Introduction to the Maya Codices

Studies of prehispanic Maya culture focus primarily on sites in the Classic period heartland — places such as Tikal, Calakmul, Copán, Palenque, and Yaxchilán, which reached their apogee during the sixth through ninth centuries. The northern Maya lowlands are less well known, with the exception of sites such as Chichén Itzá and those in the Puuc region. The time period after the depopulation of the great Maya cities, whether located in the northern or southern regions, has only recently been the focus of extensive research projects. This "Postclassic" period is a time of significant change in virtually all aspects of society. As our study shows, however, this time period is characterized by a continuation of mythological traditions from the Classic period, along with the introduction of new mythologies as a result of extensive cultural contact between populations in the northern Maya lowlands, the Gulf Coast region, and highland central and southern Mexico.

The Maya codices provide the primary source of textual and iconographic information for studies of Postclassic Maya culture. Where and when the three manuscripts now residing in European collections were painted remains a source of conjecture, although few codical scholars would dispute a general provenience in the northern lowlands. Moreover, given the fragile nature of the material of which they are made, it seems likely that they were painted within a couple of generations of initial contact with Europeans in 1519. This is not to say, however, that the underlying content of the codices dates to this time period. Rather, as the work of recent scholars has demonstrated, many of the codical almanacs and tables reference astronomical and meteorological events dating from the Classic period, with the earliest dates corresponding to the fifth century (H. Bricker and V. Bricker 2011: 359; V. Bricker and H. Bricker 1992; Vail and Hernández 2011). Some of these texts appear to have been intended solely as records of past events, whereas others were used for predictions in later centuries. Still other texts were newly made by the Postclassic scribes who drafted the extant versions of the manuscripts known as the Dresden, Madrid, and Paris codices (V. Bricker and H. Bricker 1992).

DOI: 10.5876/9781607322214.c01

Many of the almanacs in the Maya codices lack dates that would associate them with absolute time. Rather, they record rituals and prognostications that were related to various cycles occurring in nature, including periods of 260 days, 584 days, and 52 years. Historical dates in the Maya codices relate specifically to celestial events such as eclipses or the appearance of deities that embody different planetary cycles. History in the sense that we think of it, as events in the lives of individuals, is not recorded in these texts. In its place, mythical events in the lives of deities are given considerable weight and are viewed in terms of their relationship to human concerns such as the success or failure of the maize crop and the amount of rain received during the time period when the scribe was composing the record of these events.

Ties between the historical present and the mythological past were made in various ways in the Maya codices. The scribes responsible for the Dresden Codex made explicit reference to dates in mythic time, calculated from the base date of the current era, which corresponds to 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ahaw 8 Kumk'u, or August 11, 3114 B.C. In the codices, primordial time could also be referenced by specific iconographic elements, usually in combination with a short hieroglyphic caption. The Madrid scribes favored 4 Ahaw as the beginning date of almanacs with ties to creation episodes or to schedule ceremonies that were dedicated to renewing the world (see Chapter 9). In the Paris Codex, one means of linking historical and mythic time involved the depiction of bound crocodilians that formed "skyband thrones" to highlight parallels between the figures seated on the thrones and the act of subduing the earth crocodilian by mythic figures, such as the Hero Twins in the Popol Vuh.

The Dresden was the earliest of the three Maya codices to come to light in Europe. It was purchased by the head of the Royal Library in Dresden in 1739 from an unknown source in Vienna. How and when the codex reached Vienna remains a matter of conjecture. Michael Coe (1989b) has suggested that it was one of the screenfold books described in a 1520 account of indigenous material sent by Hernán Cortés and his party to the Spanish court of Charles V. Cortés is said to have acquired "native books" from a visit to Cozumel in February 1519. More recently, John Chuchiak (2012) has put forth a different scenario to account for its presence in Vienna.

In an earlier study, Merideth Paxton (1991) concluded, on the basis of an iconographic analysis, that the codex was painted at some point during the Late Postclassic period and that this may have taken place at any one of a number of sites, including Chichén Itzá, Mayapán, Santa Rita Corozal, or Tulum. Analysis of the astronomical content of the Dresden Codex suggests that its pages contain copies of earlier almanacs and texts that date from the sixth through the twelfth centuries (V. Bricker and H. Bricker 1992:82, table 2.8;Vail and Hernández 2011). Victoria and Harvey Bricker (1992:83) suggest that the physical manuscript was most likely painted in the thirteenth century, although an early sixteenth-century date cannot be ruled out.

All but four of the Dresden's 78 pages (39 on each side) were painted. The codex includes a combination of what researchers term almanacs and tables, the former being distinguished from the latter in not including dates in absolute time. Of particular interest to our study are several almanacs that concern the yearbearer ceremonies (those that mark the transition from one year to the next), as well as astronomical tables, which include a Venus table (on pages 24 and 46–50), an eclipse table (on pages 51–58), a seasonal table (on pages 61–69), paired "water" tables (on pages 69–74), and a Mars table (on pages 43–45). Early research on the Dresden Codex was undertaken by Ernst Förstemann (1901, 1904,...