Dresden Codex

The Maya people made a special book.

It was made a long time ago. The pages are made from tree bark. They can fold like an accordion.

The book has many pictures. It shows the moon and the stars. It also tells about medicine. Skilled people painted it with bright colors. It is a very important treasure today.

The Dresden Codex is a very old Maya book.

It comes from the Chichén Itzá area in Mexico. The pages are made from tree bark. They fold like an accordion. This makes the book very long when you open it.

Eight different writers made this book. They used special symbols called hieroglyphs. These symbols are a type of writing. The writers used brushes and plant dyes to paint. Most of the colors are black and red. Some pages also have yellow, green, and blue.

The book holds many secrets about the world. It has tables about the moon and planets. It also talks about medicine and the seasons. One god, the rain god Chaac, is shown 134 times.

The book has had a hard life. It was kept in a flooded basement during World War II. This caused water damage to some pages. Today, the book is kept in a library in Dresden, Germany. It helps us learn how the Maya lived long ago.

The Dresden Codex is a very special book from the Maya people.

It comes from the Chichén Itzá area in Mexico. This book is a screenfold, which means it folds like an accordion. When you unfold it, the book becomes very long. The pages are made of amate paper. This paper comes from the inner bark of a wild fig tree.

Most pages have writing on both sides. Many pages also have a red border painted around the edges.

This book holds a lot of important information. It has tables about the stars and the planets. For example, it has tables for the movements of Venus. It also has tables about the moon and eclipses. The Maya used these to track the seasons and the sky. The book even talks about medicine and illness. It also includes religious ideas and ritual schedules. One god, the rain god Chaac, appears 134 times in the book.

Eight different scribes wrote this book. Scribes are people who write things down by hand. Each scribe had their own way of writing. They used thin brushes to paint their work. They used dyes made from plants for their colors. Black and red were the most common colors used. Some pages have yellow, green, or Mayan blue. These scribes used Mayan hieroglyphs to write. Hieroglyphs are symbols that stand for words or sounds.

Historians have studied this book for a long time. It was once thought to be the oldest book in the Americas. Now, we know the Grolier Codex is actually older. The Dresden Codex likely dates to the 11th or 12th century. Some scholars think it might be from the 1200s. It was found in the city of Dresden, Germany. A man named Johann Christian Götze bought it in 1739. It was later put in the Royal Library of Dresden.

The book has survived many hard times. During World War II, it was kept in a flooded basement. This caused serious water damage to some of the pages. Some of the beautiful painted details were lost. Even with this damage, the book is very helpful. It helped experts learn how to read Maya writing. Scholars like Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann used it to study the Maya calendar. Today, the book is safe in the Saxon State Library. It helps us understand the history of the Maya people.

The Dresden Codex is a rare and precious Maya book.

It originates from the Chichén Itzá region in Mexico. This document is one of only four hieroglyphic Maya codices surviving from the pre-Hispanic era. The others include the Madrid, Paris, and Grolier codices. The Dresden Codex is a screenfold book, which means it folds like an accordion. When fully unfolded, the manuscript becomes a very long strip of paper. It is currently kept at the Saxon State Library in Dresden, Germany. This is how the book received its modern name.

The physical structure of the codex is quite unique. It consists of 78 pages with decorative board covers on the front and back. Most of these pages feature writing on both sides. Many pages originally had a red paint border, though age has caused some to fade. The pages are made of amate, a paper created from the pounded inner bark of the Ficus cotinifolia tree. In the Maya language, the word for this bark, "hu'un," eventually became the word for "book."

The pages are generally divided into two to four columns. Some sections are separated by a red vertical line, while others have different numbers of horizontal sections.

Skilled craftsmen created the visual elements of the codex. Eight different scribes contributed to the work. Each scribe used a unique writing style and specific glyph designs. They used thin brushes to apply vegetable dyes to the amate paper. While black and red were the primary colors, some pages feature yellow, green, and a specific shade called Mayan blue. The content is written in Mayan hieroglyphs, which are complex symbols representing words or sounds. These symbols refer to an even older text from three or four hundred years prior. This older text contained local history and astronomical data.

The information within the codex is highly scientific and religious. It contains detailed astronomical and astrological tables. For instance, the book includes Venus tables that track the movements of the planet Venus. It also features lunar tables that correlate with the timing of eclipses.

Beyond astronomy, the codex discusses the seasons of the earth, medicine, and illness. It also contains ritual schedules and religious references. These references show a 260-day ritual calendar that tracks important Maya royal events. One specific deity, the rain god Chaac, is depicted 134 times throughout the manuscript.

Historians have worked for centuries to date and locate the origin of this book. Many scholars believe it was written near Chichén Itzá. This is because certain picture symbols in the codex match monuments found only in that specific location. The dating of the codex is a subject of ongoing study. Some experts suggest it dates to the 11th or 12th century. Others, like the historian J. Eric S. Thompson, place its creation between 1200 and 1250 A.D. Archaeologist Linton Satterthwaite suggests it was made no later than 1345. While it was once thought to be the oldest book in the Americas, we now know the Grolier Codex is older by about a century.

The history of the book's ownership is also well-documented. Johann Christian Götze purchased the codex in 1739 from a private owner in Vienna. It was added to the Royal Library of Dresden in 1744. Some speculate that the governor of Mexico, Hernán Cortés, may have sent it to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, as a tribute. In the 1800s, Alexander von Humboldt published the first reproductions of its pages. Later, in 1831, Lord Kingsborough published a full copy. The codex has also faced significant physical challenges. During the bombing of Dresden in February 1945, the book was kept in a flooded basement. This caused extreme water damage to several pages, including pages 2, 4, 24, 28, 34, 38, 71, and 72.

Despite its damage, the Dresden Codex remains vital for understanding Maya culture. It played a major role in the decipherment of Mayan hieroglyphs. In 1880, Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann published a complete facsimile and deciphered the calendar section. He identified the Maya numerals and linked them to the Long Count calendar. Later, in the 1950s, Yuri Knorozov used a phonetic approach to help decode the writing. Scholars like Paul Schellhas also contributed by assigning letters to various gods. Today, the codex serves as a bridge to the mathematical, scientific, and spiritual world of the ancient Maya.