The Dresden, Madrid, and Paris codices, are Mayan Codex’ which named after the city where they were ultimately rediscovered.
The fourth is the Grolier Codex, located at the Grolier Club in New York City.
The Dresden Codex is one of the four hieroglyphic Maya codices that survived the Spanish Inquisition in the New World.
The codex then had some damage due to handling, sunlight, and moisture.
It received direct water damage that was significantly destructive from being kept in a flooded basement during the bombing of Dresden in World War II.
In 1478, the Catholic Monarchs began the famous Inquisition to purify Catholicism in all their territories.
The Inquisition was established to act as a tribunal to identify heretics and bring them to justice.
Most people don’t think of the Inquisition operating in North America, that it just operates in Spain, but that’s not the case, the power and authority of the Inquisition went with its conquest – anywhere in a Spanish colony, the Inquisition appeared with it.
It is speculated that the codex was sent as a tribute to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor by Hernán Cortés, governor of Mexico, since examples of local writings and other Maya items were sent to the king in 1519 when he was living in Vienna.
Many conquistadors viewed the Maya as “infidels” who needed to be forcefully converted and pacified.
When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the early 1500’s; they were conquered and enslaved, their culture forbidden, their books destroyed.
The Spanish conquest of the Maya was a protracted conflict during the Spanish colonization of the Americas, in which the Spanish conquistadores and their allies gradually incorporated the territory of the Late Postclassic Maya states and polities into the colonial Viceroyalty (a ruler exercising authority in a colony on behalf of a sovereign.) of New Spain.
The fierce Mayan proved more difficult to assimilate than most, and for 500 years, they fought hard to maintain their culture and traditions .
The Spanish engaged in a strategy of concentrating native populations in newly founded colonial towns; they viewed the taking of prisoners as a hindrance to outright victory, whereas the Maya prioritised the capture of live prisoners and of treasure.
The Itza Maya and other lowland groups in the Petén Basin were first contacted by Hernán Cortés in 1525, but remained independent and hostile to the encroaching Spanish until 1697, when a concerted Spanish assault led by Martín de Urzúa y Arizmendi finally defeated the last independent Maya kingdom.
The Maya were a mighty civilization based in the low, rainy forests of southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize whose culture peaked around 800 A.D. before going into steep decline.
Historical anthropologists used to believe the Maya were a peaceful people, who warred upon one another rarely if at all, preferring instead to dedicate themselves to astronomy, building, and other non-violent pursuits.
However, recent advances in the interpretation of stonework at Maya sites have changed that.
The Maya are now considered a very violent society in which wars and warfare were important for a variety of reasons, including subjugation of neighboring city-states, prestige, and capture of prisoners for slaves and sacrifices.
The Mayan warriors used weapons such as spear-throwers known as atlatls, blowguns, obsidian spiked clubs, spears, axes, lances and knives tipped with flint or obsidian blades.
Stone blade points indicate that darts and spears were the primary weapons of the warrior.
Their axes were smaller but with sharp blades and specifically designed to penetrate the skull.
Their 42-in long club could stun, break bones and were capable of cutting off a head quickly as well.
Commoners used blowguns in war and for hunting, (the bow and arrow – made of wooden shafts and rock points) is another weapon that was used occasionally for both war and hunting.
It was not a favored weapon until much later.
They also used two-handed swords crafted from strong wood with the blade fashioned from inset obsidian.
They sometimes used bow and arrows but designed most of their weapons for close quarters.
They wore little armor, mainly around the head and shoulders, built out of bone.
These guys were also executioners for sacrificial rituals or takeovers of smaller villages, so they knew how to kill.
Mayans at War: Unusual Weapons
The Popul Voh, the book of the Kiche Maya, tells of hornets and wasps used as defensive weapons.
When attackers came, defending warriors had gourds filled with hornets that they threw into the midst of the attackers.
Hornets erupted out of the gourds and angrily attacked, killing many warriors.
The defenders won the battle.
Preparing for War
The war chieftains dressed in elaborate animal-inspired robes and headdresses; and they painted their body’s with religious insignia. This was a common practice before going into battle.
Other rituals were also preformed before war could be waged; incense was lit to soothe the soul; warriors wore headdress’s to appease the gods, while others wore small pieces of cloth around their head and ears.
The warriors would then shave a stripe down the back of their heads; and wear masks that were decorated and painted. Garments were woven and dyed, some where embroidered or had painted designs.
Mayans often fought wars, especially during the Late Classical era of 600 to 900 A.D. due to environmental challenges, disputes with neighbors, and scarcity of resources .
