Chilam Balam Research Articles

The Book of the Jaguar Priest. A Translation of the Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin. Translated with a commentary by Maud Worcester Makemson. (New York: Henry Schuman, Inc., 1951. Pp. 238. $3.50.)

The Book of the Jaguar Priest. A Translation of the Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin. Translated with a commentary by Maud Worcester Makemson. (New York: Henry Schuman, Inc., 1951. Pp. 238. $3.50.) - Volume 9 Issue 3

The Book of the Jaguar Priest: A Translation of the Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin, with Commentary

The Book of the Jaguar Priest: A Translation of the Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin, with Commentary

The Prophecies for the Maya Tuns or Years in the Books of Chilam Balam of Tizimin and Mani. By Ralph L. Roys. Guide to the Codex Perez. By Ralph L. Roys.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsThe Prophecies for the Maya Tuns or Years in the Books of Chilam Balam of Tizimin and Mani. By Ralph L. Roys. Guide to the Codex Perez. By Ralph L. Roys.J. Eric S. ThompsonJ. Eric S. Thompson Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 56, Number 1January 1952 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/500868 Copyright © 1952 by the Archaeological Institute of America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The Book of the Jaguar Priest, a Translation of the Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin, with Commentary.

The Book of the Jaguar Priest, a Translation of the Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin, with Commentary.

The Book of the Jaguar Priest, a translation of the Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin, with commentary

The Book of the Jaguar Priest, a translation of the Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin, with commentary

: The Book of the Jaguar Priest: A Translation of the Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin with Commentary . Maud W. Makemson.

American AnthropologistVolume 53, Issue 4 p. 546-547 Free Access Ethnology and Ethnography: The Book of the Jaguar Priest: A Translation of the Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin with Commentary. Maud W. Makemson J. Eric S. Thompson, J. Eric S. Thompson Carnegie Institution of Washington Cambridge, Mass.Search for more papers by this author J. Eric S. Thompson, J. Eric S. Thompson Carnegie Institution of Washington Cambridge, Mass.Search for more papers by this author First published: October‐December 1951 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1951.53.4.02a00100Citations: 1AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article.Citing Literature Volume53, Issue4October‐December 1951Pages 546-547 RelatedInformation

The Katun Calendar of the Book of Tizimin

In September 1949 I presented a short paper at the International Congress of Americanists in which I claimed that the calendar outlined in the first 14 pages of the Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin corroborated my correlation between the Maya and Christian timecounts. The new correlation,'derived from astronomical data in the Dresden Codex, equates 13.0.0.0.0 to B. C. 3374 March 10 Julian. Spinden's “Ahau Equation” places the basic date 246 days later, whereas the Goodman-Thompson correlation places it 260 years later, at B. C. 3114 September 7. At the close of the paper, Mr. Linton Satterthwaite, Jr. kindly remarked that archaeologists would reserve judgment until a translation of the Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin was published.

Records of the Maya

STUDENTS of American archaeology will welcome the publication by the Carnegie Institution of Washington of “The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel”—the Book of Balam the Prophet, which, giving an account of certain matters pertaining to ritual and belief as recorded by the ancient Maya in their own language, is one of the most important pieces of documentary evidence relating to the early history of Yucatan known to scholars. The book has been edited by Mr. Ralph L. Roys, who for the first time has applied the principles of classical scholarship to the establishment of a standard text. The text is accompanied by a translation and annotations by the editor. There are several versions of the Book of the Prophet Balam, each known by the name of the village to which it belonged originally, such as that of Tizimin, Ixil, or Nah. That of Chumayel, with those of Tizimin and Mani, have the greatest value for the study of Maya civilisation. Chilam Balam, whose prophecies are recorded among the matter in his book, lived at the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth. The Chumayel version dates only from 1782; but there is little doubt that the greater part of it has a pedigree as an authentic copy going back to the sixteenth century when the Maya wrote down in the European script, but in their own language, prophecies, chronicles, rituals, myths, calendrical matter and medical treatises, much of which would appear to have been transcribed directly from the hieroglyphic manuscripts afterwards destroyed and proscribed by the Spaniards. The original manuscript of the Chumayel version has disappeared, and the present text has been prepared from photographic copies.

THE RITUAL OF THE CHIEFS OF YUCATAN

THE political institutions of the natives of Yucatan are so little known that the Chiefs' Ritual on pages 28 .to 42 of the Chilam Balam of may well be considered important material for the study of the history and ethnology of the Mayas. The Chumayel is a native American book written in the Maya language at a time when the people of Yucatan had not completely forgotten the days before the Spanish conquest. I feel justified in saying that the writers of the material contained in this book still had access to the old hieroglyphic manuscripts and were still able to read them, for the Chumayel itself is an eighteenth century compilation of much older writings. Father Avendaflo, who visited the heathen Itzas at Tayasal during the last decade of the seventeenth century, expressly states that he had learned to read the Maya prophecies written in hieroglyphic characters before he made his journey, in order to demonstrate to these people that according to their own books the time had now arrived for them to accept the Christian faith. Surely this indicates that a knowledge of hieroglyphic writing still existed in northern Yucatan up to the end of the seventeenth century at least.

A MAYA ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION

AS creation myths are always of more than ordinary interest I wish to draw attention to the following account of the creation of the world according to the conception of the Maya Indians of Yucatan. It is found on plates 6o, 61 and 62 of the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel (University of Pennsylvania. The Museum. Anthropological Publications, vol. v). This book dates only from the latter half of the eighteenth century but it is a compilation of extracts from earlier Maya books which were also probably known as Books of Chilam Balam. It contains several historical accounts of the periods both before and after the Spanish conquest of Yucatan, a great many prophecies and a number of mythological stories. Three of these historical accounts and several of the prophecies together with translations appear in Brinton's Maya Chronicles and a number of the prophecies are to be found in various histories of Yucatan, but only one of the mythological stories has been published and translated as far as I know. This is the contribution of D. Juan Martinez y Hernandez to the International Congress of Americanists of 1912 and is entitled La Creaci6n del Mundo segun los mayas. Paiginas ineditas del M.S. de Chumayel. In this paper he has translated a passage from the manuscript which is to be found on plates 42, 43 and 44 of the University of the Pennsylvania reproduction and although, as the title indicates, this is a creation story, it does not resemble the one which follows. Christian influence has affected the form of the following account to some extent but not the content and the most interesting feature is the apparent reference to the event pictured on page 74 of the Dresden Codex. It would seem certain that sooner or later some parallel passages must be found to occur in the Books of Chilam Balam and the Maya picture manuscripts. 360