Maev Kennedy - Hidden codex may reveal secrets of life in Mexico before Spanish conquest
One of the rarest
manuscripts in the world has been revealed hidden beneath the pages of an
equally rare but later Mexican codex, thanks to hi-tech imaging techniques. The Codex Selden, a book of
concertina-folded pages made out of a five-metre strip of deerhide, is one of a
handful of illustrated books of history and mythology that survived wholesale
destruction by Spanish conquerors and missionaries in the 16th century.
Researchers using hyperspectral imaging, a
technique originally used for geological research and astrophysics, discovered
the underlying images hidden beneath a layer of gesso, a plaster made from
ground gypsum and chalk, without damaging the priceless later manuscript. The underlying images
must be older than the codex on top, which is believed to have been made about
1560 and was donated to Oxford’s Bodleian library in the 17th century by the
scholar and collector John Selden.
The codex is one of
fewer than 20 dating from before or just after the colonisation, which were
saved by scholars who realised the importance of the strip cartoon-like images,
a complex system that used symbols, stylised human figures and colours to
recount centuries of history and beliefs, including religious practice, wars,
the founding of cities and the genealogy of noble families.
One Spanish witness of
the destruction wrote that people were distraught to see their books – and
their history – burn, anguished “to an amazing degree, and which caused them
much affliction”. Of those known to have escaped the bonfires, the Bodleian had five, the
largest group in the world – and now it has six. Scholars at the
Bodleian and the universities of Leiden and Delft, in the Netherlands, are
still analysing the newly revealed images, but believe they are unique, a
previously unknown genealogy that may help unlock the history of archaeology
sites in southern Mexico.
Some of the pages have
more than 20 characters sitting or standing, similar to other Mixtec
manuscripts – from the Oaxaca region of modern Mexico – which are believed to
depict kings and their councils, but uniquely in this case depicting men and
women. One so far unidentified figure appears repeatedly, and is symbolised by
a twisted cord and a flint knife. Other pages include
people walking with sticks and spears, women with red hair or elaborate
headdresses, and what appear to be place names with symbols for rivers.
The researchers, who
publish their work this month in the Journal
of Archaeological Science: Reports, had been trying a variety of non-invasive
techniques to unlock the secrets of the codex, but x-ray examination
had revealed nothing.
Evidence of New World religious dialogue found in Caribbean cave
Early European
colonisers of the Americas are
generally seen as religious zealots and violent oppressors, but the discovery
of a cave on an uninhabited Caribbean island may lead to a rethink.
A team led by the British Museum and
the University of Leicester have found evidence of an early religious dialogue
between Europeans and Native Americans. In a cave deep inside the remote island
of Mona, archaeologists were astonished to discover Latin inscriptions and
Christograms next to spiritual iconography left by indigenous peoples.“It is truly
extraordinary,” said Jago Cooper, the British Museum curator who, with the
University of Leicester’s Alice Samson, led the research team. “It is proof
that the first generation of Europeans were going into caves and being exposed
to an indigenous world view. I can’t think of another site like this in the
Americas.”...
