T H E I R WAY OF W R I T I NG

Scripts, Signs, and Pictographies in Pre-Columbian America

Dumba rton Oaks Pr e- C olumbia n Symposia a nd Colloqu ia

Series Editor
Joanne Pillsbury

Editorial Board
Elizabeth Hill Boone
Tom Cummins
Gary Urton
David Webster
 T H EI R WAY OF W R I T I NG
Scripts, Signs, and Pictographies
in Pre-Columbian America

ELIZABETH HILL BOONE and GARY URTON

Editors

DUMBARTON OAKS R ESEARCH LIBR ARY AND COLLECTION

WASHINGTON, D.C.
© 2011 Dumbarton Oaks
Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, D.C.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America

15  14  13  12  11   1  2  3  4  5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Their way of writing : scripts, signs, and pictographies in Pre-Columbian

America / Elizabeth Hill Boone and Gary Urton, editors.
p. cm.—(Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian symposia and colloquia)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-88402-368-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Indians of Mexico—Languages—Writing. 2. Indians of Central America—Languages—Writing.
3. Indians of South America—Peru—Languages—Writing. 4. Picture writing—Mexico.
5. Picture writing—Central America. 6. Picture writing—Peru.
7. Mayan languages—Writing. 8. Nahuatl language—Writing.
9. Quechua language—Writing.
I. Boone, Elizabeth Hill. II. Urton, Gary. III. Dumbarton Oaks.
f1435.3.w75t74  2011
497—dc22
010050788

General Editor: Joanne Pillsbury

Art Director: Kathleen Sparkes
Text Design and Composition: Melissa Tandysh
Jacket Design: Kathleen Sparkes
Managing Editor: Sara Taylor

Volume based on papers presented at the Pre-Columbian Studies symposium “Scripts, Signs, and Notational
Systems in Pre-Columbian America,” organized with Elizabeth Hill Boone and Gary Urton and held at
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C., on October 11–12, 2008.

Cover illustrations: Inka khipukamayuq, drawing 137 of Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, Nueva corónica y
buen gobierno, 1615, photograph courtesy of The Royal Library, Copenhagen. Mixtec scribe, detail, folio 48v
of the Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus.

www.doaks.org/publications
These books were written in symbols and pictures. This is their way of writing,
supplying their lack of an alphabet by the use of symbols.
—f r i a r mo t ol i n i a, 15 4 1,
History of the Indians of New Spain

Before the Spaniards came the Indians of Peru had no knowledge of writing at
all . . . , but this did not prevent them from preserving the memory of ancient times,
nor did they fail to keep a reckoning for all their affairs whether of peace, war,
or government. . . . [T]hey compensated in part for the lack of writing and let-
ters . . . principally, with quipus. . . . What they achieved in this way is incredible,
for whatever books can tell of histories and laws and ceremonies and accounts of
business all is supplied by the quipus so accurately that the result is astonishing.
—jo sé de ac o sta, 159 0,
Natural and Moral History of the Indies
 con t en t s

for e wor d | ix
Joanne Pillsbury

1 i n t roduc t ion
Their Way of Writing: Scripts, Signs, and Pictographies
in Pre-Columbian America | 1
Gary Urton

2 The Cold War and the Maya Decipherment | 9

Michael D. Coe

3 All Things Must Change: Maya Writing over Time and Space | 21
Stephen D. Houston

4 The Flowering Glyphs: Animation in Cotzumalhuapa Writing | 43

Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos

5 Teotihuacan and the Development of Writing in Early Classic Central Mexico | 77

Karl Taube

6 The Written Surface as a Cultural Code: A Comparative Perspective

of Scribal Traditions from Southwestern Mesoamerica | 111
Javier Urcid

7 Elaboration and Abbreviation in Mexican Pictorial Manuscripts:

Their Use in Literary Themes | 149
Michel R. Oudijk

8 Writing, Images, and Time-Space in Aztec Monuments and Books | 175

Federico Navarrete

9 Ruptures and Unions: Graphic Complexity and Hybridity

in Sixteenth-Century Mexico | 197
Elizabeth Hill Boone

10 Moche as Visual Notation: Semasiographic Elements

in Moche Ceramic Imagery | 227
Margaret A. Jackson

v ii
 11 Chuquibamba Textiles and Their Interacting Systems of Notation:
The Case of Multiple Exact Calendars | 251
R. Tom Zuidema

12 Tocapu: What Is It, What Does It Do, and Why Is It Not a Knot? | 277
Thomas B. F. Cummins

13 Khipu Typologies | 319

Gary Urton and Carrie J. Brezine

14 Khipu from Colony to Republic: The Rapaz Patrimony | 353

Frank Salomon, Carrie J. Brezine, Reymundo Chapa, and Víctor Falcón Huayta

15 The Cultural Category of Scripts, Signs, and Pictographies | 379

Elizabeth Hill Boone

c on t r i bu t or s | 391
i n de x | 397

v i i i c on t e n ts
 fore word

T he first authors to write about the systems of

recording information used by the Aztec and
Inka, the dominant empires in the Americas in
said he would spread the word about this great sys-
tem himself, were it not for all of his friends in the
printing business who would be put out of work.
the early sixteenth century, stressed the complex- The study of ancient American writing and
ity and efficacy of the scripts, signs, and notational other systems of recording information did not
systems used to register dynastic histories, tax and wane in the nineteenth century. Mesoamerican
tribute lists, and other matters crucial to the opera- systems, in particular, were the focus of many
tion of any large and complex state. The types of studies. We should remember, however, how little
systems used to record information in the ancient was known about ancient American writing at this
Americas varied dramatically, from the glyphic time. The U.S. writer John Lloyd Stephens, travel-
writing in Mesoamerica to the knotted cord ing in the 1840s, described the spectacular monu-
records, or khipus, that facilitated the expansion of ments at the Maya site of Copan. He recognized
the Inka empire in South America. As Elizabeth that hieroglyphs had the potential to reveal rich
Boone and Gary Urton have noted, these early histories, but that they remained unintelligible and
modern authors distinguished such systems from functionally mute. By the late nineteenth century,
writing as they knew it, preferring, like Motolinia, however, essential features of Maya writing, par-
to use the phrase “their way of writing” or, as was ticularly numeration, had been worked out, setting
often the case in the Andes, simply “accounts.” Yet the stage for the spectacular decipherments of the
there was no doubt in the minds of these sixteenth- twentieth century.
century authors that such systems were extremely With over a century of serious, sustained re­­
effective in conveying information. search on Pre-Columbian systems of recording
The European fascination with Pre-Columbian information, it is perhaps a good time to consider
systems of recording information continued or our current state of knowledge. The present vol-
even increased in later centuries. The eighteenth- ume is based on papers presented at the sympo-
century Neapolitan intellectual Raimondo di sium “Scripts, Signs, and Notational Systems in
Sangro, principe of Sansevero, was obsessed with Pre-Columbian America,” held at Dumbarton
khipus and felt that they could replace European Oaks on October 11–12, 2008. Organized with
writing systems, as he considered them a richer and Elizabeth Boone and Gary Urton, this conference
more efficient form of communication. Sansevero was a particularly celebratory one, as it marked the
saw them as the future, not just the past. Indeed, he return of the annual Pre-Columbian symposium

ix
 to Washington, D.C., after four years of being Miriam Doutriaux, exhibition associate; and Juan
held off-site while renovations were completed on Antonio Murro, assistant curator, organized two
the Main House at Dumbarton Oaks. Two papers stimulating exhibitions on the history of decipher-
presented at this symposium, by David Stuart and ment designed to coincide with the symposium.
Alfonso Lacadena, were not available for publi- The present volume was prepared by the pub­
cation in the present volume. Dumbarton Oaks lications department of Dumbarton Oaks, under
remains indebted to Elizabeth and Gary for their the directorship of Kathleen Sparkes. I am grateful
vision in the scholarly organization of the sympo- to Sara Taylor, art and archaeology editor, for her
sium and for their expertise and tireless efforts in thoughtful work on editorial and production mat-
editing the resulting volume. Their own work on ters. Outside of Dumbarton Oaks, I would like to
the subject of recording information in the ancient thank the two anonymous reviewers for their help-
Americas has set a high standard, and we are for- ful advice.
tunate to have their consideration of the broader The success of any scholarly gathering and
framework for the study of writing and other nota- publication depends upon the free exchange of data
tional systems. and ideas and the rigorous analyses and discus­­sion
I am grateful to Jan Ziolkowski, director of surrounding their presentation. I would like to
Dumbarton Oaks; William Fash, of the Adminis­ close by thanking the authors in this volume for
trative Committee of Dumbarton Oaks; and the their willingness to share their research. We are
senior fellows in Pre-Columbian Studies for their indebted, as well, to the many distinguished schol-
counsel and support in the organization of the ars who attended the symposium; their good ques-
symposium and the creation of the present vol- tions and comments contributed to the stimulating
ume. The staff at Dumbarton Oaks was unfailingly discussion at the symposium itself and to the ongo-
accommodating, from the symposium planning ing dialogue about the nature of recording infor-
stages to the preparation of this publication. No one mation in the ancient Americas.
was more helpful than Emily Gulick, the program
assistant in Pre-Columbian Studies, whose creativ- Joanne Pillsbury
ity and hard work were behind every stage of this Director of Studies, Pre-Columbian Program
project. Bridget Gazzo, Pre-Columbian librarian; Dumbarton Oaks

x f oreword
 14

Khipu from Colony to Republic

The Rapaz Patrimony

frank salomon, carrie j. brezine,

reymundo chapa, and víctor falcón huayta1

W e might be su r pr ised to lear n,

given the midcolonial ascendancy of the
“lettered city” (Rama 1996), that some Peruvian
republic, cord keeping still carried on the Toledan
vision of the cord master as “a kind of moral
policeman” (Burns 2004:11). What changed is that
villages maintained into the twentieth century khipus came to be made in the service of agropas-
khipus of governance as part of a plan resembling toral reciprocity among free peasants rather than
the regime designed by the Toledan-era viceroyalty in service to ancien régime supervision by crown
(1569–1581). Yet such is the case. Roberto Levillier’s governors, accountants, and priests.
selection of Toledo’s administrative papers show
that when he mandated the “Indian cabildo,” he
intended it to include “a set of local officials mod-
Khipus, Governance, and Patrimony
eled on Spanish municipal ones. Just like Spanish
ca. 1800–2000
officials, these men are to gather on New Year’s Day
each year to elect their replacements for the follow- The central evidence consists of collections of
ing year. Toledo specifies that there should be ‘two khipus formerly used in the internal governance of
mayors (alcaldes) and four councilmen (regidores) villages and still conserved by them as sacred pat-
and one constable (alguacil) and a notary or qui- rimony. The processes by which the khipu passed
pocamayo, and the latter shall serve for life as long from being an interface between native and colo-
as he is capable of doing so.’2 (Note that only one nial information systems to being a culturally pri-
of them is supposed to serve for more than a year: vate medium of intra-“Indian” communication is
the notary/quipocamayo)” (Burns 2004:6–7). This relatively obscure (Pärssinen and Kiviharju 2004;
chapter will show that in a much later era, when Sempat 2002). It appears to have begun toward 1600
“Indian” villages came to be part of an independent as the “lettered city” lost interest in this difficult (for

353
 Spaniards) medium. By the era of the eighteenth- (Platt 1982). This gave communities in some prov-
century revolts, khipus validated specifically intra- inces a chance to renew and perhaps elaborate old
ethnic messages (Salomon and Spalding 2002). A resources of self-administration. In other prov-
khipulike device was also said to have conveyed inces, as the nineteenth century advanced, lati-
conspiratorial messages in a rebellion far beyond fundia engulfed communities whole. In the latter
the old Inka heartland in Araucanian Chile in 1792 case, the new estate-bound context of the old art
(Stevenson 1825:1:50–51). gave rise to the kind of herders’ khipus that Mackey
In the early nineteenth century, villages gained (1970) was still able to observe in the 1960s.
a margin of autonomy as creoles fought off the The most fully published case concerning pat-
Spanish empire while creating only a spotty repub- rimonial khipus of governance is that of Tupicocha
lican administration to replace it (Méndez 2004; in Huarochirí, Peru. Tupicocha owns ten khipus
Thomson 2002:269–280). The new states depended (Salomon 2004). In 2006, one ayllu that lacked a
on a modus vivendi with self-governing peasantries khipu made an eleventh, termed a simulacrum,

figure 14.1
Investiture of new presidents of
ayllus in Tupicocha, Huarochirí
province, 2005. (Photograph by
Frank Salomon.)

