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TWO FRAGMENTS OF AN ANCIENT MANTIC MANUSCRIPT IN SAN BARTOLO YAUTEPEC, OAXACA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2017

Sebastián van Doesburg  and
Javier Urcid
Sebastián van Doesburg
Affiliation:
Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Mario de la Cueva s/n, Ciudad Universitaria C.P. 04510, Mexico City, Mexico
Javier Urcid*
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02453
*
E-mail correspondence to: urcid@brandeis.edu
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Abstract

The unexpected discovery of two reused fragments of an ancient mantic manuscript in Oaxaca casts new insights on scribal and divinatory practices at the eve of the Spanish conquest. This paper describes, analyzes, and interprets the faded inscriptions in the two fragments, comparing the structure of the calendrical notations and the painted imagery with those written on the handful of extant pre-Hispanic screenfolds. Although certain patterns allow us to posit the possible relationship between the fragments, other seeming deviations in the reckonings of the divinatory calendar lead us to conclude that the manuscript from which the two fragments originate evinces a distinct scribal and mantic regional variant.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , Fall 2017 , pp. 403 - 421
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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