ANT200Y1 Lecture Notes - Tzompantli, Radiocarbon Dating, Gypsum
Document Summary
Illustrated books (amatl: few have survived, vellum or paper; folded accordion style, stored in amoxcalli (book houses) in palaces & temples, limited access, recorded ritual, divinatory, calendrical (olmec, mexicas), astronomical, & genealogical info (want to be known as descended from mexica, also maps, records of landholding, laws, tribute lists, travel itineraries, mostly tribute lists colour, followed by #s, accounts & tribute lists drawings of dif goods, by shape , historical info recorded as standardized representations of events followed by date signs, very pictographic, no evidence of phonetic signs to record abstract concepts or speech, unknown if could read out loud as text. Skulls sometimes cached: eyes filled w white shells, flint knives sometimes inserted into mouth or nose shows relationship btwn death & ceremonial knife, as empire expanded, sacrifice institutionalized, used to project power terrify opponents, only took place in centre in tenochtitl n.
