogue, importance of,
36, 18; as cultural category, 379390 (See also
cultural category, writing systems as); as cultural
code, 111148 (See also cultural code, written
surface as); cultural superiority associated with
possession of writing system, 306n3; Dumbarton
Oaks conferences on, ixx, 13; elaboration and
abbreviation of literary themes in, 149174 (See
also elaboration and abbreviation); hybrid graphic
systems, 197225 (See also hybridity of graphic
systems after Spanish conquest); Inka lack of, 281
283, 308n9 (See also Chuquibamba textile notation
systems; Cuzco; khipu; tocapu); oral versus written
transmission, 45; orthography of, 6; true writing,
status as, ix, 2; use of writing as term, problem of,
379380, 387388. See also specific systems, e.g.,
Maya glyphs
xiuhamatl, 177
Xiuhtecuhtli, 103, 187
Xochicalco Glyph A on Teotihuacan-style vessels and
monuments, 82, 8284
Xochicalco script: animated signs in, 59, 5960;
inventory of inscriptions compared to
Cotzumalhuapa, 49; lack of study of, 77; Temple
of the Feathered Serpent, 59; Teotihuacan writing
 and, 48, 66, 78, 82, 87, 93, 94, 101; Tlaloc head with
quincunx in mouth, 101
Xolochiuhyan place name, Codex Mendoza, 85
Xoxocotlan, Tomb A, lintel, 140, 142
Yagul, Tomb 28, Terrace C, 125, 126127
Yaxchilan, absolute size and relative proportion of Maya
glyphs at, 24, 25
Yaxha stela, 24, 25
Yaxitzadao, 166
year counts: in Mexica codices, 178181; on Mexica stone
monuments, 186
Yogana: alabaster vessel attributed to, 134139, 136; effigy
vessel from, 125130, 129
Yucatan, number of Maya glyphs in use in, 30
Yukatekan terms in script at Uxmal and Chichen Itza, 27
Zacuala Palace mural, Teotihuacan, 93
Zapotec writing: alabaster carved vessels, 134; and
Cuilapan cloister stone, 117, 118; defined and
described, 112, 112113; genealogical records,
inscriptions of, 125, 126128; human skin as writing
surface for, 139; length of use of, 21; migration
theme and, 162, 165166; mortuary contexts of many
inscriptions, 125130; places of origin and, 158160;
scribal error in, 140143, 141, 142; symmetry as
characteristic of, 100; Teotihuacan writing and, 48,
7778, 83, 90, 9093, 91, 92, 100, 104; Xochicalco
Glyph A probably originating in, 83
Zender, Marc, 34, 385
Zhdanov, Andrei, 1011
Zimatlan: human carved parietal bone attributed to, 134,
136; stone cylindrical basin attributed to, 134, 135
zoomorphic vehicles, Teotihuacan figures riding, 92, 93
Codex Zouche-Nuttall (Codex Tonindeye), 115, 152, 158,
167, 169n8
Zuidema, R. Tom, 251, 286, 345, 386, 395
Zumrraga, Juan de, 212213, 214
index 409
 dumbar ton oak s pre- columbia n
s y mp osia a nd col loquia
published by dumbarton oaks research library
and collection, washington, d.c.
The Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian Symposia
and Colloquia series volumes are based on papers
presented at scholarly meetings sponsored by the
Pre-Columbian Studies program at Dumbarton
Oaks. Inaugurated in 1967, these meetings provide
a forum for the presentation of advanced research
Dumbarton Oaks Conference on the Olmec,
edited by Elizabeth P. Benson, 1968
Dumbarton Oaks Conference on Chavn, edited
by Elizabeth P. Benson, 1971
The Cult of the Feline, edited by Elizabeth P.
Benson, 1972
Mesoamerican Writing Systems, edited by
Elizabeth P. Benson, 1973
Death and the Afterlife in Pre-Columbian America,
edited by Elizabeth P. Benson, 1975
The Sea in the Pre-Columbian World, edited by
Elizabeth P. Benson, 1977
The Junius B. Bird Pre-Columbian Textile
Conference, edited by Ann Pollard Rowe,
Elizabeth P. Benson, and Anne-Louise
Schaffer, 1979
Pre-Columbian Metallurgy of South America,
edited by Elizabeth P. Benson, 1979
Mesoamerican Sites and World-Views, edited
by Elizabeth P. Benson, 1981
The Art and Iconography of Late Post-Classic Central
Mexico, edited by Elizabeth Hill Boone, 1982
and the exchange of ideas on the art and
archaeology of the ancient Americas.