35 4 s a l omon , b re z i n e , c ha pa , a n d fal c ón
for ritual purposes. Nobody in the years from 1994 important. Also at this time, the ayllus responded
to 2007 claimed competence in reading khipus. to the national state’s “indigenist” campaign to
Tupicochan khipus are of medium size and in include traditional governments within govern-
overall design resemble the canonical Inka type. ment structures by writing themselves modernist
They show little if any of the “reduction” or “defec- constitutions. These were understood as replace-
tiveness” characteristic of moribund scripts. ments for “customs” like the khipu. Official recog-
Like many Andean villages, Tupicocha is a nition of the community in 1935 probably sealed an
confederation of corporate kin groups (ayllu). In already advanced transition from cords to paper.
such a system, the core social contract is equita- Yet from 1958 to 1974, one ayllu’s secretaries still
ble contribution. The political practice formerly described, as opposed to merely inventorying, its
involving khipus is known in central Peru by a tell- khipus. This registry shows change over time, sug-
ing Hispano-Quechua name: huatancha (Guillén gesting some residue of “remembered” competence
de Boluarte 1958:92–93). This term appears to and perhaps a final round of knotting activity.
derive from a lengua general Quechua term
*watanchay, meaning “making its year” (i.e., the
community’s). Huatancha gatherings “make the
The Rapaz Khipu House (Kaha Wayi) and
year” by holding outgoing officers to account and
Its Ritual Surround
renewing the political hierarchy. They climax in
an annual town meeting (huayrona). At this meet- Tupicocha was not the first case of patrimonial
ing, khipus of internal accounting were presented. khipu to be published. The first of all reports on
In Tupicocha, they still are, albeit only as regalia. patrimonial khipus was the work of Arturo Ruíz
When the khipus were fully functional, each ayllu Estrada (1982), who began visiting the village of
owned a pair of presentation khipus that it used Rapaz in the province of Oyón, Peru, in 1976. The
to document the ayllu’s collective contribution to khipu patrimony of Rapaz is of singular interest
the federation. The accounting of reciprocal duties, because it is the only known case where khipus
whether by khipus or (today) by ledgers, guaran- endure in the buildings they were made to serve.
tees equity of contribution. Villagers, therefore, These same buildings still house the ongoing work
esteem accounting as the very core of the social of ceremony and production management, for
contract (Mayer 2002:129). Today, the ceremony of whose sake khipus are held sacred.
draping a khipu upon the chest of each incoming Since 2003, the first author, in collaboration
ayllu president (camachico) climactically drama- with specialists (including the coauthors), has been
tizes this belief (see Figure 14.1). conducting detailed research on the Rapaz cords
Tupicochan khipus yield ambiguous radio- themselves, as well as on their historical archae-
carbon dates, with nineteenth-century dates being ology, their architecture, and their ethnographic-
most prevalent as dates of manufacture. Ayllu books linguistic surround. The research was undertaken
from within the community give clues about when by agreement with the Comunidad Campesina San
cords ceased to be official media. One from 1898 Cristóbal de Rapaz, which owns the site. Rapaz has
mentions the quipocamayos as artifacts “de ante- the largest single deposit of patrimonial khipus as
rior” (of former [times]). If khipus were still made well as the most richly contextualized. The remain-
in the nineteenth century but obsolescent by 1898, der of this chapter is devoted to findings of our
then the people trained after the end of the War 2005–2008 researches there.
of the Pacific (1883) are likely to be the ones who The village of San Cristóbal de Rapaz, with its
relinquished khipu practice. In the 1920s, the time comunidad campesina (corporation of the com-
when people born around 1880 were reaching peak mons) of the same name, is located on the west
power, khipu sets were broken up by ayllu fission, slope of the Sierra de Raura in the upper Huaura
suggesting that their functionality was no longer River drainage (Province of Oyón, Department

Khipu from Colony to Republic 355

 of Lima). Its nucleated center stands 4,000–4,050 A variety of Quechua I of the Yaru dialect group
m high on a spur over the uppermost reach of coexists, though it is in decline, with Spanish.
the Checras River (IGN 2000). The densely built The ritual-administrative precinct of tradi-
“reduction”-style village stands a little below the tional governance (Figure 14.2) occupies an area of
boundary between spacious high-altitude pasture- 346.17 m2 close to the eastern edge of the village.
lands and restricted farmlands. The latter includes One side of it lies along the boundary between the
a band of dry-farmed terraced fields under an eight- two traditional moieties, Allauca and Lamash. The
zone sectoral fallowing regimen (Guillet 1981) and precinct is surrounded on two sides by a recently
an irrigated lower band near the river. Rapaz lost rebuilt fieldstone wall with one large gate and
its former valley-bottom lands in the 1920s. The a small lateral entrance, later filled in. The other
1993 census registered 707 inhabitants (INEI 1993). two sides have rammed-earth walls backing onto

0.50
4.66
3.40
4.51
Pasa Qullqa
pro

0.50
jec
iont
of

0.69
th
atc
he
dg
abl
er
oo

7.07
f

17.82

Kaha Wayi
area = 346.1697 m approx.
perimeter = 77.9386 m approx.
projection of gable roof

10.40

figure 14.2
The ritual precinct of laboratory
Rapaz. The structure (temporary)
at bottom, a temporary
site laboratory, has been
removed. (Drawing by
13.61
Frank Salomon.) 3.60

356 s a l omon , b re z i n e , c ha pa , a n d fal c ón

private residences. It contains two buildings: Kaha Kaha Wayi, the Khipu House (Figure 14.3), is the
Wayi, the “Khipu House” (upper left in Figure 14.2), more frequently used part of the patrimony. It func-
and the storehouse Pasa Qullqa or Misia Qullqa tions as the meeting place of the traditional authori-
(upper right in Figure 14.2). The two are roughly ties, particularly for the important New Year’s
aligned, facing each other along a northeast- meeting, which we will describe, and for the mesas
southwest axis that forms an angle with the street calzadas, in which the designated ritualist (awkin,
grid. The walled plaza as of 2003 was unpaved and vendelhombre) communicates with the owners of
empty save for two electric utility posts, but exca- rain. It is rectangular with walls of irregular stone
vation showed signs of heavy use in recent and his- and earth mortar and adobe gables. Stone benches
toric times. run around the interior walls. A single northwest-
The name Kaha Wayi consists of an appar- facing door gives access to the main chamber, while
ently Spanish root, caja, “treasury,” and a Quechua a smaller opening in the southwestern gable, 2.8 m
one, wayi, cognate to wasi in southern Quechua, over the inside floor level, opens into the now-empty
meaning “house.” As for Pasa Qullqa, qullqa (with attic. The end walls project past the main facade to
q representing the central Peruvian voiced postve- form two buttresses. A low stone bench of a type
lar occlusive) is cognate to the southern qullka, common in regional pre-Hispanic architecture
“storehouse.” The adjective pasa, cognate to pacha, runs along the base of the facade. It afforded seat-
means “time, season, weather.” Villagers also speak ing for officers whose low rank allowed hearing but
of the walled compound as a whole as Qullqa. precluded seeing the rituals within Kaha Wayi. The

figure 14.3
Kaha Wayi, the Khipu House, 2004. (Photograph by Frank Salomon.)

Khipu from Colony to Republic 35 7

 figure 14.4
The khipu collection with 2004 vice president (kamatsikuq) Toribio Gallardo. (Photograph by Frank Salomon.)

main entry, a Dutch door, allowed sound and the rit- Before describing the khipus, then, we must review
ually valued smoke of incense to reach these novices. three matters: Kaha Wayi’s standing as a temple
Long eaves sheltered them. and administrative center, the storehouse it con-
In 2003 and 2004, the collection of khipus was trolled, and the agropastoral system governed from
draped in seeming disorder over a stick that hung this complex.
from the woodwork of the upper floor (Figure Kaha Wayi is the only functioning Andean
14.4). This hanging rack lay parallel to the south- temple of which we are aware. Although it stands
east or rear wall. Underneath it, along the built-in just a few steps from the village’s famous painted
bench, lay a considerable scattering of broken cord church (Macera et al. 1995), its visible contents
fragments. No khipu remains were found in any include no icons of Christianity,3 nor do the
other place. roles performed in it govern any of the village’s
Although this study will concentrate on the Catholic festivals. In the eyes of Rapacinos, Kaha
khipus, it is vital to understand that the khipus Wayi’s ongoing power to obtain rain for crops
exist as part of a suite of artifacts that formed the and herds, and its mandate to enforce ritual and
basic control structures of an agropastoral system. economic order in agriculture, matter even more
Kaha Wayi still does control the agricultural sector, than its standing as the repository of an “Inka”
allowing ethnographic study of khipus’ context. khipu collection.

35 8 s a l omon , b re z i n e , c ha pa , a n d fal c ón
figure 14.5
Altar and ritual in Kaha Wayi, January 2, 2004.
(Photograph by Frank Salomon.)

To villagers, Kaha Wayi’s most important fea-

ture is an altar or offering table that stands in the
westerly part of the chamber. Covered with a dou-
ble cloth, it permanently holds three small gourds
for liquid offerings (jurka), a coca bag (walqi), and a
small lime gourd for consuming coca (Figure 14.5).
A large pile of coca leaves deposited in the course of
rites obscures most of the surface. From the ceiling
hang twenty-six diverse objects dedicated as past
offerings. (In 2008, a new one, a decorated ear of
corn, was added.) A large broken pot on the floor
serves as a censer for the solemn act of burning
llama fat with the incense plant kunuk. Dry plant
remains under the altar attest to the raywan cer-
emony to be described.
The associated storehouse, Pasa Qullqa (Figure
14.6), is out of use. This robust building was made
to sustain great weights, and although it resembles
Kaha Wayi in its overall shape and size, it was con-
structed differently. It contains no furnishings now
considered sacred, nor does it function any longer
for storage. It is, however, still used for nighttime
animal sacrifice. The upper story was the storage
area for seed potatoes under communal control,
while its middle floor was the storage area for con-
sumables from the common fields (used for festi-
vals, but also for the relief of hunger, the support of
outgoing or incoming delegations, and the raising
of funds). The lowest, semisubterranean floor shel-
tered animal products and sacrifices.
The present regime of communal control over
production includes the usual “constitutional”
hierarchy of officers and practices nationally nor-
mative bookkeeping, taxpaying, and legal regis-
try. At the same time, it maintains within its own
bosom a traditionalist inner government that con-
tinues to enforce the aforementioned regime of figure 14.6
usufruct rights. This inner government is officially Pasa Qullqa, the old community storehouse, after
called the Comité Agropecuario (Agropastoral its architectural conservation, 2005. (Photograph
Committee); the community vice president, in by Frank Salomon.)

Khipu from Colony to Republic 359

 his capacity as kamatsikuq, functions as its head. is called “awkin” (male elder) or “vendelhombre”
The vice president–kamatsikuq thus forms the (human welfare) by his human constituency. But
hinge between state-defined law and a traditional he himself says “awkin” or “vendelhombre” when
varayo-style hierarchy. (Varayo, a Peruvianism speaking of still greater beings. No dichotomy of
from Quechua varayuq, “staff holder,” means an natural and supernatural is in play, but rather a sin-
officer in the customary-law hierarchy. In Rapaz, gle human-superhuman society within which rain,
these officers are known as balternos.) the harvest, and life itself are transactions. When
The officers of this inner government don transactions go poorly (i.e., in times of drought,
Andean formal clothes (brown poncho, coca bag, epidemic, etc.), the ritualist makes heroic fasts
hat with floral ornament) to meet in Kaha Wayi or to within the precinct and journeys to the glaciated
attend assemblies where they represent Kaha Wayi. heights to demand Rapaz’s due.
While they no longer administer a sector of com- Because Pasa Qullqa has passed out of use,
munal fields to fill Pasa Qullqa, they do still admin- the present regimen in the precinct is incomplete
ister both rituals and rules for agriculture. They are in regard to gender. The abundant testimony of
responsible for making sure comuneros receive their elders and a corpus of sacred songs (tinya) devoted
usufruct parcels in due order, for patrolling the to the precinct attest to Pasa Qullqa’s female iden-
anqi (sectors) to monitor correct use, for impound- tity. Ritual address to her is in terms of mother-
ing stray animals, for supervising the harvest, for hood, and the wife of the kamatsikuq presided,
hosting various NGO visitors, and for supporting with well-remembered pomp, over the storage and
the ritualist in his communications with the dei- disbursing of Pasa Qullqa’s contents. Her title was
fied mountains. They also monitored the present ispinsira, “steward” with feminine inflection.
research to prevent interruptions or desecrations of
the ritual regimen (Salomon and Peters 2009).
Kaha Wayi and Pasa Qullqa are not thought of
The Khipus of Rapaz
as cultural artifacts within a “natural” landscape.
Rather, they figure in a single hierarchy of sacred When removed from its supporting ropes in 2005,
places that includes both natural and cultural ones. the khipu collection on its hanging rack weighed
When asked about the sacred places one must almost exactly 10 kg. Once it was laid on its study
invoke, the Rapacinos mention at least the mighty “bed” in the temporary laboratory, conservators
peaks called Yara Wayna, Qumpir Wayna, Saqsar Rosa and Rosalía Choque mechanically cleaned
Wanka, Waqrunchu, and Pilaw Qayán. But in the its cords and reinforced damaged ones using local
same series they also mention as places requiring wool and crepeline. The cords were individually
veneration the spring of Tukapia, located on a hill described by Carrie Brezine. Cords were studied
right over the village, and both Kaha Wayi and Pasa in their original positions, including entangle-
Qullqa within the center of the village, as if the last ments in the areas close to the hanging rod. This
three represented their own neighborhood within was done both to conserve data possibly inherent
the society of powerful beings. The nearby ritual in their relative positions and to obey the commu-
points are nexuses or points of communication nity’s injunction that their array not be disturbed.
with great powers. Tukapia and the remembered The collection consists of 263 discrete cord
“well” of Pasa Qullqa are seen as oracles convey- objects and not, as often misreported, a single
ing the “answers” of the greater beings. The ritual “giant khipu.” Villagers do, however, speak of it in
precinct is one’s own proximate and approachable both Spanish and Quechua in the singular. Perhaps
superior amid the wider and more awesome kin- the ensemble of cord objects was understood to be a
dred of the jirka (sacred mountains). unified record and in this sense one khipu—albeit
The same tendency is notable in terminol- one whose parts could be handled separately. The
ogy. The ritualist contracted to act in Kaha Wayi 263 objects are not tantamount to 263 integral

36 0 s a l omon , b re z i n e , c ha pa , a n d fal c ón
artifacts because many consist of disparate frag- slack (perhaps because part of the group has fallen
ments stitched together by unknown hands at away). The ends of some khipu objects extend lat-
unknown times in an apparent attempt at conser- erally and end in tangles with other groups. These
vation. Others are fragments of single cord objects. facts suggest that the cords were at one point draped
Rapaz khipus, unlike those of Tupicocha, de­­ over the hanging stick in bundles, perhaps in an
viate widely from the basic norms of Inka khipu attempt to conserve meaningful order, but that this
construction. Whereas Inka specimens have a sin- order was later partially confused.
gle main cord from which multiple knot-bearing The unilinear Rapaz design is more suggestive
pendants hang, all Rapaz khipus share a unilin- of seriated emblems (such as a Siouan winter count
ear design in which all apparent signs are attached or a Panamanian Kuna pictographic manuscript)
directly to a single, sometimes very long, cord. than of data arrayed on the dual (horizontal/ver-
Some exceed 15 m, but it remains to be seen how tical) axes of Inka design. But Rapaz emblems,
much of the length is due to composite mending. unlike signs on blank hide or paper, rest upon a
They are made entirely of animal fiber, with cam- linear substrate that is significantly complex in its
elid wool predominant but sheep wool present in at own right. Following the Harvard Khipu Database
least one group of cords. Rapaz cords do not resem- usage, we called these main cords (MC). Both S-
ble Inka ones even at first glance, and they are con- and Z-twists in the final plying of main cords are
sistently about three times as thick as Inka cords, common. A few cords are braided rather than plied.
typically about 3 mm in diameter. Polychrome main cords are almost always of spiral
About seventy-five percent of the cord objects barber pole design, unlike the mottled bichrome
are grouped in fourteen apparent groupings. In common in khipus of Tupicocha and in the pre-
most groupings, one member of the set functions as Hispanic khipus of Pachacamac. Main cords range
a “belt” to join the rest together. There are differences very widely in design, from being monochrome
among the groups: for example, one consists almost to having elaborate multiple plying (Figure 14.7).
wholly of sheep wool. These groupings seem to have Almost all colors are natural fiber hues, but in a
been disturbed at some point, and some “belts” are few cases plies of dyed wool extend through mostly

figure 14.7
Dyed wool ply in the main cord of Rapaz khipu kr040. (Photograph by Frank Salomon.)

