ART 357 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Mesoamerican Chronology, Yaxchilan Lintel 24, Grave Goods
Document Summary
Maya: only literate mesoamerican, precolumbian culture back to celestial haven tortures, xibalba. Calendars and dating system help us to know when things happened. Mayan elite claimed to live with the gods before coming to earth and then when passed when. Books made of bark paper called codices. Conquistadors burned a lot of codices or disintegrated in graves because made of wood. Book of the dead to get rulers through stages of hell and jnto the afterlife. Godly leaders would have to go through 9 levels of the underworld and deal with demons and. If leader survived would ascend tree of life or world tree from xibalba to northern star. Court officials held in high esteem because writing and painting pretty much same thing, only upper classes who became literate. Twins became sun and the moon, gods of heavens, symbolized to underworld and returned.