In fact, during that time a series of misfortunes hit the Mayans:
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population exceeding the carrying capacity of the land
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deforestation leading to soil erosion
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decrease in soil fertility
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sustained drought
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malnutrition and disease
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decreased trust in Mayan rulers
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growing hostility among city-states as resources became scarce
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endemic warfare
Mayan Society Hierarchy
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ruling class /the nobility (“almehenob”),
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priesthood (“ahkinob”) and often scribes would be at this level as well,
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common folk (“ah chembal uinieol”),
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slaves (“pencatob”).
The most powerful of the ruling elite was known as the “Halach Uinic” or “True Man,” which makes a fifth class in some cases.
The Halach Uinic (Chief or King) was a hereditary position that was typically passed from father to eldest son.
Really no different than the customs practiced in Europe and Asia. However, when no suitable heir was available, a council of lords would elect a successor from the noble families.
The Halach Uinic (king) was a despotic position and it held ultimate political authority over the entire city-state they ruled and also saw to civil affairs and relations with neighboring city-states.
So revered was the Halach Uinic, that a cloth was held in front of his face to prevent anyone from speaking to him directly.
Mayan aristocracy that made up the nobility which were chosen as provincial managers or governors that were known as “batabs.” who assisted with local governments and would see to the required payment of tributes (taxes) to the ruler(s).
During the Maya Classic Period, the typical small kingdom was ruled by a hereditary ruler called an “Ajaw” (later “k’uhul Ajaw”), a political title attested from the epigraphic inscriptions of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization.
Ajaw is also the 20th named day on the tzolk’in (divinatory calendar) when an Ajaw’s (ruler) was required to fulfill the k’atun-ending rituals.
These rituals fell upon the leader and required ritualistic self sacrifice, usually in the form of bloodletting.
The use and meaning of “Ajaw” was used generically for “ruler”, “king” or “leader”, which meant any of the leading or ruling class of nobles.
However, it was not limited to a single individual, as rule of a given was sometimes shared.
Additionally, because the Ajaw performed religious activities, the title was not only given to the ruler, but also to a designated member of the locality or city-state’s priesthood.
The title of Ajaw was also given to women, although it was generally prefixed with the sign “Ix” (“woman”) to indicate gender, such as: Ix ajaw.
In the Maya hieroglyphics writing system, the representation of the word “ajaw” could be as either a character or symbol, or it could be spelled-out using syllables (A-jaw)
Scribes also held a prominent position in Maya royal courts. They even had their own patron deities, such as the Howler Monkey Gods and Maya maize god.
Considered a prestigious position, most scribes are likely to have come from families of the aristocracy.
But writing was not practiced exclusively by scribes.
Maya art often depicts rulers as having pen bundles in their headdresses or having some other writing tool, such as a shell or clay ink-pot.
This indicated that they were either scribes or at least able to read and write.
Classic Maya societies put an emphasis on the centrality of the royal household, especially towards the ruler of that household.
Most kingdoms were built around the ruling house. Spanish sources invariably describe even the largest Maya settlements of Yucatán and Guatemala areas as being dispersed collections of dwellings that were grouped around the temples and palaces of the ruling dynasty or nobles.
Some researchers argue that Maya cities were structured in such a way that were not actually meant be urban centers; but more to meet the needs of the enormous royal households when they conducted their administrative and ritual activities in the royal courts.
These courts held the priesthood as well as the nobility, as their court functions often went hand in hand.
The Mayan cities kept some distance between themselves and their enemies with an estimated mean distance of 55 km (about two to eight day’s travel) between major settlements.The main body of the population does not appear to have been active in most conflicts unless it involved the overthrow of a ruler.
Maya priests also held a very high position in society. They not only performed their religious duties, but priests also acted as administrators, scholars, astronomers, and mathematicians.
The Maya high priests were called “ahau can mai” or simply as “ah kin mai.” The end word of their title after ‘ahau can’ or ‘Ah kin’ being either their own family name (‘mai”) or that of a functional designation within larger kingdoms.
The town priests were called the “ah k’in,” which basically translates as: ‘diviner.’ With the “k’in” in the priest’s title “ah k’in” meaning ‘sun’ or ‘day’, essentially means loosely as, ‘diviners of the sun’.
The local ‘ah k’in’ had the responsibility of conducting public and private rituals within individual towns throughout the province.
They preached about the ancestors and deities to the masses and published the festival days that needed to be observed. It was also their job to determine the appropriate rituals and sacrifices that needed to be administered.