Khipu from Colony to Republic 361

 natural cords. Dye colors are greenish blue or mus- to make them manageable; thus, one might be able
tard yellow. One might suspect that in their span to find a particular reference point without fully
of use main cords were differentiated to make indi- extending a long cord.
vidual specimens easier to find. Modern herders in The features attached to the main cord are
central Peru twist identifying dyed plies into ropes not pendants in the Inka sense (Figure 14.9). Only
for tying animals. one pendantlike structure in the whole collection
At first glance, some Rapaz khipus seem to is attached with the conventional Inka half hitch.
have pendants or branches (Figure 14.8), but this Rather, attached signs are typically knotted onto
is an illusion. Rapaz khipu makers, like modern the main cord. Attached signs commonly consist of
Rapacinos, tended to ply wool tighter than indus- either a short piece of tied-on cord or a short tie-on
trial spinners do, and tightly plied yarn has a ten- holding some small object. Most such attachments
dency to double back on itself in a spiral. Many are knotted around the whole main cord over-
main cords are made this way. What seem to be hand, while some run between plies of the main
pendants or branches are actually stretches that cord. The objects they bear at their distal ends are
have doubled back in the direction opposite to tufts of wool in various natural colors, tags of raw-
their final plying. This tendency may have been hide, tags of hide with wool still on it, pom-poms
used intentionally to condense very long cords and (frequently bicolored), and, in ten cases, figurines.

figure 14.8
Rapaz khipu kr025 appears to have pendants, but they are actually doubled-back stretches of main cord.
(Photograph by Frank Salomon.)

362 s a l omon , b re z i n e , c ha pa , a n d fal c ón

 kr025 Cord Notes

Group: 4
Total Length: 126.8 cm
Fibers: camelid
720

920 880 840 800 760

960

1000 1040 1080 1120 1160

figure 14.9 1200

Part of khipu kr025 diagrammed and visually 1260 1240
straightened. (Drawing by Carrie Brezine.)

10 cm

Reportedly, attached objects formerly included a have held high community office, think cords may
starfish and additional figurines. While individual represent careers of individual comuneros. This
types of emblems occasionally repeat, nothing on idea is plausible because one of the most important
the cords is numerically iterative in the sense that parts of modern (alphabetic) administration is the
multiple-turn knots or repeated simple knots are. record book showing in which positions (cargos)
An arithmetical interpretation, therefore, finds no each comunero has served, thereby documenting
easier a toehold than any other. his political standing and his eventual eligibility
Villagers today disclaim any ability to decipher for semiretired status. Each comunero’s career is
cords. They do, however, offer three ideas about today docu­mented on one page, and each could
what might be encoded on these cords. Kaha Wayi’s have been documented on one main cord.
ritualist, and a few other elders strongly attached to The Rapaz specimens fall so far from the design
Kaha Wayi’s sacred regimen, see them as the trace profile of Middle Horizon through Late Horizon
of interactions with the jirka, or divine mountains, khipus that one may reasonably ask whether they
perhaps records of sacrifices or encounters. One belong to the same technology or deserve the same
identified them name by name with the jirka. Other name. When Ruíz Estrada (personal communi-
villagers see them as records of communal herds, cation 2008) first talked to Rapacinos about their
mentioning that they are made of animal matter. patrimony, the word khipu was their only term for
The making of herding cords lasted until a half the objects in either language. Rapacinos give their
century ago at the household level, although they cords no other and believe them to be of “Inka”
were not in the same format as the Kaha Wayi spec- antiquity. Others are more skeptical. Federico
imens. Still other Rapacinos, typically those who Kauffman Doig (2005:81), following a short visit,

Khipu from Colony to Republic 363

 wrote that one must study “whether [the maker] samples from ten different khipus in various parts
had in mind only to imitate [khipu] morphology of the array and one from Figurine 10 were tested by
and apply it [a khipu-simulacrum] to purposes that the University of Arizona Radiocarbon Laboratory
were outside the instrument’s original role as a reg- (aa68896–aa68906). One of the khipu cord sam-
istry of quantities.” He estimates that “it was made ples, aa68899, yielded an aberrant uncalibrated date
in the colonial era, around the year 1700,” with the of 373 ± 34 bp, a separation of 6σ from the remaining
purpose of evoking “an ancient cultural element, ten samples. T-tests indicated that the remaining ten
which, by its intricate morphology and exaggerated were statistically equivalent at the ninety-five per-
length might instill respect and veneration. That cent level. The ten pooled samples gave an uncali-
is, by accrediting it only with a certain magico- brated date of 125 ± 12 bp. McCormac and others’
religious function” (Kauffman Doig 2005:81–82).4 (2004) southern hemisphere calibration yielded a
Since we have just seen that the Rapaz khipus total range of 1700–1952 at 2σ. As is usual for dates
do not, in fact, resemble Inka models even slightly, after 1600, the results showed multiple intervals as
it seems unlikely that they were made to “imitate possible datings. The three most significant ones
morphology” of the Inka medium. The hypothesis were 1700–1722 with a relative area of .110, 1809–1834
becomes even less likely when one considers that with a relative area of .278, and 1878–1932 with a rela-
villagers did know and do still remember an Inka- tive area of .519.
like method of using knots to record numbers of Faced with this kind of ambiguity, historical
animals, yet refrained from using it in the Kaha archaeologists recommend using nonradiocar-
Wayi cords. But a post-Inka origin as suggested by bon evidence such as documents, iconography,
both Ruíz Estrada and Kauffman Doig does remain or known sequences in material culture to evalu-
a definite possibility. How old, then, are the khipus ate the relative credibility of 14C intervals. At this
of Rapaz? point, the attached figurines become critical.
Figurines contain datable, and sometimes inter-
pretable, iconic elements. They are relevant with
one caveat: one must take them to be parts of the
Rapaz Khipu Chronology: Radiocarbon,
original khipu construction and not extraneous
Iconography, and Military History
objects added ex post facto. Although that possi-
In 2005, as part of the present project, the archae- bility is hard to eliminate, it is less likely than the
ologist Víctor Falcón Huayta undertook a lim- hypothesis of integrity because no evidence or tes-
ited archaeological inquiry into the antecedents timony from Rapaz suggests that figurines of this
of the Kaha Wayi–Pasa Qullqa complex, which sort existed independent of khipus within the span
included excavations to define occupations visible of inherited memory.
in floors or earlier structural remains and to esti- At least three of the ten Rapaz khipu figurines
mate the era of the two buildings’ construction. (Figurines 4, 5, and 9) contain industrially woven
Radiocarbon samples were taken from excavated textiles (plaid cloth, rickrack, ribbon) that are likely
material and from other parts of the complex. The to have reached Peru in the nineteenth century
results indicate that the chronology of the two or after. Figurine 5 (Figure 14.10) bears a bit of red
sacred buildings is much longer than that of the industrial rickrack of a type (“waved braid”) interna-
khipus themselves. For the purposes of this chap- tionally marketed from Britain as early as the 1850s
ter, however, we will limit ourselves to the inter- (Anonymous 1861:217–218; New Zealander 1852).
pretation of radiocarbon results from khipus and Visitors sometimes notice a resemblance
figurine wool. between the clothing of Figurine 6 (on the Rapaz
The community directorate allowed us to khipu, kr175; Figure 14.11) and old military uni-
remove bits of already damaged cord ply, each lit- forms. This resemblance can be confirmed quite
erally hanging by a thread from its khipu. Ten specifically by reference to the Peruvian army’s

364 s a l omon , b re z i n e , c ha pa , a n d fal c ón

 figure 14.10
Figurine 5 shows red
industrial rickrack of
a type internationally
marketed by the 1850s.
(Photograph by Frank
Salomon.)

figure 14.11
Rapaz Figurine 6.
(Photograph by Frank
Salomon.)

history of its own uniforms (Comisión Permanente

de la Historia del Ejército del Perú 2005:64–65;
Figure 14.12). The army publication identifies a
matching design as the uniform of an “Officer of
Line Infantry Battalion No. 3 in 1822,” citing offi-
cial specifications. This battalion was organized at
the end of 1821, authorized to wear the gala uni-
form on May 23, 1822, and was until that date called
the Ica Battalion. Its name makes reference to the
first area where San Martín’s independence troops
camped upon landing in 1821, thus commemorat-
ing the unit’s origin in the earliest phase of the war.
This unit took part in all the main campaigns of
the independence war. The overall color scheme
may hark back to a gala costume in which some
eighteenth-century dignitaries were portrayed, but
the cut is distinctive. A similar though less fully
matching design was used by at least one royalist
corps, the Grenadiers of the Arequipa Regiment of
Infantry as of 1818.

Khipu from Colony to Republic 365

 figure 14.12
Officer of 3rd Infantry Battalion
of the Line in 1822. (Reprinted
from Comisión Permanente de
la Historia del Ejército del Perú
2005:65.)

Figurine 7 (Figure 14.13) wears red trousers, without knowing whether the two military figures,
a blue poncho, and perhaps a light-colored shirt. which are adjacent in the array of the khipus, rep-
Red trousers were worn by some military units in resent brothers in arms, we can take Figurine 7 to
the era of independence but remained in fashion be another nineteenth-century icon.
through the era of the War of the Pacific (1879–1883), But is there any reason to suppose that the
so the figure is harder to date. It bears a likeness Rapaz figurines are related to local experiences
to an undated watercolor titled Montonero by the in nineteenth-century wars as opposed to long-
Peruvian costumbrista Pancho Fierro (Figure 14.14). lasting awareness of common nineteenth-century
Pancho Fierro’s lifetime (1807?–1879) spanned this icon­ography? Gala uniforms like the one on
whole interval, so it is hard to guess whether his Figurine 6 abound in the iconography of Peruvian
red-trousered guerrilla represents a memory from nationalism, including in numerous images of
his adolescence or a more mature experience. Even Simón Bolívar (whose “Grancolombian” battalions

36 6 s a l omon , b re z i n e , c ha pa , a n d fal c ón
 figure 14.13
Rapaz Figurine 7. (Photograph by Frank Salomon.)

secured Peruvian independence by invading the

viceroyalty from the north after the politically disap-
pointed General San Martín retired southward to his
Argentinean base in 1822; Figure 14.15). Indeed, new
icons with the 1822 uniform are still being produced,
and old ones popularized, via patriotic web sites.
Many nineteenth-century Peruvians likely knew
these icons without necessarily having any connec-
tion to the military.
So the mere presence of gala or guerrilla mili-
tary styles on the figurines of the Rapaz khipus does
not by itself affiliate the cord to the independence
era. Up to this point, we have only eliminated the
earliest of the three 14C ranges, namely 1700–1722.
The second range, 1809–1834, includes the indepen-
dence war and would be the most believable affili-
ation if it could be shown that Rapacinos were in
actual contact with officers who used the uniform
during the war. The third range, 1878–1932, would

figure 14.14
Pancho Fierro, Montonero,
undated (nineteenth century),
watercolor. (Photograph
courtesy of the Museo Banco
Central de Reserva del Perú.)

