#classic maya

[kiragecko]

You post about Mayan glyphs sometimes & seem to be familiar with them. How do you study them? I've read information here & there online & I've read Coe's Deciphering the Maya Glyphs, but I really don't know of many resources.

There are a LOT of resources online for Classical Maya, which is great! But it can be hard to sift through all that information, much of it unpredictably getting updated and superseded.

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My favourite dictionary is probably Harri Kettunen and Christophe Helmke's Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs. (That's a direct link to the PDF. A link to the download page in HERE. The version I was using was the 14th edition. Apparently we're up to the 19th this year, so I've updated my files.)

If you want a slightly bigger dictionary, The Updated Preliminary Classic Maya‐English, English‐Classic Maya Vocabulary of Hieroglyphic Readings, by Erik Boot, is EXCELLENT. (That's a link to the academia dot edu page.) ¹

The first only has a limited number of images of the glyphs, and the second has none at all, but they're essential for figuring out how words are spelled, and what glyphs actually exist, so you know what to look up later. The first one also gives you an intro into grammar, and is just an all around good read.

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Actual guides to glyphs ...

The Introduction to Maya Hieroglyph above is great for syllabics and some common words.

Beginners Visual Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphics, by Alexandre Tokovinine IS a really good guide for beginners. The images are stylized in ways that don't match most actual writing, but they're clearly depicted, and the sounds associated with them are a lot more accurate than older resources.

I still use John Montgomery's online Dictionary of Maya Hieroglyphs to check for logograms that I can't easily find elsewhere. It's a LITTLE out of date, but solid.

Truthfully, though? I often need to find academic articles on individual glyphs. I'll know they exist, because one of my dictionaries will spell that word with ALL CAPS, to indicate a logogram, but actually finding out what it looks like can be a pain. I have a bunch of articles saved onto my computer, in separate folders for animals, food/plants, and everything else.

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Glyph Dwellers is a great site for articles and recent research. You have to take what they give you, but it's always interesting!

Wayeb, Mesoweb, and FAMSI all have a lot of good resources.

Academia dot edu and other online sites are also good, once you learn how to recognize the cranks.

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There's also a lot of finding images of various artifacts with translations. Wayeb, Mesoweb, and FAMSI all have large databases of drawings and photos that you can browse to get an idea of what the script looked like in use.

The Maya Vase Database is amazing! The Classic Maya LOVED writing on their dishes and containers! It also has downloads of all the codexes (books) that survived.

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Hope this helps a little! But really, try out Harri Kettunen and Christophe Helmke's Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs before anything else! It's good.

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¹ Mr. Boot disagreed with other linguists about quite a few subtle facets of translation. Both sides had very compelling arguments, and it's often visible in different readings across dictionaries.

[deviika]

Marya Hornbacher // Maya Angelou

[waterlemon-melon]

obligatory christmas doodle with some mention of the nutcracker by klavier :)

[lets-get-lit]

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. 

- Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

[macrolit]

Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas Maya Angelou

[etinomma]

Meshes of the Afternoon

Maya Deren, 1943

[if-i-eated-soaps]

IM LOSING MY MIND

[ovium-sheep]

I wanna beat them ngl

[sinligh]

something stands between me and all the feelings I’m trying to dissect

maybe it’s melancholy made into flesh holding me down as a base to my wavering relationship with all that i am and all that i want.

an Imposter syndrome ?

maybe it’s all the goodbyes December held on a leash..

Impermanence scares us humans but so does stability

all the insecurities and self doubts wrapped around my neck with a gentleness that competes with a lover’s embrace.

As the weather gets colder I burn through thoughts and distant dreams abandoned prospect

incandescent potential burnt to ash underneath my skin

And as i do so, i can’t help but wonder:

If I left you my letters as an offering will you put them together for me ?

Form endless strings of words and attach them to anything you deem familiar In me?

Wrap me up in poetry?

Or will you burn it the way i did my dreams; to warm yourself up ?

Will you prosper?