The Maya priesthood also provided high status positions for those descendants of nobility who were not able to obtain a political office or position. If one could not achieve power through the throne, they definitely could through the sacrificial altar.
The Maya Military
Little is known about Mayan military organization, logistics, or training. It is known that certain military positions were held by members of the aristocracy, and were passed on by patrilineal succession.
Members of the highest ruling class often were military and spiritual leaders of the cities and their capture during battles was a key element of military strategy.
It is likely that the necessary, specialized knowledge like strategy, ritual and war dances were taught to the successor.
Some of the warriors were actually more powerful than the nobles they served.
The leaders of the warriors in each city might work with the city priests to determine if captives were needed for sacrifice; while the warriors spent their lives training to be better warriors.
Commoners also took part in warfare, and they could advance socially by proving themselves as outstanding warriors. Some scholars believe that they were always at war.
Capturing prisoners was a priority, especially high-ranking ones.
These prisoners would be ritually humiliated: sometimes, the battles were played out in the ball court, with the losing prisoners sacrificed after the “game.”
It is known that some of these prisoners remained with their captors for years before finally being sacrificed.
When Mayan cities went to war, they only fought battles during the day.
This was a common practice, with a temporary peace being called for each night.
The battle would continued, day after day, until the leader of one army was hurt or killed; when this happened, the battle was over.
The retreating army would leave captives and their dead behind. The losers had to pay a tribute to the winners, this could be; including goods, people, textiles, gold, silver, copper, and salt.
It is believed that many of the cities, especially the larger ones, had large, well-trained armies available for attack and defense. It is unknown if the Maya had a professional soldier class as the Aztecs did.
Barricades and trenches were popular devices in Mayan warfare, and armies had an elaborate signaling system using whistles and drums.
Among the Maya, ambush was a favoured tactic; in response to the use of Spanish cavalry, the highland Maya took to digging pits and lining them with wooden stakes.
Native resistance to the new nucleated settlements took the form of the flight into inaccessible regions such as the forest or joining neighboring Maya groups that had not yet submitted to the European conquerors.
Indeed, much of the Mayan system of warfare was based on the element of intimidation and surprise.
It is believed that many of the larger cities, had large, well-trained armies available for attack and defense. These Mayan armies were highly disciplined, and warriors participated in regular training exercises and drills; every able-bodied adult male was available for military service.
There were also units of full-time mercenaries who followed the permanent leaders as most warriors were not full-time, they were primarily, farmers, and the crops usually came before warfare. Mayan warfare was not so much aimed at destruction of the enemy as the seizure of land, captives and plundering.
Warrior Queen
There is some evidence that women provided supporting roles in war, and occasionally fought, but they did not act as military officers, the only exception was those rare ruling queens; like the 6th century Mayan Warrior Queen – Kalomt’e K’abel, wife of the King Wak, K’inich Bahlam II.
Queen Kalomt’e K’abel or Lady K’abel (also known as), is shown in ceremonial headdress on a 9-foot-tall limestone monument dubbed Waka Stela 34.
She was the supreme warlord of her kingdom, and is believed to have reigned over Calakmul; a Mayan community which often battled the powerful king ’El Zotz’ and his kingdom of Tikal.
She is estimated to have been the most prominent ruler of the Mayan late-classic period, she ruled her husband, King K’inich Bahlam.
She was also known as Kaloomte, (which means the highest fighter) and was the military governor of the Waka Empire and a ruler of the Snake King.
Her tomb was recently discovered, it was packed with jade jewels and other artifacts that may shed light on the long-vanished civilization.
There was nothing in the Mayan laws that prevented women from having godlike powers of Mayan rulers. In fact, there were quite a few successful queens of Mayan city-states.
Since the godlike powers usually ran in the family, a woman was crowned when there was no male heir available, when the king was away fighting in a battle, when the heir was too young to rule, and in various other scenarios.
Maya Military Goals
The Maya city-states went to war with one another for several different reasons.
Part of it was military dominance: to bring more territory or vassal states under the command of a larger city. Capturing prisoners was a priority, especially high-ranking ones.
These prisoners would be ritually humiliated at the victorious city: sometimes, the battles were played out again in the ball court, with the losing prisoners sacrificed after the “game.”
It is known that some of these prisoners remained with their captors for years before finally being sacrificed.
Experts disagree about whether these wars were waged solely for the purpose of taking prisoners, like the famous Flower Wars of the Aztecs.