Khipu from Colony to Republic 367

 figure 14.15
Arturo Michelena, Portrait of Simon
Bolivar, 1859. Bolivar Museum,
Caracas, Venezuela. (Bridgeman-
Giraudon / Art Resource, New York.)

become the most believable in the absence of evi- part, during four moments of the Peruvian War
dence dating the khipus to range two because icons of Independence. The District of Oyón is not to be
of the Liberator and other soldier-patriots in gala confused with the larger modern province of the
dress spread throughout the “national” territory same name. The district is a small territory, all of
as the nineteenth century advanced. Therefore, we which Rapacinos know well, and the largest share
must know whether military movements by troops of which belongs to their comunidad.
with Third Battalion–type uniforms in fact took The first moment follows shortly on the forma-
place during 1809–1834 in the District of Oyón, to tion of the Ica Battalion at the start of the insurrec-
which Rapaz belongs. tion in 1820. The District of Oyón figured in the later
part of General Juan Antonio Alvarez de Arenales’s
first sierran campaign, which Carlos Contreras and
Marcos Cueto (2000:49) characterize as the only
The War of Independence in the
militarily significant event in the early phase of
Rapaz Area
the independence war. Having disembarked near
Fortunately, the movement of troops is a well- Pisco, on the south-central coast, General José de
documented matter. Both primary and secondary San Martín dispatched the young Argentinean
sources record considerable military movement Alvarez on October 4 to climb the sierra through
in the District of Oyón, of which Rapaz forms Huancavelica and to march northward through the

36 8 s a l omon , b re z i n e , c ha pa , a n d fal c ón
Andean corridor against Viceroy La Serna’s chosen his campaigns, therefore, made only glancing con-
highland strongholds. tact with the Rapaz area. The second moment, on
While San Martín moved up the Pacific coast the other hand, marked a decisive contact. Alvarez
to form his provisional government at Huaura de Arenales’s second highland campaign was an
and Huacho, near the mouth of the Huaura River, offensive in the reverse, or north–south direction,
Alvarez de Arenales advanced in parallel along an beginning in April 1821 (Vargas Ugarte 1966:140).
inland mountain route. On December 6, Alvarez Having marched up the Huaura corridor, on May
de Arenales’s troops trounced the royal garrison 6 he met up with the Quechua-speaking mestizo
at Cerro de Pasco. At this point, the patriot army caudillo Agustín Gamarra at Oyón town (Figure
stood close to the headwaters of the Huaura River 14.16). Oyón served as a base for training regular
drainage, just over the rugged Cordillera de Raura. troops while acclimating them to the heights and
As Alvarez de Arenales fought along the puna, San for recruiting guerrillas. From Oyón, forty-three
Martín’s Horse Grenadiers climbed up the Huaura hundred insurgents scrambled up the icy heights of
Valley to find and meet them. From this moment Raura with light provisions. The troops then headed
on, Rapaz lay in the path of warfare. (The nearby southward through the highland corridor to attack
Pativilica and Chillón valleys also served as paral- royalist concentrations (Paz Soldán 1868:152–158;
lel military routes.) Throughout the higher parts Vigil 1998:146). Alvarez de Arenales coordinated
of this terrain, Quechua-speaking peasantries his formal troops with the montonera, or Andean
came into direct contact with patriot creoles (Roca guerrilla forces, then forming under Gamarra’s
1866:64–66; Vergara 1984:496). guidance in various places, including Oyón. After
Although Oyón was mentioned in dispatches several victories, Alvarez de Arenales received San
of this campaign, Alvarez de Arenales did not Martín’s unwelcome July 20 command to bring the
take the body of his army through it. The first of troops down to Lima.

figure 14.16
Detail from Alvarez
de Arenales’s 1832
map of his second
campaign of 1821.
The red line (in
original) marks the
course of the army;
the right-angle kink
in the route from
the Checras River to
Oyón marks Rapaz.
(Reprinted from
Arenales 1832.)

Khipu from Colony to Republic 369

 Cultural and political relations between cre- This year marked an ebbing of the independence
ole patriot armies and Quechua-speaking peas- cause. The collapse of San Martín’s proposed alli-
ants remain a little-researched area. Contreras ance with Bolívar, the withdrawal of Chilean and
and Cueto (2000:47) mention that in most places Argentinean allies, the bankruptcy in the provi-
the people called indios showed little enthusiasm sional government, and the civil disorder in Lima
for independence. But it may not have been so in brought the movement close to collapse from late
Arenales’s terrain. On April 18, 1821, according to 1822 through 1823. Nonetheless, a regional histo-
a memoir published by his son, the high-altitude rian of the Checras Valley (that is, the part of the
villagers of San Pedro de Cacás (near Cerro de Huaura basin to which Rapaz belongs) has exam-
Pasco) met insurgents with “shouts of viva and ined documents that testify to continued local
songs with instruments of ancient style, pecu- activity in support of the “Protector” San Martín.
liar to Peruvians. . . . They [campesinos] had built In April 1822, grandiose festivals with donations to
altars on some parts of the way, elegantly decorated the insurgents took place in Checras villages. Local
with patriotic flags, and had placed on them saints’ militias organized surveillance of royalist move-
images, taken from the nearest churches (so they ments. Two local commanders organized “guard”
would cast blessings on the patrianos [fatherland- troops to control movements in the sierra (Medina
ers] as they said.) . . . [S]uch was the deluge of flow- Susano 1989:81–115). Viceroy La Serna took such
ers, that although the road was covered with them movements seriously. His general in command,
already, some did not cease to fall weightlessly onto Canterac, took the trouble to publish Quechua-
shirtfronts, caps and even weapons” (Arenales language flyers warning against rebellion in mul-
1832:21).5 tiple dialects. One, from August 1822, is written
Another veteran’s memoir states even more in the dialect of Cerro de Pasco and would have
clearly that the villagers who feted Alvarez de been quite clear to Rapacinos (Rivet and Créqui-
Arenales’s troops were not valley-dwelling creoles Montfort 1951:284).7
but Quechua speakers on the puna: “[Local peas- For a fourth and last time, independence
ants came] from very long distances greeting our mobilization took place in the Rapaz countryside
soldiers with the words patrianos, patriarcas, which during the first half of 1824. These months cor-
they doubtless thought to be synonyms of ‘patriots.’ responded to the run-up to the fateful Battle of
And when we approached big towns, situated on Junín on August 6. When Simón Bolívar marched
high elevations from which our route was not easy his Grancolombian army southward into Peru
to reach, they contented themselves with greeting us and joined forces with creole battalions to form
on the fly from the peaks of their lofty hills, with the Unified Army of Liberation, his coastal-based
their traditional songs in quichua, sung in chorus by insurgency faced viceregal forces still concentrated
hundreds of voices, to the sound of their flutes and in the Andes. As in 1820, the logistical corridor
small drums, which we answered for our part whip- extending up the Huaura River to Oyón and Cerro
ping our handkerchiefs in the air” (Roca 1866:28).6 de Pasco served the cause well. This time far greater
“Small drum” (tamboril) refers to the single-skinned numbers moved through it.
Andean tinya. In Rapaz it is characteristically used In the immense body of correspondence be­­
in ritual or sacred song. Because Alvarez de Arenales tween the Liberator and his leading field com-
(1832:18) wanted his troops to move quickly with light mander, José Antonio de Sucre, two themes
provisions, he left behind in Oyón the army’s hospi- repeatedly come up when Oyón is mentioned. One
tal, commissary, heavy equipment, and accompa- is the objective of emptying livestock and horses out
nying family members. In this way, Oyón became of the intra-Andean lands, especially Huánuco and
something of an independentista township. Cerro de Pasco, so as to cause the royalists prob-
The third moment of contact between lems of transport and diet. Sucre wrote Bolívar over
Rapacinos and patriot forces took place in 1822. and over about sequestering “the cattle of Cerro [de

3 70 s a l omon , b re z i n e , c ha pa , a n d fal c ón
Pasco].” The plan was to herd them out of the rich, have are worthless. . . . Without bold officers the
level altiplano immediately east of Oyón and to guerrillas do nothing. It seems the montoneras
secure them in several hidden redoubts fenced off use up a lot of food, and to little effect, because
from royalist forces by the formidable Raura and they don’t have good chiefs or very bold officers
Huayhuash cordilleras. Oyón and Cajatambo were to lead them. They will be useful if they are given
two such strongholds (O’Leary 1883:109, 125, 423, very strong officers who are not just here to rob the
439). Timothy Anna (2000:272) estimates seques- towns” (O’Leary 1879:110).9 The word translated as
tered cattle at over ten thousand head, and Sucre “bold” in the previous quote is guapo. In the nine-
mentioned huge numbers of sheep as well (nine teenth century, the term guapo combined the idea
thousand in a single shipment; O’Leary 1879:125). of valor with that of handsomeness: courage made
Sucre wrote twice from Oyón in February 1824 visible. The urge to dramatize military merit and
(O’Leary 1883:543, 548), mindful of the social stress thereby to encourage it in others loomed large in
involved. He informed Bolívar that “the livestock of military thinking. What seems to a modern reader
Cerro [de Pasco] were moved toward Oyón . . . and like mad vanity in the patriots’ copious orders for
it took no small number of orders and no small gala uniforms may be better be understood as the
effort to get them herded onward to that area. means to impress on rural society aspirations to an
I don’t even know whether they arrived as far as aristocracy of valor, although there is plenty of room
Oyón; but I will try to have them kept there so the for doubt about whether the officers of 1820–1824
enemy can never take them. . . . Your Excellency thought “Indians” could join it. Certainly Bolívar
knows how hard it is to wrench the countrymen’s and many others found the notion of “Indians” as
cattle away from them all at once. They contrib- patriots laughable (Favre 1986). Nonetheless, the
ute little by little to feed the troops, but to take all gala uniform of Figurine 6 may express Rapacinos’
at once is just not possible” (O’Leary 1883:397).8 perception of this idea: some individual—conceiv-
He repeatedly wrote warning Bolívar that herders ably one of the people just mentioned—is repre-
hate having their animals held in distant pastures sented as an oficial guapo.
(O’Leary 1879:129). Montoneros and guerrillas were to become
Since khipus were the characteristic rural way important in the final weeks of the war. On June 15,
to keep track of herds, both those who yielded cat- 1824, Bolívar ordered his troops to begin marching
tle to the patrianos and those who were charged up to the highlands by three separate routes. Along
with caring for sequestered cattle plausibly would the Oyón route, Medina Susano (1989) shows, the
have kept cord records. A lapse in record keeping Checras Valley villagers gave both copious supplies
would have been a bad situation because the very and military support to such famous battalions
real possibility that the patriots might not pay for as the Vargas, Pichincha, and Voltigeros, already
the animals they consumed, or that the care of renowned for victories in the northern republics.
the sequestered animals might not be paid, was a While the United Army of Liberation reassembled
threat to all parties. Caring for such huge numbers in the cordilleras, “guerrilla parties took posses-
of guest cattle would have involved the services of sion of strategic passes connecting coast and sierra,
many villages and would have demanded strict keeping up espionage and vigilance to prevent the
coordination between “Indian” village officers and royalists from surprising the army in its training
patriot officers. camps. This role was filled by the guerrilla parties
The other theme that repeatedly comes up in operating on the heights of Oyón, among others”
connection with Oyón is the training and con- (Vergara 1984:644).10 Perhaps Figurine 7, the pon-
trol of montoneros and guerrillas. Sucre wrote his cho-clad man in red pants, is their memento. The
commander to say that “in order to train the guer- same military historian (Vergara 1984) has tracked
rillas . . . it is necessary to send good officers, and the general headquarters, troops, and guerrillas as
especially, brave ones. The ones the montoneras they maneuvered in the weeks leading up to the

Khipu from Colony to Republic 37 1

 figure 14.17
Itinerary of the march of the “Unified Liberation Army,” indicating the successive locations of general headquarters
before the Battle of Junín. (Reprinted from Vergara 1984:1086.) The southernmost location of headquarters (“CG”)
matches Oyón. The map erroneously identifies the Río Huaura as the Río Huanta.

3 7 2 s a l omon , b re z i n e , c ha pa , a n d fal c ón
climactic Battle of Junín. For July 29, 1824, barely concerning animals and labor to care for them
a week before the fight, he puts the general head- are today among the most closely documented of
quarters at an unlabeled location that appears to village transactions. Caring for animals belong-
be Oyón (Figure 14.17). ing to others (hacienda herds in the past, commu-
nity herds today, or in this case military herds) is
especially sensitive (as Marshal Sucre observed).
Modern Rapacinos associate private khipus with
Conclusion
past herding. But the cords of Kaha Wayi dif-
The nineteenth century is the darkest in the history fer in important formal ways from ethnographi-
of the khipu. But at least some Rapaz khipus belong cally known herding khipus. They are unlikely
to this era and continue to be used in a context of to encode herd enumerations. Rather, they may
governance. Figurine 6 makes an iconic allusion to record seriated actions that disposed of animals
the years of the War of Independence (1820–1824), or transferred them, as by sale, consumption, sac-
and ample evidence of pro-independence mili- rifice, or transportation. Alternatively their signs
tary activity in Oyón, of which Rapaz forms part, may refer to services or cargos—in this case ser-
indicates that the allusion could well be based on vices rendered to military authorities. Other than
actual contact with creole officers, as opposed to its military iconography, kr175 shows no striking
their memory as enshrined in later patriotic imag- difference from other Rapaz khipus, so it likely
ery. Two veins of independent evidence thus sup- represents activities comparable to those recorded
port the second of three intervals that radiocarbon in the other khipus of Kaha Wayi.
tests indicate as possible origin dates for the Rapaz The fact that figurines and khipus have sur-
khipu-figurine wool sample, namely 1809–1834. vived as part of a ritual surround is no argument
The exact encounters that the iconography against their having worked in administration and
reflects are likely to have taken place either at the governance. In modernity, Kaha Wayi fuses these
start of the wars, during Juan Antonio Alvarez de orbits. The same gatherings that govern land use
Arenales’s second sierran campaign (April–July by comuneros also govern the common relation-
1821), or else at the end of it, in January–July 1824, ship with the weather-controlling mountain dei-
when José Antonio de Sucre was maneuvering the ties, and the sanctity of the Kaha Wayi altar—its
Unified Army of Liberation into the sierra and temple function—guarantees political authority.
training its guerrilla allies for the fateful Battle One can legitimately ask, however, whether this
of Junín. present constellation resembles one in force 180-
As for the nature of the information that khipu odd years ago. Archaeological evidence to be dis-
kr175 may contain, these veins of evidence are at cussed in a future essay indicates that Kaha Wayi
best suggestive. The specific military concerns as a structure assumed its present form at a mid- to
that commanders discussed with regard to Oyón late colonial date, so at least the physical supports
include three themes: logistics along the Huaura for the ritual-political order would have been avail-
River corridor from coast to highlands, train- able around 1820.
ing and acclimatization of troops and guerrillas, Cecilia Méndez (2004) argues that “an eth-
and control of livestock, including large herds of nohistory for the Peruvian nineteenth century”
sequestered animals. Of these three, the third is the is now coming into view, and that within it rela-
most likely to have required systematic interaction tions between peasants and the military stand out
with Quechua-speaking villagers. Maintaining as a central theme. The data from Kaha Wayi give
herds for the army must have demanded work by us a tiny but precious component of that relation-
villagers who were not themselves combatants but ship: a glimpse of the creole leaders then creating
who were familiar with local resources and subject the would-be-national state, as seen by “indios.”
to native political authority. Economic relations Are we looking at forced extraction, or realpolitik

