Back in 2002 I pointed out the appearance of a strange calendar cycle mentioned in three inscriptions at Tonina, apparently equaling a span nine solar years (9 x 365 days, or in Maya notation, 9.2.5). Stations in this cycle are marked in the inscriptions with a distinctive glyph, depicting a human profile head with [...]
Archive for November, 2007
More on the nine-year solar cycle at Tonina
Posted in Calendar, Tonina on November 30, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Stucco Glyphs from Tonina
Posted in Calendar, Tonina on November 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Juan Yadeun’s excavations at Tonina, Chiapas, have revealed a number of beautiful stucco glyphs that once formed an inscription of at least 25+ blocks, most now on housed at the regional site museum, with several others on view the Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia in Mexico City. On a recent visit to the MNAH [...]
An Old Unpublished Review of ‘Apocalypto’
Posted in Reflections, Uncategorized on November 18, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Something a bit off-topic, but maybe interesting…
Nearly a year ago Slate.com approached Steve Houston to pen a review of Mel Gibson’s 2006 film Apocalypto. Steve was kind enough to bring me on board as co-author, since I had seen an rough-cut of the movie the previous September here in Austin, and even had the chance [...]
“White Owl Jaguar”: A Tikal Royal Ancestor
Posted in Linguistics, Tikal on November 4, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Illustration file: whiteowljaguar-figs.pdf
“White Owl Jaguar”: A Tikal Royal Ancestor
The long inscription on the façade and roof-comb of Tikal’s “Temple of the Inscriptions” (Str. 6F-27) receives little attention these days, but I find it one of the most interesting and unusual of Maya texts (see Figure 1). Its odd placement on the back of [...]
