This artefact is called the Dresden codex; it is one of the four Mayan books that still exist today. It is kept in the collection of the Saxon State and University Library in Dresden, Germany. The other three are in secure places in Madrid, Paris and in Mexico City. The Dresden codex consists of 39 leaves, inscribed on both sides, and 358 centimeters long, the codex was folded in an accordion like-manner. The Mayans adapted their system of writing called glyphs, from the Olmecs around 50 B.C.E. The Dresden codex was written just before the Spanish conquest in 1523. The Mayans wrote on a type of paper made of the insides of fig trees, it was called Amatl. The Mayans also carved their stories on stone.
The codex portrays hieroglyphs and numerals. It contains ritual calendars, calculations of the phases of Venus, and eclipses of the sun and the moon. It showed instructions relating to new-year ceremonies, and the locations of the …show more content…
The leader of them was a Diego de Landa, a bishop from a Catholic Church in Spain. He said “These people also used certain characters or letters, with which they wrote in their books about the antiquities and their sciences; with these, and with figures, and certain signs in the figures, they understood their matters, made them known, and taught them. We found a great number of books in these letters, and since they contained nothing but superstitions and falsehood of the devil we burned them all, which they took most grievously, and which gave them great pain.” He said that the Mayan texts were lies of the devil, so they burned most of them. Today we can read some of the books, we know about number and other words, but because the books were burnt, the the world lost a great deal of
The codex portrays hieroglyphs and numerals. It contains ritual calendars, calculations of the phases of Venus, and eclipses of the sun and the moon. It showed instructions relating to new-year ceremonies, and the locations of the …show more content…
The leader of them was a Diego de Landa, a bishop from a Catholic Church in Spain. He said “These people also used certain characters or letters, with which they wrote in their books about the antiquities and their sciences; with these, and with figures, and certain signs in the figures, they understood their matters, made them known, and taught them. We found a great number of books in these letters, and since they contained nothing but superstitions and falsehood of the devil we burned them all, which they took most grievously, and which gave them great pain.” He said that the Mayan texts were lies of the devil, so they burned most of them. Today we can read some of the books, we know about number and other words, but because the books were burnt, the the world lost a great deal of