Earlier wars were fought for captives for human sacrifice, and for land, natural resources and control of trade networks.
City-states might even have arranged battles for captives as the Aztecs did with their Flower Wars.
To the East of the growing Aztec empire was the city-state of Tlaxcala. The Tlaxcalans were a powerful people who shared their culture and language with the people of the Aztec empire proper.
They were closely related with the empire, though never actually conquered by it. An agreement was made with the Tlaxcalans to have ritual battles called xochiyaoyotl, or the flowery wars (commonly called the Aztec flower war). The goal of these battles would not be taking land or killing the enemy, but simply capturing prisoners.
The prisoners would then be taken to a temple and sacrificed.
Famous Battles and Conflicts
The best-documented and possibly the most important conflict was the struggle between Calakmul and Tikal in the fifth and sixth centuries.
These two powerful city-states were each dominant politically, militarily and economically in their regions, but were also relatively close to one another.
They began warring, with vassal cities (cities that fall under protection of a realm, with duty to military in times of war) like Dos Pilas and Caracol changing hands as the power of each respective city waxed and waned.
In 562 A.D. Calakmul and/or Caracol defeated the mighty city of Tikal, which fell into a brief decline before regaining its former glory. Some cities were hit so hard that they never recovered.
Late in the Classic period, when the warring in the Maya region became much worse, cities would be attacked, looted and destroyed.
Warfare and Architecture
The Maya penchant for warfare is reflected in their architecture. Many of the major and minor cities have defensive walls, and in the later Classic period, newly-founded cities were no longer established near productive land, as they had been previously, but rather on defensible sites such as hilltops.
The structure of the cities changed, with the important buildings all being inside the walls. Walls could be as high as ten to twelve feet (3.5 meters) and were usually made of stone supported by wooden posts. Sometimes the construction of walls seemed desperate: in some cases, walls were built right up to important temples and palaces, and in some cases (notably the Dos Pilas site) important buildings were taken apart for stone for the walls.
Some cities had elaborate defenses: Ek Balam in the Yucatan had three concentric walls and the remains of a fourth one in the city center.
The codex has played a key role in the deciphering of Mayan hieroglyphs in various ruins.
The probable origin of the Dresden Codex to the area of Chichen Itza, because certain picture symbols in the codex are only found on monuments in that location.
The astronomical tables seem to also support this as the place of origin.
Because similar ceramic designs in the Chichen Itza area which are known to have ceased in the early 13th century , scientists put there creation around the Yucatán Peninsula in about 1200 – 1250 A.D.
Chichen Itza was a major focal point in the Northern Maya Lowlands and the site was a thriving settlement during the Classic Maya period when writing and culture flourished throughout what is today Central America and southern Mexico.
The city most likely had the most diverse population in the Maya world, a factor that could have contributed to the variety of architectural styles at the site.
But it also was a time of political upheaval with warring city-states were locked in perennial conflict, grappling for supremacy.
Unlike the Aztecs of Central Mexico and the Inca of the Andes, the Maya were never a single, unified empire organized and administered from a central city.
Instead, the Maya were a series of city-states in the same region, linked by language, trade, and certain cultural similarities, but often in lethal contention with one another for resources, power, and influence.
Powerful cities like Tikal, Calakmul, and Caracol frequently warred upon one another or upon smaller cities. Small raids into enemy territory were common: attacking and defeating a powerful rival city was rare but not unheard of.
“Chichen Itza” was formed near two natural cavities (cenotes or chenes), at the edge of the well of the Itza.”
The cenotes are fresh water caves which facilitated tapping the underground waters of the area.
Itzá is the name of an ethnic-lineage group that gained political and economic dominance of the northern peninsula.
One possible translation for Itza is “enchanter (or enchantment) of the water,”from its, “sorcerer,” and ha, “water.”
It was ruled by the Snake kings of the Kaanul dynasty.
The fusion of Mayan construction techniques with new elements from central Mexico make Chichen-Itza one of the most important examples of the Mayan-Toltec civilization in Yucatán.
Several buildings have survived, such as the Warriors’ Temple, El Castillo and the circular observatory known as El Caracol.
Agostino Aglio, an Italian artist and engraver became the first to transcribe and illustrate the codex completely it was published as the nine volumes of Antiquities of Mexico in 1831–1848.
Today’s page numbers were assigned to the codex by Agostino Aglio when he became the first to transcribe the manuscript in 1825/26. For this, he divided the original codex into two parts, labeled Codex A and Codex B. He sequenced Codex A on the front side followed by its back side, with the same order on Codex B.