Khipu from Colony to Republic 37 3

 dealings with a caudillo, or an attempt at self- unilinear, much less segmented than the Inka for-
assertion in the emerging “patriano” state? All mat. The Rapaz format seems to emphasize the
three remain possible. sequencing of single items rather than an array of
Rapaz offers some clues about the place of data in mutually comparable packets.
khipus in the overall informational order at a late In the 1820s, Rapaz’s khipu-based informa-
date in the history of the medium. By this date, the tion seemingly included internal data on deal-
media structure of rural society (not to be confused ings with outside creole military officers. The
with its linguistic structure, which still included reason for recording probably included the need
inter-ethnic use of Quechua) was sharply segre- for independent records about services and ani-
gated. Alphabetic writing was familiar to “Indians,” mals given and taken at a moment when national
but few “Indians” themselves were expert in pro- political authority was fragile, insolvent, and cul-
ducing it, and those few used it primarily for turally distant. The creole officers who were rep-
conducting relations with overarching colonial resented in khipus probably never understood or
institutions. The alphabet had yet to emerge as even heard of cords referring to themselves. Khipu
an internal medium for the conduct of horizon- knowledge had become a function of the inner-
tal relations among “Indian” commoners. Rapaz’s most peasant councils, perhaps never again vis-
khipus, like those of Tupicocha, seem to have been ible to the people called “patrianos.” Yet by that
a medium for intracommunal business, filling the very token, it may already have acquired its unique
niche of peer-to-peer documentations in a space prestige among Rapacinos—a prestige that hov-
of cultural privacy. As the khipu changed from a ers in the air of Kaha Wayi even now, long after
medium for wide imperial data flow to a medium republican pressures have caused khipu knowl-
of private and local use, it diversified somewhat, edge itself to be lost.
as the Quechua lengua del inca did when deprived
of its imperial role. The standardizing tendency of
the lingua franca yielded to local redevelopment of
Acknowledgments
multiple vernaculars, as reflected in the nonstan-
dardized codes of ethnographic khipus. The authors cordially thank the Comunidad
In Rapaz, unlike Tupicocha, a vernacular ver- Campesina San Cristóbal de Rapaz, the Fulbright-
sion diverged drastically from Inka style—whether Hayes Commission of Peru, the NSF Archaeology
by way of post-Inka deviance or reassertion of an Program under grant 0453965, the Wenner-Gren
older tradition, we do not know. The relation of Foundation for Anthropological Research, the
form to content differs from Inka precedent insofar University of Wisconsin Institute for Research
as it abounds in iconic, and perhaps metonymic, in the Humanities, Centro Mallqui, Fundación
modes of reference. The array of signs in space also Telefónica, Instituto Nacional de Cultura, and the
differs drastically. The Rapaz array is much more Scurrah-Mayer family.

3 74 s a l omon , b re z i n e , c ha pa , a n d fal c ón
 notes

1 With the additional collaboration of Luís Andrade fiambres, frutas y otros varios obgetos, que brinda-
Ciudad, Edgar Centeno Farfán, Rosa and Rosalía ban indistintamente á oficiales y soldados con las
Choque G., Gino de las Casas, and Renata Peters. mas obligantes insinuaciones. Esta larga escena
2 “dos alcaldes y cuatro rejidores y un alguacil y un tenía todo el carácter de una gran fiesta cívica; y era
escribano ó quipocamayo, que este ha de estar per- continuamente animada y sostenida por repetidos
pétuo en tanto que tuviere habilidad suficiente para vivas y cánticos con instrumentos al uso antiguo
ello” (Levillier 1925:305–306). y peculiar de los Peruanos. Para mayor solemni-
3 During 2004, a large wooden cross lay inclined dad y aparato, habian formado altares en algunas
inside Kaha Wayi, but this was only for temporary partes del tránsito, elegantemente decorados con
storage following the demolition of its original site. banderas patrióticas, y colocado en ellos imágenes
The community removed it in 2005. de santos, sacadas de las iglesias inmediatas (para
4 “Si tuvo en mente el imitar únicamente su que echáran la bendicion á los patrianos, decian
morfología y destinarlo a propósitos ajenos al ellos.) Algunas veces el transporte de entusiasmo
primigenio de instrumento de registro de canti- los hacia interrumpir el órden de la marcha, lan-
dades . . . fue confeccionado durante la época colo- zándose sobre las hileras á abrazar a los patriotas.
nial, alrededor del año 1700, con función distinta Pero tal fue el diluvio de flores, que apesar de que-
a la que regía en el contexto de los quipus propi- dar el camino cubierto de ellas, no dejaron de apa-
amente dichos o incaicos” . . . “un elemento cul- recer insensiblemente algunas sobre los pechos, las
tural antiguo, que por su morfología intrincada gorras, y aun sobre las armas. Al anotar qui estos
y su envergdura exagerada pudiera infundir res- pormenores, que á caso parecerán inconducen-
peto y veneración. Esto es, adjudicándole sólo una tes ó superficiales, se ha tenido el doble obgeto de
función mágico-religiosa dada” (Kauffman Doig estampar un testimonio mas justo recuerdo por tan
2005:81–82). All translations by the author. elocuentes y generosos egemplos del patriotismo; y
5 A fuller extract: “Durante la marcha de este dia, la de poner al lector en estado de graduar el temple de
división encontró casi todo el camino acordonado la opinion popular en las provincias de la Sierra.”
de gentes del país, que la aguardaban para verla 6 “Las traian á cuestas habitantes de muy largas dis-
y obsequiarla: al mismo tiempo, muchas otras se tancias, saludando á nuestros soldados con las pal-
desprendian con precipitacion por las empinadas y abras de patrianos, patriarcas, que sin duda creian
vistosas faldas de la quebrada, esforzándose á hacer sinónimos de patriotas: y cuando nos acercábamos
oir desde lejos sus gritos de vivas y felicitaciones. No á pueblos grandes, situados en eminencias elevadas,
obstante que muchos de estos habitantes residen en que no era facil llegar a nuestro camino, se conten-
las heladas llanuras de arriba, donde crian sus reba- taban con saludarnos al paso desde la cumbre de sus
ños y cosechan las papas, la quinoa, la cebada, &c., elevados cerros, con sus canciones tradicionales en
o se entretienen con los trabajos de la minería; la quichua, cantadas en coro por centenares de voces al
mayor parte de los que pueblan los valles de abajo, son de sus flautas y tamboriles, que eran contestadas
se había retirado a aquellas alturas, buscando los de nuestra parte patiendo al aire nuestros pañuelos.”
sitios mas apartados y escondidos, para substraerse 7 For this citation, thanks go to Alan Durston.
á las depredaciones y violencias de las tropas real- 8 “Los ganados del Cerro se cargaron hácia Oyon en
istas. Habian igualmente alejado consigo sus gana- esta invasion del enemigo y no costó pocas órdenes
dos, animales de silla, y carga, víveres, &c. Este y poco trabajo para hacerlos conducir á aquella
solo expediente, tan general y simultáneamente parte. Ni sé si llegaron hasta Oyon; pero trataré de
egecutado por los indígenas en tales casos, valió que se conserven por allí para que nunca los tome el
siempre por una fuerte hostilidad contra los espa- enemigo, como ahora que por haberlos retirado no
ñoles, que cada vez los indignó mas. Los grupos de llevó una sola res. S.E. sabe qué difícil es arrancarle
gente situados en el camino ponian sucesivamente á los paisanos todos sus ganados de un golpe; poco
á disposición de las tropas libertadoras multitud á poco contribuyen para sostener las tropas, pero
de canastos y lotes (diremos así) de flores, panes, tomárselos en una vez no se consigue.”

Khipu from Colony to Republic 37 5

 9 “Para formar las guerrillas que se me previenen, es 10 Or, “en tanto se concentraba y adiestraba el Ejército
menester que se manden buenos oficiales, y sobre Unido Libertador [i.e., the army for the Battle of
todo, valientes; los que tienen las montoneras no Junín, June 1824] a lo largo del Callejón de Huaylas,
valen nada. . . . Sin oficiales guapos nada hacen las partidas de guerrillas se posesionaron ejer-
las guerrillas. . . . Las montoneras parece que con- ciendo una labor de vigilancia y espionaje, de los
sumen muchos víveres, y con poco provecho por pasos estratégicos que comunican la sierra con la
no tener buenos Jefes, y muy valientes oficiales que costa, evitando así que los efectivos realistas sor-
las conduzcan; ellas serán útiles si se les ponen prendieran a aquel ejército en sus acantonamientos
muy guapos oficiales y que no vengan a robar de preparación. Es labor que cumplían, entro otros,
los pueblos.” las partidas que operaban en las alturas de Oyón.”

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 con t ribu tor s

Elizabeth Hill Boone Princeton and the National Gallery of Art in

Elizabeth Hill Boone, a professor of art history, Washington, D.C. She was awarded the Order of
holds the Martha and Donald Robertson Chair the Aztec Eagle by Mexico (1990) and was named
in Latin American Art at Tulane University. She the Andrew W. Mellon Professor at the Center
is a specialist in the painted manuscripts of Pre- for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts by the
Columbian and early colonial Mexico. Formerly National Gallery of Art (2006–2008). Her current
director of Pre-Columbian Studies at Dumbarton project examines changes in the indigenous tradi-
Oaks (1983–1995), she has edited or coedited tion of pictography and manuscript painting after
eleven books, including The Aztec Templo Mayor the conquest.
(1987), Collecting the Pre-Columbian Past (1993),
Writing without Words: Alternative Literacies in Carrie J. Brezine
Mesoamerica and the Andes (1994, with Walter Carrie J. Brezine is a weaver and spinner with expe-
Mignolo), Native Traditions in the Postconquest rience in both European and Andean textile con-
World (1998, with Tom Cummins), and Painted struction. Her undergraduate work in mathematics
Books and Indigenous Knowledge in Mesoamerica at Reed College continues to inspire her research in
(2005). Among her own books are The Codex fabric structure and ethnographic weaving. From
Magliabechiano (1983), The Aztec World (1994), 2002–2005, she was the database administrator
Stories in Red and Black: Pictorial Histories of the for the Harvard Khipu Database Project, which
Aztecs and Mixtecs (2000; winner of the Arvey catalogued and deciphered the knotted-cord com-
Prize of the Association for Latin American Art), munication devices of the Inka Empire. In the
and Cycles of Time and Meaning in the Mexican summer of 2005, she described and analyzed the
Books of Fate (2007). She has held research fel- patrimonial khipu of Rapaz, Peru. She is presently
lowships at the Institute for Advanced Study in a PhD candidate in the Archaeology Program

391
 of the Department of Anthropology at Harvard coast and the Maya Lowlands. He is the author
University. Her dissertation research focuses on of Guatemala, corazón del mundo maya (1999),
changes in weaving technology and dress in colo- Kakaw: Chocolate in Guatemalan Culture (2005),
nial Peru. and Imágenes de la mitología maya (2010). He is
also the coeditor of The Decipherment of Ancient
Reymundo Chapa Maya Writing (2001, with Stephen D. Houston and
Reymundo Chapa earned his MA in anthropol- David Stuart).
ogy in 2009 from the University of Wisconsin-
Madison, where he studied with Frank Salomon Michael D. Coe
and Jason Yaeger. He has worked throughout the Michael D. Coe is Charles J. McCurdy Professor
Americas, focusing on the archaeology of the south- of Anthropology, Emeritus, at Yale University. His
ern Andes, particularly on ceremonial architecture research interests focus on the pre-Hispanic civi-
and its development during the rise of social com- lizations of Mesoamerica (especially the Olmec
plexity in the Lake Titicaca basin. He has been an and Maya) and on the Khmer civilization of
active contributor to the research of several promi- Cambodia. He has also conducted archaeological
nent Pre-Columbian ceremonial centers, including excavations on forts of the French and Indian War
Tiwanaku, Chavin de Huántar, and Chankillo, and in Massachusetts. Among his eighteen published
he has contributed papers, such as “Transforming books are Mexico (1962, with four subsequent edi-
One Hundred Years of Archaeological Research tions, two coauthored with Rex Koontz); The Maya
into Models of Evolving Ceremonial Form at (1966, with seven subsequent editions); The Maya
Tiwanaku, Bolivia” and “Aptapis and Archaeology: Scribe and His World (1973); Lords of the Underworld:
How Aymara Celebrations at Kasa Achuta, Bolivia, Masterpieces of Classic Maya Ceramics (1978); In the
Give Meaning to the Past,” at professional confer- Land of the Olmec (1980, with Richard A. Diehl);
ences. He is currently a cultural resources project Breaking the Maya Code (1992); The True History of
manager at a small environmental consulting firm Chocolate (1996, with Sophie D. Coe); The Art of the
in Austin, Texas. Maya Scribe (1997, with Justin Kerr); Reading the
Maya Glyphs (2001, with Mark Van Stone); Angkor
Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos and the Khmer Civilization (2003); Final Report: An
Oswaldo Chinchilla graduated from the Universi­ Archaeologist Excavates His Past (2006); and The
dad de San Carlos de Guatemala in 1990 and Line of Forts: Historical Archaeology on the Colonial
earned his PhD from Vanderbilt University in 1996. Frontier of Massachusetts (2006). He has been a
He is currently curator at the Museo Popol Vuh, Member of the National Academy of Sciences since
Universidad Francisco Marroquín, and professor 1986. He has been given the Tatiana Proskouriakoff
at the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala. Award by Harvard University (1989); the James D.
His research focuses on the archaeology of the Burke Prize in Fine Arts by the Saint Louis Art
Pacific coast of Guatemala, Classic Maya writing Museum (2001); the Order of the Quetzal by the
and icon­ography, and the history of archaeology Government of Guatemala (2004); the Orden del
in Guatemala. He has carried out extensive field Pop by the Museo Popol Vuh (2006); and the Linda
research in the Cotzumalhuapa region of the Pacific Schele Award by the University of Texas (2008). He
piedmont of Guatemala, including recording and is currently coauthoring a book on Maya cities with
analysis of the sculptural corpus, studies of settle- the photographer Barry Brukoff.
ment patterns and urbanism, and documentary
research on the Pre-Columbian peoples of the area. Thomas B. F. Cummins
His recent papers concentrate on the mythological Tom Cummins is the Dumbarton Oaks Professor
interpretation of Classic imagery from the Pacific of the History of Pre-Columbian and Colonial Art

