Abstract
Scribal reception and status among the Classic Maya drew on subtle skills and playful games. But it also rested on an evident understanding that scribes (or sculptors) and their provincial patrons needed to obey their superiors. Certain clues indicate that the producers of script existed within established obligations of tribute, for written memorials as well. Elsewhere, myths provide enduring templates for humanity, and that was no less true for the Classic Maya. Historical figures merged with mythic scribes, and, to judge from unusual texts and images, the powers of the literate could be neutralized by physical replacement or even the threat of execution.
Highlights
Scribal reception and status among the Classic Maya drew on subtle skills and playful games
Sometimes the puzzle relates to esoteric matters or «magical» diagrams, such as the «Sator squares» from the ancient world
The setting is not a slab or painted wall at Pompeii but a pot that is among the most finely painted to survive from the Classic period
Summary
Transparency is not always the aim of writing. By their ingenuity, signs can baffle and please, taking readers into a concealed but accessible message (Turchi 2014: 31). Sometimes the puzzle relates to esoteric matters or «magical» diagrams, such as the «Sator squares» from the ancient world. The setting is not a slab or painted wall at Pompeii but a pot that is among the most finely painted to survive from the Classic period. It is hopelessly subjective to speak of the greatest Maya painting on a pot and futile to engage in an aesthetic tournament between past and present standards of beauty. Here, in this instance, the hyperbole fits
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