Spring 2004

LAS 381 • MAYA EPIGRAPH: READING CODICES

Course Description

This course is designed as a general introduction into Maya Hieroglyphic Writing, however, in its variant as used in the Dresden Codex, the best preserved and most beautiful of the four surviving Maya manuscripts. Participants will learn how to read ancient Maya hieroglyphs and will use their knowledge to decipher the Dresden Codex, a screenfold book written in the Postclassic period, which focuses on religious matters, cosmology, astronomy and the Sacred Calendar. At the same time we will explore the relationship between the images and the text and analyze how the codex was produced and in which contexts it was used.

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