392 c on t ri bu tor s
and the chair of the Department of the History of Stephen D. Houston
Art and Architecture at Harvard University. He Stephen D. Houston holds the Dupee Family Pro­
received his MA and PhD in art history from the fessorship of Social Science at Brown University,
University of California, Los Angeles, and has pub- where he has taught since 2004. His previous posi-
lished essays and books on early Pre-Columbian tion was as Jesse Knight University Professor at
Ecuadorian ceramics and on colonial art and archi- Brigham Young University. He took his BA at the
tecture in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Mexico. University of Pennsylvania and his MPhil and PhD
He is the author of Toasts with the Inca: Andean at Yale University. He is the author, coauthor, and
Abstraction and Colonial Images on Kero Vessels editor of several books, including The Memory
(2002) and the coeditor of The Getty Murúa: Essays of Bones: Body, Being, and Experience among the
on the Making of Martín de Murúa’s “Historia gen- Classic Maya (2006, with David Stuart and Karl
eral del Piru,” J. Paul Getty Museum Ms. Ludwig Taube), Veiled Brightness: A History of Ancient
XIII 16 (2008, with Barbara Anderson). Maya Color (2009, with various colleagues), The
Classic Maya (2009, with Takeshi Inomata), as well
Víctor Falcón Huayta as The First Writing: Script Invention as History and
Víctor Falcón Huayta holds a Licenciado degree Process (2004), Classic Maya Place Names (1994,
in archaeology from the Universidad Nacional with David Stuart), and Function and Meaning in
Mayor de San Marcos, and is a candidate for a Classic Maya Architecture (1998). The recipient of fel-
master’s degree in Andean studies at the Pon­ lowships from Dumbarton Oaks, the Guggenheim
tificia Universidad Católica del Perú. He was a staff Foundation, the School of American Research, and
archaeologist of the Instituto Nacional de Cultura the National Endowment for the Humanities, he
from 1991 to 2009. As a museum re­searcher, he has also directed archaeological projects at Piedras
relates collected objects to current field findings. Negras and, more recently, at El Zotz in Guatemala.
His publications include “La Huayllaquepa de With Dan Finamore, he curated the exhibition and
Punkurí: Costa Nor-Central del Perú” (Anales, edited the exhibition catalogue for Fiery Pool: The
Museo de América, Madrid, 2005); “Reconstruc­ Maya and the Mythic Sea (2010).
tion of the Burial Offering at Punkurí in the
Nepeña Valley of Peru’s North-Central Coast” Margaret A. Jackson
(Andean Past, 2009); and “Un tambor de cuero Margaret A. Jackson is currently assistant pro-
pintado del Museo Nacional de Arqueología, fessor of art history at the University of New
Antropología e Historia del Perú” (Anales, Museo Mexico. As an art historian, her research focuses
de América, Madrid, 2008). His research on the on the ancient cultures of the Andes, with particu-
Lima cultura is published in “Playa Grande: Entre lar emphasis on the imagery and iconography of
la aldea y el santuario; ¿Un caso de interpre- the Moche of Peru. Additional research interests
tación arqueológica ambigua?” (Arqueológicas, include the visual cultures of ancient Mesoamerica
Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e and systems of visual communication. She com-
Historia del Perú, 2000); “El motivo interlocking a pleted her PhD in Pre-Columbian art history at
través del ídolo de Playa Grande” (Arqueológicas, the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the
2003); and “Morir en Playa Grande: El rescate de president of the Association for Latin American
un entierro de la cultura Lima” (Actas del Primer Art and an active member of the College Art
Congreso Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales y Association. Most recently, she was coeditor of
Humanidades, 2004). He also conducts research on Invasion and Transformation: Interdisciplinary
the rock art of the central Andes, including current Perspectives on Images of the Conquest of Mexico
work on Inka pictography in the Yucay Valley at (2008, with Rebecca Brienen). Her book Moche Art
Inkapintay (Ollantaytambo). and Visual Culture in Ancient Peru (2008) was the

c ontribu tors 393

 recipient of the Association for Latin American Art Matthew) and coauthor of La conquista indígena
book award in 2010. de Mesoamérica: El caso de don Gonzalo Mazatzin
Moctezuma (2008, with Matthew Restall).
Federico Navarrete
Federico Navarrete is a historian and anthropolo- Frank Salomon
gist at the Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas Frank Loewen Salomon is the John V. Murra
of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Pro­fessor of Anthropology at the University of
His work centers on the nature and workings of the Wisconsin. Born in New York in 1946, he took
historical traditions of Mesoamerican, and more his BA from Columbia University in 1968 and his
generally Amerindian, societies. He is the author MA and PhD from Cornell University in 1974 and
of La migración de los mexicas (1998) and editor 1978. He joined the Department of Anthropology
of Indios, mestizos y españoles: Interculturalidad e at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1982.
historiografía en la Nueva España (2007, in collab- A historical ethnographer of the Andean peoples,
oration with Danna Levin). His latest book, Los orí- he has discovered and analyzed unsuspected
genes de los pueblos del Valle de México, is in press. sources on the northern reaches of the Inka
He has also published articles in Estudios de cul- Empire, which are treated in Native Lords of Quito
tura náhuatl and Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics. (1986). In 1991, he published, with George Urioste,
Another line of his research concerns the history of the first English version of the Quechua-language
Amerindian societies after European colonization, Huarochirí manuscript (1608?), the only known
their cultural transformations, and their relation- book presenting an Andean sacred tradition
ship with colonial empires and the independent in an Andean language. He coedited the South
nation-states of the Americas. In this area, he has American volumes of the Cambridge History of
published the books La conquista de México (2000), the Native Peoples of the Americas (1999, with
Las relaciones interétnicas en México (2004), and La Stuart Schwartz). Since 1994, he has been engaged
invención de los caníbales (2006). He has also writ- in field study of Peruvian communities that pre-
ten the historical novel Huesos de Lagartija (1998). serve as sacred patrimony khipus (knotted-cord
records, a perennially enigmatic “lost script”). A
Michel R. Oudijk resulting book, The Cord Keepers, was published
Michel Oudijk received his PhD from the Uni­ in 2004.
versiteit Leiden in the Netherlands. After com-
pleting his degree, he worked for three years as Karl Taube
associate professor at the Københavns Universitet Karl Taube received his PhD from Yale University
in Denmark. Since 2004, he has been a researcher in 1988 and is currently a professor of anthropol-
at the Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas at ogy at the University of California, Riverside.
the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México He has conducted fieldwork in Honduras, Gua­
in Mexico City, where he is currently working on temala, Mexico, Ecuador, and Peru. He is cur-
the translation and analysis of Zapotec colonial rently the project iconographer for the San Bartolo
texts. He has published extensively on Zapotec his- Project in the Peten of Guatemala. His primary
tory and Mesoamerican pictographic documents, research concerns the archaeology and ethnol-
including Historiography of the Bènizàa (2000) and ogy of Mesoamerica and the American Southwest,
Los lienzos pictográficos de Santa Cruz Papalutla, including the development of agricultural symbol-
Oaxaca (2010, with Sebastián van Doesburg). His ism and the relationship between Teotihuacan and
recent research concerns the interaction between the Classic Maya. Among his publications are The
indigenous and Spanish colonial societies. He is the Major Gods of Ancient Yucatan (1992), Gods and
coeditor of Indian Conquistadors: Indigenous Allies Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya (1993,
in the Conquest of Mesoamerica (2007, with Laura with Mary Ellen Miller), Aztec and Maya Myths

394 c on t ri bu tor s
(1993), The View from Yalahau: 1993 Archaeological ethnohistory, and ethnology. His research on Inka
Investigations in Northern Quintana Roo, Mexico khipus has resulted in the description of two hun-
(1995, with Scott Fedick), The Writing System of dred and fifty samples from museums in Europe,
Ancient Teotihuacan (2000), Olmec Art at Dumbar­ the United States, and South America. He is the
ton Oaks (2004), The Murals of San Bartolo, El author of numerous articles, books, and edited
Peten, Guatemala, Part 1: The North Wall (2005, volumes on Andean/Quechua cultures and Inka
with William Saturno and David Stuart), and civilization. His books include At the Crossroads of
The Murals of San Bartolo, Part 2: The West Wall the Earth and the Sky (1981), The History of a Myth:
(2010, with William Saturno, David Stuart, and Pacariqtambo and the Origin of the Incas (1990),
Heather Hurst). The Social Life of Numbers: A Quechua Ontology of
Numbers and Philosophy of Arithmetic (1997), Inca
Javier Urcid Myths (1999), Signs of the Inka Khipu: Binary Coding
Javier Urcid is an anthropological archaeologist in the Andean Knotted-String Records (2003), and
interested in the role of ancient literacy in the Los khipus de la Laguna de los Cóndores  (2007).
formation and maintenance of social complex- He is director of the Khipu Database Project at
ity, in the origins and alternative developments Harvard University.
of writing systems, and in the semantic and pho-
netic decipherment of extinct scripts. His other R. Tom Zuidema
interests center on archaeological approaches to R. Tom Zuidema’s initial academic studies were at
ancient political economies and on bioarchaeol- the Universiteit Leiden on the languages, laws, and
ogy, particularly the social dimensions of mortu- anthropology of the former Netherlands Indies.
ary practices and cultural/ritual modifications Since he could not go to Indonesia, he turned his
of human remains. His main research focuses on interests to the Andes, first studying in Spain and
Mesoamerican scribal traditions. He is the author defending a PhD at the University of Madrid (1953)
of Zapotec Hieroglyphic Writing (2001) and the and then completing fieldwork in Peru and defend-
coauthor of The Lords of Lambityeco: Political ing a second thesis at the University of Leiden (1962)
Evolution in the Valley of Oaxaca during the Xoo on the ceque system of Cuzco. From 1956 to 1964,
Phase (2010, with Michael D. Lind). He has also he was curator of the Americas and Siberia at the
written articles on Ñuiñe, Central Mexican, and State Museum of Anthropology, Leiden, and from
Mixteca-Puebla scripts. 1964 to 1967, he was professor at the Universidad
Nacional de San Cristóbal de Huamanga in
Gary Urton Ayacucho, Peru. From 1967 until 1993, he taught
Gary Urton is the Dumbarton Oaks Professor at the University of Illinois, with interruptions to
of Pre-Columbian Studies in the Department of teach elsewhere. His principal interests in Peruvian
Anthropology at Harvard University. His research anthropology have been kinship, social and ritual
focuses on a variety of topics in pre-Hispanic and organization, iconography, and Andean astron-
early colonial intellectual history in the Andes, omy and calendars, in particular the Inka calendar
drawing on materials and methods in archaeology, as it functioned in Cuzco.

c ontribu tors 395

 inde x

Page numbers in italics indicate illustrative material. Antigua Guatemala Valley, Cotzumalhuapa writing
from, 50, 60, 60–61
Codex Añute (Codex Selden), 114, 115, 150, 151, 167, 169n8
abbreviation. See elaboration and abbreviation Apoala, 158, 163, 165, 167
abstract or conventional versus iconic systems, 386 Armstrong, W. E., 17–18
Acatempo Stela, 93, 94, 104 Arroyo de Piedra, identification of scribes producing
Acosta, José de, v, 168n5–6, 306n3, 309n15, 387 Maya glyphs in, 23
acsus (female dresses) in Chuquibamba textiles, 252–253 Ascher, Marcia and Robert, 320, 339
Aguna, Cotzumalhuapa inscriptions at, 50 Atahuallpa, 259
Ahuitzotl, 188, 190, 191, 192 Atetelco, White Patio mural at, 96
ajaw signs, 24, 31 atl tlachinolli, “water, burned field,” couplet in Aztec
Ajaxa: inventory of Cotzumalhuapa inscriptions at, 50; writing, 62, 186
Monument 1, 56 Atlee, Clement, 9
alabaster carved vessels, 134–139, 136 Atonaltzin, 165
alphabetic writing: hybridity of graphic systems after Atzompa, ceramic vessels from, 134, 135
Spanish conquest, 201, 204–210, 205–210; quilca Codex Aubin, 168n5, 178, 179, 180, 181, 186, 215
and, 278 Axayacatl, 188, 192
Alvarado, Pedro de (Tonatiuh), 211, 212 Axtapalulca Plaque, 81, 82, 100
Alvarez de Arenales, Juan Antonio, 368–370, 369, 373 ayllu, 288, 306n5, 354–355
anabil, 23 Codex Azcatitlan, 168–169n5–7, 178, 179, 180, 181, 188, 215,
Anahuac, Late Postclassic concept of, 103 216, 217
Anales de Chimalpahin, 158 Aztec writing, 175–195; atl tlachinolli, “water, burned
Anales de Tlatelolco, 158, 168–169n5–6 field,” couplet in, 62, 186; chronotopes (time-space
Angulo, Jorge, 84 representations) and régime d’historicité (historical
animal bones, carved, 135, 137, 139 sensibility) in, 176–178, 181, 184, 188, 190, 191;
animation of Cotzumalhuapa writings, 44–46, 46, 59–65, conquests of Mexica rulers, depiction of, 178, 181,
59–66 184, 186; Dumbarton Oaks conferences on codices, 2;
Anna, Timothy, 371 genres or classes of documents in, 190–191; in Mexica
anthropology in Stalin’s USSR, 11–12 codices, 178, 178–184, 179, 180, 182, 183; on Mexica

