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Maya bark-paper codex tradition

Type Object Region North America Time c. 300–1562

The Maya codex tradition refers to writing on fig-bark paper (amate) folded into screen form, recording calendar, astronomy, ritual, divination, and …

Timeline

  1. c. 300–900Maya Lowlands · GuatemalaClassic-period Maya priests made folding codices of bark paper, recording dynastic history, the ritual calendar, and divination content, serving as an important vehicle for elite knowledge.
  2. c. 1000–1200Yucatán Peninsula · Yucatán PeninsulaSurviving works such as the Dresden Codex, produced around the 11th century CE, preserve precise Venus tables and ritual calendars, showing the high level of Postclassic codex production and astronomical knowledge.
  3. 1521–1562Yucatán (Maní) · ManíColonial authorities and the church burned Maya codices on a large scale; after the 1562 book burning at Maní the tradition nearly died out, with only three or four codices surviving to the present.

Sources