Re-Creating Primordial Time offers a new perspective on the Maya codices, documenting the extensive use of creation mythology and foundational rituals in the hieroglyphic texts and iconography of these important manuscripts. Focusing on both pre-Columbian codices and early colonial creation accounts, Vail and Hernández show that in spite of significant cultural change during the Postclassic and Colonial periods, the mythological traditions reveal significant continuity, beginning as far back as the Classic period. Remarkable similarities exist within the Maya tradition, even as new mythologies were introduced through contact with the Gulf Coast region and highland central Mexico. Vail and Hernández analyze the extant Maya codices within the context of later literary sources such as the Books of Chilam Balam, the Popol Vuh, and the Códice Chimalpopoca to present numerous examples highlighting the relationship among creation mythology, rituals, and lore. Compiling and comparing Maya creation mythology with that of the Borgia codices from highland central Mexico, Re-Creating Primordial Time is a significant contribution to the field of Mesoamerican studies and will be of interest to scholars of archaeology, linguistics, epigraphy, and comparative religions alike.

This volume offers new calendrical models and methodologies for reading, dating, and interpreting the general significance of the Madrid Codex. The longest of the surviving Maya codices, this manuscript includes texts and images painted by scribes conversant in Maya hieroglyphic writing, a written means of communication practiced by Maya elites from the second to the fifteenth centuries A.D. Some scholars have recently argued that the Madrid Codex originated in the Petén region of Guatemala and postdates European contact. The contributors to this volume challenge that view by demonstrating convincingly that it originated in northern Yucatán and was painted in the Pre-Columbian era. In addition, several contributors reveal provocative connections among the Madrid and Borgia group of codices from Central Mexico. Contributors include: Harvey M. Bricker, Victoria R. Bricker, John F. Chuchiak IV, Christine L. Hernández, Bryan R. Just, Merideth Paxton, and John Pohl. Additional support for this publication was generously provided by the Eugene M. Kayden Fund at the University of Colorado.

Dresden Codex, Latin Codex Dresdensis, one of the few collections of pre-Columbian Mayan hieroglyphic texts known to have survived the book burnings by the Spanish clergy during the 16th century. The codex was rediscovered in the city of Dresden, Germany, and that is how the Maya book received its present name. It contains astronomical calculations (eclipse-prediction tables, the synodical period of Venus) of exceptional accuracy.The codex was acquired by the Saxon State Library, Dresden, Saxony, and was published by Edward King, Viscount Kingsborough, in Antiquities of Mexico (1830-48). The book received direct water damage that was significantly destructive from being kept in a flooded basement during the bombing of Dresden in World War II. The pages are made of Amate, 8 inches high, and can be folded accordion-style; when unfolded the codex is 12 feet long.

Adam Sabir has discovered the missing quatrains of Nostradamus, and the events they foretell are coming true. But there's one prophecy he can't fully decipher, and it warns of the imminent arrival of the Third Antichrist. Sabir's every move is the Corpus Maleficus, an ancient cabal devoted to serving the Antichrist. Disfigured, orphaned, groomed for cruelty and violence, they are prepared to do anything to stop him. As Sabir puzzles over the riddle, a descendant of the Mayans embarks on a dangerous journey. He must deliver a sacred codex to the Palace of the Masks. Only then can the secret of Nostradamus' prophecy be revealed...

Ancient Mayan Message (Dresden Codex facsimile) This third edition features a full-color reproduction of The Dresden Codex that has been carefully crafted by the author Olga Judith Najarro Ibarra, to re-create the original Mayan manuscript, an archaeological and historical treasure. This facsimile should benefit in the research, study and consultation of this mysterious Mayan hieroglyphic writing. Ms. Judith Najarro has dedicated many years to hand-drawing and coloring the intricate blends of minute details that encompass the complex and fascinating Mayan hieroglyphic writing in order to ensure precision, accuracy of proportions, levels and orientation to her excellent art work that contains 78 plates, except four of them that are completely blurry. This exciting new edition is based on a comparison between several pre-WWII facsimiles of The Dresden Codex, when the codex was in better conditions. The original manuscript is still in fair shape, but several plates have suffered damage from bombings, fires, floods, mildew etc., and now are blurry; also, the plates are no longer connected in quite the same way. Originally, all of the plates were attached to each other forming a single strip of some 3.5 meters long when stretched out from their accordion folds. The original sequence of the plates were: pages 1-24 followed by 46-74, followed by 25-45. According to some historians the original manuscript was found in one of the largest Mayan cities and was supposedly sent to Europe around 1519. In 1744, it was acquired by The Royal Library of Dresden Germany, to which it owes its name. Many researchers agree that The Codex deals with: Astronomy, mathematics, astrological tables of the planets, the moon, conjunctions of solar bodies, cosmogonic theories, religion, agriculture, magic and mythology. The Mayas used tree bark for the preparation of their papyrus on which they drew and painted their colored hieroglyphs and pictures, as the highest expression of their knowledge and pictographic art. The Dresden Codex (Dresdensis Codex) is without a doubt, the most important pre-Hispanic document that has been preserved throughout the centuries. It is the oldest known book written in the Americas; of the hundreds of books that were used in Meso-America before the Spanish conquest, it is one of only 15 that have survived to the present day. This third edition facsimile elaborated by Judith Najarro, is a perfect replica of The Dresden Codex, and should inspire scientists, archaeologists, astronomers, mathematicians, historians, native peoples and the world at-large to explore into the secrets of the past and the universe. Visit: www.mayacodex.wordpress.com

Traces implications of a previously unrecognized image of the solar year in the Madrid Codex to find new meanings in the Dresden Codex and the Maya calendar system and a regional settlement organization in Yucatan.

This is the story of how the Mayan glyphs found in the ancient ruins of Copan and other Mayan sites have been deciphered within the last 20 years. Michael Coe worked with all the leading players in this field. Although the Mayan cities were discovered a century and a half ago, the field of Mayan scholarship was dominated by scholars who had a dogmatic approach to the decipherment.

Other sections cover weather almanacs; the influence of God C, also known as k'u; the four yearbearers with their thirteen numbers; the Maya spirit entities, including sky gods and earth or death gods; and the Maya constellations.

This book contextualizes the discovery of a Venus astronomical pattern by a female Mayan astronomer at Chich'en Itza and the discovery's later adaptation and application at Mayapan. Calculating Brilliance brings different intellectual threads together across time and space, from the Classic to the Postclassic, the colonial period to the twenty-first century to offer a new vision for understanding Mayan astronomy.

A chronological survey of Mayan literature, covering two thousand years, from the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions to later works using the Roman alphabet.