Maya Flasks & Carlson Intro Kislak Catalog 2007

Rollout of bowl with carved underworld scene and five hieroglyphs, Late Classic Maya, a.d. 600–900 (see entry 60).
of the Isthmus, arose Mesoamerica’s most famous early civilization,
the Preclassic Olmec (1200–400 b.c.). The ancient
Olmecs came to influence all of Mesoamerica, but they were
themselves influenced by previous individual chiefdoms and
incipient states developing in the Mexican Highlands as well
as the Coastal Lowlands.
Three great strengths of the Greater Mesoamerican geographical
region led to the development of several of the true
high civilizations of the ancient world. First, a richly diverse
geography—with many extreme ecological niches with their
own microenvironments—fostered long-distance trade for
raw materials and luxury goods, which, in turn, created innovative
cultural exchange networks beginning in the Late
Archaic period. Second, a geological wealth of stone varieties
stimulated the development of new lithic technologies,
such as the invention of limestone-based plasters and exquisitely
knapped obsidian blades; a geological wealth of
minerals provided brilliant pigments, including cinnabar,
vermilion, and the unique man-made “Maya blue”; and
rich soils engendered new agricultural technologies such
as chinampa raised-field systems in wetlands and lacustrine
zones, and extensive cacao plantations under sheltered forest
canopies. Third, a rich, diverse universe of plant life that
ultimately yielded the special blessings of the population’s
healthful, balanced diet, beginning with maize, beans,
squash, capsicum chili peppers, cacao (from which chocolate
is made), plus a true shaman’s pharmacopoeia of “entheogenic”—creating
god within us—plants and animals, such
as peyote, Psilocibe mushrooms, Datura, morning glory seeds
(e.g., for the psychoactive ololiuhqui of the Aztecs), tobacco,
mescal beans, and the toxins from the parotid glands of
such toads as the Bufo marinus and Bufo alvarius, to name only
a few. Mesoamericans enjoyed a sophisticated system of
medicine based on these unique natural sources. The miracle
of the human invention of corn, beginning at least seven
millennia ago in the Middle Archaic, would change all of the
Americas, not to mention the rest of the world after Spanish
contact beginning in the late fifteenth century.
Of the five core areas of the ancient world where writing
was independently invented, including Mesopotamia,
Egypt, China, and the Indus Valley, Mesoamerica stands out
for its creation of the full logo-syllabic Maya glyphic system
where thought and speech could be recorded in the most visually
diverse and visually poetic scripts ever conceived. The
evidence is now strong that, in fact, two full writing systems
were created: the Mayan and the still poorly known Isthmian,
which was most likely derived from a di=erent language base
(hypothetically, Zoquean). Furthermore, the unique culturally
defining Mesoamerican calendar system was among
the world’s most elaborate and accurate, based on many interlocking
cycles presided over by deified time periods and
numbers. Their advanced arithmetic system was based on
the count of 20 (a vigesimal system derived from the human
form), the use of place notation, and included the concept
of zero or “completion,” the first sophisticated mathematics
of its kind anywhere in the world. This enabled the Mesoamerican
peoples to develop an advanced observational
astronomy and numerology that lead to cultural traditions
of calendrical divination and prognostication, some aspects
of which still survive among the Maya in the highlands of
Guatemala today. Other systems of pictorial writing and rich
iconographic representation were developed across ancient
Mesoamerica. These include the pictorial hieroglyphs of the
early Zapotecs carved on stone monuments and the later system
recorded in books of the Mixtecs, both in Oaxaca, as
well as the still enigmatic “notational sign” ensemble writing
of Teotihuacán and the far better known Mexica or Aztec
system, both in the Central Mexican Altiplano. These writing
and iconographic forms could be and were recorded on a
wide variety of media, including stone, wood, shell, ceramics,
textiles, animal hides, and the unique screen-fold codex
books painted on stuccoed bark papers—usually of Ficus,
Morus, or Maguey agave fibers—and deer skin. Although most
of the great Mesoamerican libraries are now lost forever due
to the passage of time and decay as well as active destruction
by the European newcomers beginning five centuries
ago, much of this priceless literary cultural heritage survives
on media other than paper and now receives a proper home
in the United States Library of Congress, where it may be
studied by scholars and appreciated by all the citizens of the
world for the ages to come.
—John B. Carlson
Chapter I: From the Olmec to Columbus / The Indigenous Cultures Before European Contact