The pictures and glyphs were painted by skilled craftsmen using thin brushes and vegetable dyes. Black and red were the main colors used for many of the pages.
Some pages have detailed backgrounds in shades of yellow, green, and the Mayan blue.
The codex was written by eight different scribes, who all had their own writing style, glyph designs, and subject matter.
Archaeologists have even long wondered if the Maya, the Mexica, and the people of Teotihuacan shared a Venus-related warrior cult, in which the planet’s movements guided military strategy.
To the modern stargazer, the planet Venus is just another point of light in the night sky. But for the ancient Maya, the brilliant light of Venus was an omen of war that guided ritual activity, prompted great battles, and was even used as shorthand for “total destruction.”
It’s observation was paramount in the Ancient Mayan world.
Scientists have long known that ancient Mesoamerican cultures were fascinated with the night sky, but many details of how they tracked celestial objects were lost to the ravages of time and conquest, but there are some accounts that exist.
For eaxample, the Dresden is the oldest surviving book from the Americas, and has been examined and reexamined countless times by archaeologists and other experts skilled in deciphering ancient texts.
A favorite section has been the so-called Venus tables, which provided ancient skygazers with a correction tool for their calendars.
It has Mayan hieroglyphs and refers to an original text of some three or four hundred years earlier, describing local history and astronomical tables.
The 260 year cycle (“Ahau Katun”) of the Mayan calendar related their 260-day calendar to celestial bodies, especially Venus and Mars.
Think of it like the days of the week, if a week lasted 260 days and each day had its own cultural significance.
Ancient Mesoamericans used two interlocking yet unrelated calendar cycles, however, since the actual solar year is 365.25 days long, the Maya had to correct for the extra quarter day, just as we do now by adding leap days to the calendar every 4 years.
The 365-day solar calendar, called the haab, tracked the movement of the sun, while a second ceremonial one called the tzolkin followed a 260-day track linked to ceremonies and celebrations.
The codex also includes information on the Maya new-year ceremony tradition and reference to their rain god Chaac 134 times.
To make their corrections, the Maya used the planet Venus. Looking through their ancient texts, they could tell where Venus was on a particular day hundreds of years before, and thus where it should have been at the time someone looked in the sky. The difference was the amount of correction necessary.
But it’s not as easy as that. For more than a hundred years, experts have reconstructed the equations the Maya would have used, based partly on the Dresden Codex.
What they landed on is a complex series of patches and changes that create a hyper-precise calendar system similar to our own.
It’s no small thing, since for decades the Maya have been popularly known as precision astronomers who used the sky to predict the future. And they were not the only Mesoamericans who tracked things like Venus.
“Venus imagery goes back to the pre-Classic. Even the Olmec have a Venus symbol,” says archaeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli of Boston University, referring to the parent civilization of several Mesoamerican cultures.
For instance, Teotihuacan, a massive ancient city center near today’s Mexico City, was a contemporary of the Classic Maya empire (A.D. 250-900), and experts have suggested that its three major structures were laid out to conform with the cycles of the sun, the moon, and Venus.
Venus seems to have played a role in long-held rivalry between the two signature powers of the Classic Maya: Tikal and the Kaanul, or Snake, dynasty. Some say their earliest definitive battle, in April of the year 562, may have been timed in accordance with Venus. (Read more about the Snake kings and the search for a lost Maya empire.)
At the very least, the planet was an ominous sign. When one army completely demolished another, as the Snakes did to Tikal that day, scribes would describe the victory by adding a symbol for Venus to indicate “total destruction.”
Effects of Warfare on Maya Civilization
Different theories have been proposed, including excessive warfare, drought, plague, climate change and more: some belief in a combination of factors.
Between 700 and 900 A.D., most of the important Maya cities in the south and central regions of the Maya civilization went silent, their cities abandoned. The decline of the Maya civilization is still a mystery.
in memory of Sgt. Yanez, USAF Aviano AB, Italy
thats great! Im the same way, but when I was in school in Italy I had a friend that studies Mayan culture and he would teach it to me in exchange for teaching him about Roman mythology. Thanks again for writing, I’ll check out your links. Always cool to learn more!
Very interesting and informative – there are some good images of the Grolier Codex at http://www.famsi.org/mayawriting/codices/pdf/grolier_kerr.pdf – and an easy guide to Mayan symbols at https://www.ancient-symbols.com/mayan_symbols.html.
I know more about Egyptian symbology than Mayan, so this article has sparked my interest. Thank you for posting it.