397
 stone monuments, 184–190, 185, 187, 189; Moche calendrical notations: calendar khipus, 345; in
ceramic imagery compared, 238; New Fire ceremony, Chuquibamba textiles (See Chuquibamba textile
186, 192; oral and performative literary traditions, notation systems); Cotzumalhuapa writings, largely
relationship to, 175–176, 191–192; places of origin in, calendrical system suggested by, 65; Monte Albán
157–158; social and cultural meaning, importance objects marked with calendrical names of owners,
of, 190–192; Spanish conquests, adaptation to, 191; 134, 135; in Ñuiñe scribal tradition, 78; Tovar
succession of year signs and tlatoque (rulers) in, 178– calendar, 206
181, 184, 186; Templo Mayor, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, canuto khipus, 322–323, 323, 350n3
depictions of, 177, 178, 179–181, 184–186; Teotihuacan Caracol, absolute size and relative proportion of Maya
writing and, 48, 66, 77, 87 glyphs at, 24
Aztlan, 157–158, 162 Cartilla (Pedro de Gante, 1569), 205
cartillas de enseñar a leer, 205
Caso, Alfonso, 48, 78, 82, 83, 85, 140, 190
Baird, Ellen, 202 catechisms, pictorial, 205–206, 205–210
Bakhtin, Mikhail, 176 Catholicism: foundation/migration stories involving,
Balancan Stela, 27 166; glyph representing change from indigenous
Codex Baranda, 170n22 religion to, 162; images, influence on viewing and
Barthel, Thomas S., 16, 307–308n8 reading of, 278; indigenous pictography as vehicle for
Bateson, Gregory, 18 ideology of, 198; khipus and, 290, 358; uncu for Christ
Bayer, Herman, 30 Child statue with tocapu, 290, 291
Beazley, John, 23 Cave Seven, Oaxaca, 158
Benedict, Ruth, 12 celts and celtiform stelae, 99, 100
Beria, Lavrenty, 16 census khipus, 344, 345
ceque systems: at Cuzco, 259, 259–260, 266, 267, 272, 344;
Berlo, Janet, 77
khipus recording, 345
Bertonio, Ludovico, 287–288
Cerro Bernal inscriptions, 144n2
Beyer, Hermann, 81
Cerro de la Caja and environs, carved stones from,
Bilbao: architectural compound at, 43, 45; Monument
117–122, 120, 121
1, 54; Monuments 2–9, 48; Monument 4, 61, 62;
Cerro de la Campagna, Santiago Suchilquitongo, Tomb
Monument 10, 53; Monument 11, 61; Monument 13,
5, 125, 126–127, 128
54, 55, 61; Monument 14, 54, 55, 61; Monument 18, 57;
Cerro de las Mesas Stela 15, 80
Monument 20, 61, 62, 64; Monument 21, 64–65, 65;
Cerro de los Tepalcates, Chacahua, Oaxaca, 123, 124
Monument 29, 56; Monument 33, 58–59; Monument
Cerro del Rey, Río Grande, Stela 1, 133, 134
42, 47; Monuments 84a–c, 58, 58–59; possible ancestor
Cerro Nuyoo, Tomb 5, 130, 132
cult at, 48–49
Cerro Yucuniza mortuary slab, 130, 132
Codex Bodley, 152–153, 153, 157, 167, 168n3, 169n8 Cerron Palomino, Rodolfo, 286, 288
Bolívar, Simón, 367–368, 368, 370–371 Champollion, Jean-François, 18
Boltz, William, 29–30 Chapa, Reymundo, 353, 392
Boone, Elizabeth Hill, ix, x, 2, 3, 156, 179, 191, 197, 232, 379, Chiapanec scribal tradition, 112, 113
391–392 Chiapas, Teotihuacan writing at, 78
Bonampak murals, 34 Chicanel pottery, Late Preclassic, 77–78
Codex Borgia, 103, 198, 382 Chichen Itza: size of glyphs on jades from, 25;
Borgia Group codices, 2, 103, 153 Teotihuacan glyphs and, 82, 84; Yukatekan terms in
Codex Boturini, 199, 215. See also Tira de la script at, 27
Peregrinación Chichimecateuctli, don Pedro, 213, 214
boustrophedon sequence, 114–115, 215 Chicomoztoc, 158, 159, 160, 162
Bove, Frederick, 48 Chimalpahin, 168–169n5–6
Brasseur de Bourbourg, Abbé, 15 chinampas at Tenochtitlan, El Plano del Papel de
Brezine, Carrie J., 319, 353, 360, 391 Maguey showing, 88, 89
Browder, Jennifer, 84 Chinchilla Mazariegos, Oswaldo, 43, 387, 392
Burkitt, Robert, 54 Ch’olti’an hypothesis for Maya glyphs, 27, 36n6
Cholula: lack of writing tradition at, 77; Relación
geográfica of, 152–153, 160; Tlachihualtepec or Great
Cacaxtla script: inventory of inscriptions compared to Pyramid of, 160, 161
Cotzumalhuapa, 49; lack of study of, 77; Teotihuacan Choque, Rosa and Rosalía, 360
writing and, 48, 66, 82, 96 chronotopes (time-space representations) in Aztec
Cádiz, Cotzumalhuapa inscription at, 50 writing, 176–178, 181, 184, 190, 191
Calakmul dynasty and Maya glyph changes, 32 chullpas, tocapu-like designs on, 290, 292

39 8 i n de x
Chuquibamba textile notation systems, 251–275; in Cold War and Maya decipherment. See Knorosov, Yuri
archaeological, ethnohistorical, and art historical Valentinovich, decipherment of Maya glyphs by
contexts, 269–272, 270, 271; and ceque system, Colhuacatepec, 158, 159, 160
Cuzco, 259, 259–260, 266, 267; different calendars Codex Colombino, 152, 168n3
represented in, 256–257, 257; eight-pointed star comparative dialogue, importance of, 3–6, 18
motif and, 269, 271, 271–272; feathered ponchos and, Condesuyu: Inka province of, 251, 256, 269, 272, 298;
269–272, 271; felines, llamas, and toads, symbolic references to dress in, 269–272, 271
use of, 261–262; female dresses (acsus) and large Conklin, William, 2, 321–322, 325
shawls, 252–253; forty-one, forty, and forty-two, conquests of Mexica rulers, Aztec writings depicting,
textiles referring to, 259, 259–260, 263, 263–264, 178, 181, 184, 186
264; historical and geographic origins, 256, 269; Contreras, Carlos, 368
Kosok shawl’s standardized sidereal calendar within conventional or abstract versus iconic systems, 386
solar year, 256, 267–269, 268; male tunics (uncus), Copan: absolute size and relative proportion of glyphs
loincloths, and ponchos, 252, 252–253; Merrin Gallery at, 24; Structure 10L-16, Stairway Block 2, 100–101;
shawl, 263, 263–264; Museo Banco Central de Reserva Structure 26, 91; vowel notations at, 32
del Perú loincloth, 264; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Copan Hieroglyphic Stairway: consonant sensitivity in
shawl with sidereal lunar calendar, 254, 255, 258–263, glyphs from, 33; heterography at, 34; production of,
259, 265–266, 267, 268; Ohara shawl with modules 23–24
of three different calendars, 261, 265, 265–267, 269; Cortés, Hernán, 166
Peabody Museum uncu with solar calendar, 252, 253, costume and performance in Moche culture, 228, 229
257–258, 258, 266, 268, 269; Pleiades constellation Cotzumalhuapa writings, 43–75; animation of, 44–46, 46,
and, 259, 267; types of intentional orders used in, 59–65, 59–66; architectural compounds at El Baúl, El
251–253, 252–255 Castillo, and Bilbao, 43, 45; cartouches, 50; in context
of coastal writing tradition, 46–49, 47, 66; distribution
classes or genres of documents: in Aztec writing, 190–
and inventory of inscriptions, 49–50; head signs in
191; ethnoiconological context provided by, 150–151
frontal or profile view, 50; human sacrifice in, 65;
“closed” versus “open” writing systems, 66, 384
iconographic depictions, comparison of signs with,
coastal writing tradition: defined and described, 112, 113;
52; largely calendrical system suggested by, 65; in Late
mortuary contexts, 130–134, 133; Teotihuacan and
Classic period, 48–49; Late Preclassic system, 46–47;
Citzumalhuapa writings in context of, 47–48, 66
media, variety of, 50; Mixtec codices compared, 66;
Coatepec, 161, 162, 165, 166
name tags, use of, 57, 57–59, 58; numerals, 51, 51–52,
Coatlinchan, unfinished monumental figure from, 100
52; orientation of signs, 50; oversized signs in, 56,
Cobo, Bernabé, 308n9
56–57; sign combinations, rarity of, 54–55, 55, 66; sign
codices: Aubin, 168n5, 178, 179, 180, 181, 186, 215;
inventory, 52–54, 67–71; 6 Star collocations with maw
Azcatitlan, 168–169n5–7, 178, 179, 180, 181, 188, 215,
of reptilian monster, 57–59, 58; Star glyph, use of, 50,
216, 217; Baranda, 170n22; Bodley, 152–153, 153, 157, 57–59, 58; Teotihuacan writing and, 48–49, 95
167, 168n3, 169n8; Borgia, 103, 198, 382; Borgia Group, Couch, Christopher, 202
2, 103, 153; Boturini, 199, 215; Colombino, 152, 168n3; counted offerings in ritual petitions, 153, 155
Dehesa, 170n22; Dresden, 5, 15, 35n2; Egerton, 170n22; Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de, 287, 300–301
Fejérváry-Mayer, 103, 153, 155, 198, 200; Florentine, Coyolxauhqui circular monument, Templo Mayor of
168–169n5–6, 169n10, 202–204, 203, 204; Gómez Mexico-Tenochtitlan, 122–123
de Orozco, 158; Kingsborough, 88, 89; Madrid, 15, Crónica mexicáyotl (Tezozómoc), 181
35n2, 80, 81; Magliabechiano, 202, 206; in Mayan Cross Panels of Palenque, 190
imagery, 35n2; Mendoza, 85, 178, 179, 181, 182, 184, cross-reading, use of, 15
185, 188, 217, 218, 219, 279, 309n17; Mexica codices, 2, Cruz, Juan de la, 201, 205
177–184, 178, 179, 180, 182, 183, 198, 199; Mexicanus, cryptography and decipherment, lack of connection
168–169n5–6, 178, 179, 181, 185, 186, 212, 213–215, 215; between, 16
Mexicayotl, 168n5; Osuna, 212; Paris, 35n2, 80, 81; de Cueto, Marcos, 368
Santa María Asunción, 85; Selden (Añute), 114, 115, cuicatl, 175, 191
150, 151, 167, 169n8; Telleriano-Remensis, 178, 179, 180, Cuicuilco, lack of writing tradition at, 77
181, 183, 188, 202, 206, 212; Tudela, 202, 206; Tulane, Cuilapan, Oaxaca cloister stone with Zapotec
170n22; Vaticanus A/Ríos, 178, 180, 206; Vaticanus inscriptions, 117, 118
B, 103; Vienna, 385; Vindobonensis, 159, 164–165, 165; cultural category, writing systems as, 379–390; access to/
Zouche-Nuttall (Tonindeye), 115, 152, 158, 167, 169n8. interpretation of message, 382–383; commonalities
See also Mixtec codices of, 380–384; glottographic versus semasiographic
Coe, Michael D., 9, 24, 392 systems, 384–385; hieroglyphic script versus
Coixtlahuaca valley through-cave inscriptions, 144n6 pictographic systems, 386–387; historical significance
Cola de Palma, near El Ciruelo, Stela 3, 130–134, 133 of surviving documents, 383–384; iconic versus

