Only 4 Texts Remain from the Maya Civilization After Thousands Were Destroyed
Despite the fact that we are not very far removed from their heyday, we know very little about Maya civilization.
And it’s not because the Maya weren’t into recording their history.
The Maya were prolific writers and actually evolved from using scrolls to a form of folded paper called the codex right around the same time as the Romans, though each appears to be independent of the other.
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Maya glyphs and the records of the Spanish conquistadors themselves attest to thousands of these codices existing by the time the two cultures met in the 16th century.
But, due to their being destroyed by priests, conquistadors, ship raiders, and even time and mold, only about 22 codices, of which only four have Maya origin, exist today.
None of them are complete, and none have their original covers.
[…]
And you might have noticed that the oldest one only goes back to 200-300 years before the Spanish conquest.
We know that the codices went back at least 800 years prior to that, so we’re essentially looking at the tip of a fingernail and trying to guess what the hand looked like.
And that’s how the soul of a culture gets erased from history…
See also: Burning the Maya Books: The 1562 Tragedy at Mani
The last codices destroyed were those of Nojpetén, Guatemala in 1697, the last city conquered in the Americas. (Wikipedia)
That assumes it was on purpose. I tend to think it was by negligence. After all, many monks did learn the languages of the tribes.
And another question could be, when did all that destruction happen? Before or after 1810?
Wrong. The Spaniards, and particularly priests, methodically gathered and destroyed the “heathens’” works and destroyed them. They engaged in cultural genocide long before that was a term.
The exceptions are what us actually noteworthy. When there were priests that opposed these practices and tried to preserve culture and knowledge from wholesale destruction and substitution. They were a fringe minority and usually lacked power and were punished for their actions.
They did it on purpose. The Spaniards believed that the existence of indigenous texts would promote idolatry and inhibit the adoption of Catholicism.
We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they contained nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction. —The Spanish Archdiocese in 1562 (Wikipedia)
The destruction was done before 1810.
The last codices destroyed were those of Nojpetén, Guatemala in 1697, the last city conquered in the Americas. (Wikipedia)
Why 1810?