Further information on Dumbarton Oaks
Pre-Columbian series and publications can
be found at www.doaks.org/publications.
Falsifications and Misreconstructions of
Pre-Columbian Art, edited by Elizabeth Hill
Boone, 1982
Highland-Lowland Interaction in Mesoamerica:
Interdisciplinary Approaches, edited by Arthur G.
Miller, 1983
Ritual Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica, edited by
Elizabeth Hill Boone, 1984
Painted Architecture and Polychrome Monumental
Sculpture in Mesoamerica, edited by Elizabeth Hill
Boone, 1985
Early Ceremonial Architecture in the Andes, edited
by Christopher B. Donnan, 1985
The Aztec Templo Mayor, edited by Elizabeth Hill
Boone, 1986
The Southeast Classic Maya Zone, edited by
Elizabeth Hill Boone and Gordon R. Willey, 1988
The Northern Dynasties: Kingship and Statecraft in
Chimor, edited by Michael E. Moseley and Alana
Cordy-Collins, 1990
Wealth and Hierarchy in the Intermediate Area,
edited by Frederick W. Lange, 1992
4 11
 Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan, edited
by Janet Catherine Berlo, 1992
Latin American Horizons, edited by Don Stephen
Rice, 1993
Lowland Maya Civilization in the Eighth Century
AD, edited by Jeremy A. Sabloff and John S.
Henderson, 1993
Collecting the Pre-Columbian Past, edited by
Elizabeth Hill Boone, 1993
Tombs for the Living: Andean Mortuary Practices,
edited by Tom D. Dillehay, 1995
Native Traditions in the Postconquest World,
edited by Elizabeth Hill Boone and Tom
Cummins, 1998
Function and Meaning in Classic Maya
Architecture, edited by Stephen D. Houston, 1998
Social Patterns in Pre-Classic Mesoamerica, edited
by David C. Grove and Rosemary A. Joyce, 1999
Gender in Pre-Hispanic America, edited by
Cecelia F. Klein, 2001
Archaeology of Formative Ecuador, edited by
J. Scott Raymond and Richard L. Burger, 2003
Gold and Power in Ancient Costa Rica, Panama,
and Colombia, edited by Jeffrey Quilter and John
W. Hoopes, 2003
Palaces of the Ancient New World, edited by Susan
Toby Evans and Joanne Pillsbury, 2004
A Pre-Columbian World, edited by Jeffrey Quilter
and Mary Ellen Miller, 2006
412
Twin Tollans: Chichn Itz, Tula, and the
Epiclassic to Early Postclassic Mesoamerican
World, edited by Jeff Karl Kowalski and Cynthia
Kristan-Graham, 2007
Variations in the Expression of Inka Power, edited
by Richard L. Burger, Craig Morris, and Ramiro
Matos Mendieta, 2007
El Nio, Catastrophism, and Culture Change in
Ancient America, edited by Daniel H. Sandweiss
and Jeffrey Quilter, 2008
Classic Period Cultural Currents in Southern and
Central Veracruz, edited by Philip J. Arnold III
and Christopher A. Pool, 2008
The Art of Urbanism: How Mesoamerican
Kingdoms Represented Themselves in Architecture
and Imagery, edited by William L. Fash and
Leonardo Lpez Lujn, 2009
New Perspectives on Moche Political Organization,
edited by Jeffrey Quilter and Luis Jaime Castillo B.,
2010
Astronomers, Scribes, and Priests: Intellectual
Interchange between the Northern Maya Lowlands
and Highland Mexico in the Late Postclassic
Period, edited by Gabrielle Vail and Christine
Hernndez, 2010
The Place of Stone Monuments: Context, Use, and
Meaning in Mesoamericas Preclassic Transition,
edited by Julia Guernsey, John E. Clark, and
Barbara Arroyo, 2010
Their Way of Writing: Scripts, Signs, and
Pictographies in Pre-Columbian America, edited
by Elizabeth Hill Boone and Gary Urton, 2011
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