“Love” is nothing but a fabricated fairytale Sung by desperate heartbeats who have been poisoned by forfeited hope

Is the cup half full or half empty? I'm not sure anymore..

But the content of that cup is all that's left of my share of happiness in this world

and I'm willing to share it with you...

Even if it left me groundless.

Lost in the terminology of love, And the ideology of death and self sabotage

While disillusionment feed on my lifeline.

would it be so wrong to let myself dissolve in a little love knowing it won’t last?

•••

• Quote: Sylvia plath/Mary Oliver/ Fyodor Dostoevsky/ Simone de Beauvoir/ Maya Angelou/ Marina Tsvetaeva/Anne Michaels

• Original context: Sinligh

• Art reference: 1. Art by Zhao Kailin. 2. Wounds of the Earth by xis.lanyx. 3. George Hitchcock, Calypso. 4.Art by Ivan Pokidyshev. 5. Monseigneur Love by Thomas Cooper Gotch

[artfullysinful]

Maya as the Mona Lisa

[theskyisthelimit06]

in honor of GPDA making an insta account due to what was happpening back in Brazil GP (which is I blame all to Trump and Piquet showing up when HE WAS PERMANENTLY BANNED for all I care).

[chloepiphany]

[Quote by Maya Angelou / The Guiding Light by Andrea Fossati]

alt text: "You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”

[adam-trademark]

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (PSOne Classic)

(August 3, 2018)

[retro1985]

I miss Nickelodeon's "Japanimation" era.

[blackcur-rants]

Ideas for albums the Mechs could have done alongside their already existing ones

01. Cyberpunk retelling of events from "The Shahnameh" wherein King Jamshid and his Chief Engineer Mirdas create a powerful super-computer called the Zahhak to help them run their city...only for it to go crazy with power and absorb all the minds of the people into itself using a virus a la The Acheron before being defeated by the heroic hackers Kaveh and Fereydun (who are probably boyfriends in The Mechanisms Universe, because why not).

02. Film Noir retelling of the Hero Twins wherein they are detectives trying to bring down the Brotherhood of Xibalba crime syndicate society that runs their city.

03. Dickens crossover universe involving Fagin and the DeFarges as rival space pirates, Cartmanay and Twistperpip as polycules, Paul Dombey running a spaceship firm, the Dorrits having to escape from a prison planet, and Miss Havisham as a cyborg with Estella as her adopted daughter/repairwoman.

04. Steampunk crossover AU of all the Bronte works featuring Jane Eyre crushing on Helen Graham and queer tension between either Heathcliff and Rochester or between Heathcliff and Arthur Huntingdon or between Rochester and Arthur Huntingdon.

05. Retelling of a classic Shakespeare play, preferably one that hasn't already been adapted a billion times already.

06. Retelling of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" as a space opera about a war between different planets seeking to rule over the same solar system.

07. "Journey to the West" but it's about explorers on an unknown planet.

08. Polynesiian mythology retelling wherein Maui is a biio-engineer who keeps creating whole new planets and ecosystems by accident.

09. Space opera retelling of either "The Ramayana" or "The Mahabharata".

10. Russian mythology retelling about Marya Morevna and IIvan Tsarevic facing down a Koschei the Deathless who's actually a clone of King Cole alongside one of the Bogatyrs who in this retelling is in fact a former Rose Red.

11. Retelling of "Dream of the Red Chamber" wherein the house is a virtual reality computer simulation.

12. Steampunk retelling of "Les Miserables" featuring Javert as a cyborg.

13. Retelling of "War and Peace" with a Rose Red as Napoleon and Pierre trying to shoot down King Cole.

14. Sherlock Holmes but make it Film Noir.

15. Dracula or something Dracula related.

16. Snow Queen retelling.

@lady-asteria @carcosa-commune @cynicalclassicist @miralines @cinderswife

[lanada]

Flanged Cylinder with the Jaguar God of the Underworld

Maya | C. 600.

From the Temple of the Foliated Cross, Palenque, Tabasco

Museo Regional de Antropología, Villahermosa, Tabasco, México.