MADRID CODEX MAYA NEW YEAR ANIMAL HEADDRESS BLOODLETTING TRO-CORTESIANUS 1882
A 141 year old original print from the U.S. Geographical & Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region - Contributions To North American Ethnology by J.W. Powell In Charge Vol. V - Washington Government Printing Ofc. - 1882. A Study of the Manuscript Troano. By Cyrus Thomas.Size of sheet: 11.5" X 9", Image size 9.5" X 5".Condition: water stained on margin edge. will look great framed and matted. See photos.
Printed by T. Sinclair & Sons, a prominent Philadelphia lithographer since the 1833. Sinclair relocated to 506-508 North Street in 1868. A native of Scotland, he was trained in art and lithography in Edinburgh, and immigrated to Philadelphia in 1833. In 1854, Sinclair and his brother William Sinclair created the firm Thomas Sinclair & Company and worked together until 1859. In 1870, his son John C. Sinclair joined the company and it was renamed T. Sinclair & Son Lithography Company. Thomas Sinclair remained active in the firm until his death in 1881 and his son continued to run it until 1889.
Upper Section M. 36a The upper and lower registers are separated by a skyband which includes the following elements: a k’at cross; a T510 (star or Venus) glyph; T504 (ak’b’al ‘night, darkness’); a cross with a black background; and a grapheme with two interlocking parts. A third Pawahtun figure is pictured on the right of the page (compare with M. 34a and 35a), holding a digging stick in one hand and dropping seeds with the other. He wears a jaguar skin pelt. In front of him is a vessel resting on a serpent base which is filled with three T506 (wah ‘tortilla’) glyphs and sprouting maize foliage. To the left of this is what appears to be a mantle which has sashes on both sides decorated with black markings that may represent footprints. On the far left is a figure walking on a pair of stilts who wears a serpent headdress. To the right of this figure and above the mantle is a pair of blue- painted feet with ankle decorations. A turkey(?) appears above this and a tripod vessel containing bloodletting implements (an obsidian blade and two stingray spines) lies to the right. Additionally, there are two month glyphs with black coefficients--T1.17:655 (1 Yaxk’in) and TV.109:528 (5 Keh). What may be a red 2.0 in positional notation is recorded next to the Keh date. Lower Section, M. 36b Two figures are pictured facing each other, each seated on T548 (tun ‘year’) glyphs. The one on the right may be the maize deity, although he lacks the facial markings characteristic of Nal. He holds a T506 glyph, representing a maize seed, in his hand and wears an animal head as a headdress, from which foliage appears to be sprouting. A black bird, identified as a black vulture by Tozzer and Allen (1910:Pl. 18), pecks at the maize seed that he is holding. Beneath the bird is a tripod vessel filled with two T506 glyphs signifying wah ‘tortilla,’ or food more generally. The figure on the left is not seated directly on the tun glyph but rather on maize foliage which appears to grow from a T102 glyph (ki’ ‘tasty’). Taube (1988) identifies this figure as a dog. He holds a sprouting T506 glyph (maize seed) and balances a T501 glyph (signifying ha’ ‘water’?) on his head. A white bird, identified by Tozzer and Allen (1910:pl. 24) as a quetzal, hovers in front of the scene, above an incensario in which rubber incense burns. A spotted dog appears above the figure on the right. He carries a T501:506 compound on his back (wah ha’, signifying ‘food and drink’), and maize foliage grows from his head. Another dog appears above the white bird. Flames emerge from its tail (compare with M. 24c, frame 1). On both sides of this figure are disembodied feet on which miniature dogs(?) sit. The uppermost part of the register pictures another dog-like animal (or possibly a rodent); a tripod vessel filled with two T506 glyphs signifying wah ‘tortilla,’ or food more generally, a T102 glyph (ki’ ‘tasty’), and bloodletting implements, including two stingray spines and an obsidian blade; and a vessel with a T102 base, spikes similar to those seen on the incensario at the base of the page, a T506 glyph, and K’uh, or God C’s head, wearing an atlatl headdress. Two graphemes with numerical coefficients are also pictured--a T17 (Yax) glyph, with a red coefficient of 1 and a black 10, and a T736 (Kimi) glyph, with a black 12.
The Madrid Codex also known as the Tro-Cortesianus Codex or the Troano Codex is one of three surviving pre-Columbian Maya books dating to the Post Classic Period of Mesoamerican chronology c AD. The Madrid Codex was separated into two parts very early on in its European history, and thus traveled different paths in Europe until 1888. In 1880, the Frenchman Léon de Rosny figured out that the two parts were a single codex, now commonly called the "Madrid", or the "Tro-Cortesianus". The two parts had been called the "Troano" (after the first owner, Don Juan Tro y Ortolano, a professor of Spanish palæography) and the "Cortesanius". The Troano comprises pages 22-56, 78-112 and the Cortesianus pages 1-21, 57-77 of the Madrid. Since pages 77 and 78 were for some reason always upside-down within the codex, page 78 might be thought of as coming before page 77. Both parts were re-united in 1888, and the Madrid Codex is now in the Museo d...
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