Book Review: The Dresden Codex Venus Pages: Tying Headbands or Venus Appearing: New Translations of k'al, the Dresden Codex Venus Pages and Classic Period Royal ‘Binding’ Rituals

Abstract

THE DRESDEN CODEX VENUS PAGES Tying Headbands or Venus Appearing: New Translations o/k'al, the Dresden Codex Venus Pages and Classic Period Royal 'Binding' Rituals. Gerardo Aldana y Villalobos (BAR S2239; Archaeopress, Oxford, 201 1). Pp. viii + 73. £27 (paperback). ISBN 978-4073-0803-6.Aldana' s study focuses on the Venus table in the Dresden Codex, with particular emphasis on the calendrical information recorded in the preface, and on the verb k 'al found in the hieroglyphic texts. As Aldana notes, k'al appears in a number of different contexts outside the Dresden Codex, where it has been read as 'tie', 'enclose', or 'bind' . His analysis suggests a new interpretation, that of a ritual 'enclosing' or 'loop-tracing' in space and (p. i). With this in mind, he relates the calendrical seen in both Maya and Mexican codices (on Madrid Codex pp. 75-6 and p. 1 of the Codex Fejervary-Mayer) to the idea of the loop created by moving through time and space. He further suggests that pecked crosses carved in stone embody the same concept and may have actually been used to count out the relevant period of time via a system of stone markers.I find this aspect of his argument persuasive, but I believe he dismisses alternative readings for k'al (see below) in the Dresden Venus table too quickly. In that context, he proposes that what is being looped is not Venus itself, but rather the east (or one of the other directions). Each of the table's five pages, therefore, involves the looping of the east, north, west, and south, replicating in textual format the structure laid out visually by the Madrid and Fejervary-Mayer cosmograms.Although Aldana's reading makes sense in this context, it does not adequately explain the iconography of the Venus pages, which portray a series of Venus deities holding weapons, along with their victims, who have been speared. As scholars have long recognized, this likely refers to a mythological episode in which the Mexican Venus deity ascends from the underworld at helical rise with its weapons at the ready to spear various unfortunate victims. Whether the Maya had similar narratives or this represents a central Mexican 'import' remains uncertain.There is good evidence to suggest that the meaning of k'al in this context relates to the actions of the warrior aspect of Venus. Several definitions appear especially relevant to this situation, including 'to nock an arrow', as discussed by Harvey and Victoria Bricker in their monograph Astronomy in the Maya Codices (2011), and others relating to 'arming' or 'preparing for battle'. Although they are mentioned, Aldana discounts these possibilities in favour of the idea of completing a directional circuit. …