index 399
 conventional or abstract systems, 386; Mesoamerican effigy vessels, 125–130, 127, 129, 132, 139
and Andean terms for, 380; pictures versus glyphs, Codex Egerton, 170n22
385–386; recording process, 381; scripts, signs, and eight-pointed star motif and Chuquibamba textile
pictographies covered by, 379–380; speech and notation systems, 269, 271, 271–272
performance compared, 380–381; typology of, 384– El Baúl: acropolis at, 43, 45; Monument 1, 43, 44, 47, 49;
388; vehicle for message, 381–382; writing as term, Monument 6, 54, 55; Monument 18, 56; Monument
problem of, 379–380, 387–388 27, 59; Monument 30, 61, 64; Monument 34, 56;
cultural code, written surface as, 111–148; in Aztec writing, Monument 56, 51, 52; Monument 59, 43–46, 46, 65;
190–192; performance and place-making, relationship Monuments 67 and 68, 56
of writing to, 114–116, 114–123, 118–121, 123, 124; El Castillo: architectural compound at, 43, 45; causeway
personhood and human body in mortuary contexts, connecting Golón with, 50; Monument 1, 51, 55, 58, 61;
notions of, 125–139, 126–129, 131–133, 135–138; scribal Monument 16, 56
error, semiology of, 139–143, 141, 142; semiological El Fraile, 289
theory of writing behind, 111–112; in six scribal El Mundo Perdido, Tikal: marcador from, 83, 90, 101;
traditions in southwestern Mesoamerica, 112, 112–113 stucco-painted vessel from, 95, 96
cultural encyclopedias, 206 El Palmillo, genealogical slab probably from, 125, 128
cultural superiority associated with possession of El Tajin, inventory of inscriptions at, 49
writing system, 306n3 El Zotz, identification of scribes producing Maya glyphs
Cummins, Thomas B. F., 277, 386, 392–393 in, 23
Cunil, Jacinto, 18 elaboration and abbreviation, 149–174; analogies between
Cuzco: ceque system, 259, 259–260, 266, 267, 272, ethnographic present and historical past, 153–154,
344; Condesuyu, references to dress in, 269–272, 155; ethnoiconological methodology of approach to,
271; guinea pig sacrifices, 262; khipus from, 328; 150–154, 151, 153, 154, 155; foundation/toma de posesión/
napa or puca llama, 262; painted tablas at, 300; taking hold of the bundle theme, 150, 166; genre of
Tawantinsuyu, concept of, 298–299, 299 document, context provided by, 150–151; historical
sources for, 156–157; migration theme, 156, 162–168,
163, 165; minimal pictographic elements, identifying,
dart-thrower carved with owner’s name, 134, 135 150; nose-piercing theme, 152–153, 153; origin theme
Dávila, Francisco, 309n11 and places of origin, 156, 157–162, 159, 160; sacred birth
Davletshin, Albert, 30 theme, 167; thematic focus, determining, 151–153, 152,
de Young stela, 22, 22–23 154, 155; thematic units commonly found in historical
dedication stone, Templo Mayor, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, sources, 156
188–190, 189, 191–192 Elkins, James, 233, 380
Codex Dehesa, 170n22 Eloxochitlan de Flores Magón burial, Sierra Mazateca,
diagramming tradition, 221n2 carved human mandible from, 134, 136
Dibble, Charles, 385 emblematic glyphs (toponyms, titles, and personal
difrasismo, 161, 169n14, 170n20–21 names), 84–88, 85, 86, 87, 385
diglossia in Maya glyphs, 28, 37n10 encyclopedias, cultural, 206
“direct historical approach,” 151 Engels, Friedrich, 11, 12, 17
disjunction, 151 errors in writing, semiology of, 139–143, 141, 142
Doctrina (Pedro de Gante, 1553), 205 Escalante, Pablo, 191, 202
Doctrina christiana (1548), 205 Escuintla: Early Classic pottery and Cotzumalhuapa
Doctrina christiana en la lengua guasteca con la lengua writing, 47–48; Teotihuacan glyphs and, 84
castellana (Juan de la Cruz, 1571), 201, 205 Estela Lisa, Monte Albán, 91, 93
Doctrina Xpiana en lengua misteca (Hernández), 161, Estrada-Belli, Francisco, 88
161–162 ethnoiconological approach to elaboration and
Donnan, Christopher, 239 abbreviation, 150–154, 151, 153, 154, 155
Dos Pilas, identification of scribes producing Maya Etla district mausoleum facade and effigy vessel, 125, 127
glyphs in, 23 Ex-Arzobispado Stone, 187, 188
Dresden Codex, 5, 15, 35n2
Dubois, Cora, 12
Dumbarton Oaks conferences on Pre-Columbian Falcón Huayta, Victor, 353, 364, 393
writing systems, ix–x, 1–3 feather paintings, 202–203, 203
Durán, Diego, 190, 202, 206 feathered ponchos and Chuquibamba textile notation
systems, 269–272, 271
Codex Fejérváry-Mayer, 103, 153, 155, 198, 200
eagles devouring hearts in Teotihuacan art, 103, 105n6 felines, llamas, and toads, Chuquibamba textiles’
effigy figure, skin as writing surface on, 138, 139 symbolic use of, 261–262

40 0 i n de x
Fierro, Pancho, 366, 368 Heggarty, Paul, 345
Finca San Cristóbal: inventory of Cotzumalhuapa Hellmuth, Nicholas, 47
inscriptions at, 50; Monument 1, 63, 64, 65 helmets as icons for Warrior theme in Moche ceramic
Florentine Codex, 168–169n5–6, 169n10, 202–204, 203, 204 imagery, 234–238, 236, 237
Flower World, Cotzumalhuapa version of, 58, 64–65 herders’ use of khipus, 354, 371, 373
Fonds mexicain 399 manuscript, 209, 209–210, 210 Hernández, Benito, 161, 161–162
foundation/toma de posesión/taking hold of the bundle Heyerdahl, Thor, 16
theme, 150, 166 hieroglyphic script: Mayan identified as type of, 15,
four steps on the road to God, 161, 161–162 386–387; pictographic systems versus, 386–387
Fracción Mujular: inscriptions, 144n2; Stela 3, 79, 80 Historia del origen y genealogía real del los reyes ingas del
Frame, Mary, 256, 267, 269, 284 Perú (Martín de Murúa, 1590), 298, 299, 302
funerary contexts. See mortuary contexts Historia general del Perú (Martín de Murúa, ca. 1615), 303
Historia tolteca-chichimeca, 152, 158–162, 159, 160, 169n6,
175, 176
Galvin manuscript, 301, 302, 303 historical sensibility: Aztec writing, régime d’historicité
Gamarra, Agustín, 369 in, 176–178, 184, 188, 190, 191; in Moche ceramic
Gante, Pedro de, 205 imagery, 245
Gante I manuscript, 206, 206–209, 207, 208 El Hombre de Tikal, 90, 90–91
García-Des Lauriers, Claudia, 87 Houston, Stephen D., 21, 61, 66, 382, 384, 386, 393
genealogical records, inscriptions of, 125, 126–128 Huaca de la Luna, 227, 294, 294–297, 295, 296
genres or classes of documents: in Aztec writing, 190– Huajuapan de León, Ñuiñe mortuary material from area
191; ethnoiconological context provided by, 150–151 of, 130, 132
Gerson, Juan, 202 Huamelulpan, carved stones from, 122
Gisbert, Teresa, 290 huatancha, 355
glottochronology applied to Maya glyphs, 27 huehuetlatolli, 175, 191
glottographic versus semasiographic systems, 201, Huitzilopochtli, 123, 157, 177, 181, 187
232–233, 384–387 human body and personhood, writing conveying
glyphs versus pictures, 385–386 notions of, 125–139, 126–129, 131–133, 135–138
Golón: Monuments 2 and 3, 49, 49–50, 61–62, 63; human bones, carved, 134, 136
Monuments 4 and 5, 57 human sacrifice: in Cotzumalhuapa writings, 65; in
Gómez Chávez, Sergio, 82, 88 Moche culture, 227; San José Mogote, Monument 3,
Codex Gómez de Orozco, 158 and 122–123, 123; Stone of Tizoc and, 188, 191–192;
González Holguín, Diego, 287 Templo Mayor, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, foundation/
Gorbachev, Mikhail, 10, 11, 16 renovations of, 180, 181; in Teotihuacan writings,
Graulich, Michel, 188 102, 103
grids, central Mexican examples of writing in, 87, human skin, as writing surface, 138, 139
88–90, 89 Humboldt Fragment 1, 85
Grube, Nikolai, 30 Hun Nal Ye cave, stone coffer from, 27
Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe: Chuquibamba textile hybridity of graphic systems after Spanish conquest,
notations and, 262, 269–272, 270; Nueva corónica y 197–225; alphabetic writing, 201, 204–210, 205–210;
buen gobierno, authorship of, 310n24; tocapus and, changes to graphic systems following conquest,
279–280, 280, 281, 283, 286, 288, 297, 298, 299, 202, 219–220; comparison of Mesoamerican and
301–305, 304 European graphic expression, 197–198; diagramming,
Guchte, Maarten van de, 290 221n2; different graphic systems in sixteenth-century
Guerrero: Lienzo de Petlacala, 150; Rufino Tamayo stela, Mexico, 197–201; mimetic figuration, 201, 202–204,
possibly from, 79, 94; Teotihuacan writing at, 78, 79, 203, 204; pictography, 198–200, 199, 200, 210–219,
93–97, 93–98, 94, 104 211–219; pictorial catechisms, 205–210; semasiography
guinea pig sacrifices, Cuzco, 262 and, 198, 233
Guzmán, Manuel de, 214 hyperdiffusionism, 18

Habel, Simeon, 53 iconic versus conventional or abstract systems, 386

Haddon, Alfred, 17 Icxicouatl, 158
Hamilton, Andrew, 338 ideograms (logograms) and Knorosov’s decipherment of
Harris, Roy, 111 Maya script, 15–16
Hartog, François, 176, 177 Ilhuicatepec, 162
head signs: Cotzumalhuapa writings, frontal or profile Inka: caves of origin at Pacaritambo, 297, 298; lost writing
view in, 50; Teotihuacan writing, frontal view in, 104 system, efforts to unveil, 278, 306n6, 307–308n8;

index 401
 supposed lost paintings of, 306–307n7; writing system, significance of differences using SplitsTree4 and
lack of, 281–283, 308n9. See also Chuquibamba textile NeighborNet algorithm, 345–348, 346, 347; Middle
notation systems; Cuzco; khipu; tocapu Horizon/Wari khipus, 321, 321–322, 322, 325, 350;
Inka-type khipus, 323–325, 326 patrimonial khipus of Rapaz not fitting, 363–364, 374;
Inti Raymi, feast of, 262 sizes of archives and khipu samples, 328; subsidiaries,
inverted signs, semiology of, 140–143, 142 presence/absence and number of, 328–329, 329
Isthmian script: as “closed” system, 66; decipherment King, Mark, 175
proposals, 35n1; glottographic nature of, 384; length King, Timothy, 82, 88
of use of, 21 Codex Kingsborough, 88, 89
Ixcaquixtla, Tomb 1, 130, 132 K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’, Teotihuacan cultural ties of,
100–101
Kirchhoff, Paul, 157
Jackson, Margaret A., 227, 380, 385, 393 Kirov, Sergei, 10
jaguars devouring hearts in Teotihuacan art, 102, 103 Knorosov, Yuri Valentinovich, decipherment of Maya
Jama-Coaque vessels with tocapus, 296, 297, 305 glyphs by, 9–20; and anthropology in Stalin’s USSR,
Jansen, Maarten, 150, 385 11–12; background, education, and career, 12–14;
Japanese script and Maya glyphs, 16 death of Stalin, dissemination of Knorosov’s work
Jara, Victoria de la, 283–284, 297, 310n28, 312n42 following, 16–17; Great Purge/Great Terror in USSR
(1936), effect on intellectual life, 10–11; language
of glyphs importance of, 16, 18; methodology of,
Kaha Wayi (khipu house) and Pasa Qullqa (storehouse), 14–16; photograph of, 10; publication of article on
Rapaz, 355–360, 356, 357, 358, 359, 373 decipherment by, 14; reasons for success of, 17, 18;
kanji writing, 16, 19n3 recognition of achievements of, 18; and Thompson,
Kaqchikel and Cotzumalhuapa writings, 53, 54 John Eric Sidney, 10, 14–18
Kauffman Doig, Federico, 363–364 Kosok, Paul, 256, 267
KCCS (Khipu Color Code System), 339 Kroeber, Alfred L., 269
KDB (Khipu Database), 320, 325, 326, 329, 334, 338, Kubler, George, 1, 151, 219, 284
350n5, 361 Kuna-Lacanha, Chiapas, Early Classic stela from, 99, 100
Keber, Eloise Quiñones, 179
Kelley, David, 1, 16
“key-type” Wari khipus, 321, 322 La Ciénega, Zimatlan, genealogical slab from, 125, 128
khipu: ancestral mummies, entrusted to, 5; La Gloria, Monument 1, 56
Chuquibamba textile notation systems and, 256; La Herredura, Tlaxcala, temple sign from, 86
in colonial and Catholic contexts, 290, 353–355; La Mojarra stela, 144n4
defined, 320–321; distinguished from other cord La Nueva, concentration of Cotzumalhuapa-style
constructions, 320; Dumbarton Oaks conferences on, sculptures at, 50
2; herders’ use of, 354, 371, 373; metacategory of khipu, La Serna, Viceroy, 369, 370
representing, 306n3; Pachacamac archive, 328, 335, La Sufricaya, Early Classic painted grids from, 87, 88
344, 345, 348, 361; Paracas cords, possible origins in, La Ventilla, Teotihuacan: corpus of glyphs from, 84;
350n1; study of, 277–278; tocapus and, 279–284, 288, marcador from, 82, 83; Plaza de los Glifos (See Plaza
289–290, 300–301; Toledan-era viceroyalty, khipus de los Glifos, Teotihuacan); shields depicted at, 103;
of governance under, 353; in Tupicocha, 354, 354–355, zoomorphic vehicles at, 92, 93
374; as writing systems, 387. See also khipu typologies; Lacadena, Alfonso, x, 30, 48, 52, 77, 177, 385
patrimonial khipus in Rapaz Lagoon of Primordial Blood (Quelatinizoo), 158–162, 166
khipu typologies, 319–352; archival images or icons, 342– Lake Titicaca and ruins of Tiwanaku, association of
343, 342–344; archival similarities and differences, tocapus with, 288
328–329, 342–344; archives of Inka-type khipus based Lambityeco: Tomb 6, Mound 195, 125, 127, 128; Tomb 11,
on provenience, construction of, 325–327, 326, 327; Mound 195, carved baton or spatula made of deer
canuto khipus, 322–323, 323, 350n3; ceque system tibia from, 134, 135
khipus, 345; color values and patterns, 338–339, 340, Landa, Diego de, 13, 14–15, 16, 18, 278, 386
341, 342–343; comparing and distinguishing types, Langley, James, 48, 102, 103
325; cord attachment methods, 331–332, 332; fiber type language. See speech and language
and cord construction, 329–331, 330, 331; functional Lápida de Bazan, Monte Albán, 91, 92
types, 344–345; Inka-type khipus, 323–325, 326; Larco Hoyle, Rafael, 229–231, 246n1
KCCS (Khipu Color Code System), 339; KDB (Khipu Las Colinas, Tlaxcala, Teotihuacan-style ceramic bowl
Database), 320, 325, 326, 329, 334, 338, 350n5, 361; from, 84
“key-type” Wari khipus, 321, 322; knot construction Later Oaxacan scribal tradition, 113, 134, 139, 143
and directionality, 332–338, 333, 334–337; measuring Leakey, L. S. B., 18

402 i n de x
Lehmann, Walter, 43, 239 Maya glyphs, 21–30; absolute size and relative proportion
Leibsohn, Dana, 2, 176 of, 24–26, 25; Ch’olti’an hypothesis, 27, 36n6; content
León, Cieza de, 308–309n11 used for, 26; diglossia in, 28, 37n10; Dumbarton Oaks
Lettera apologetica (Raimondo di Sangro Sansevero, conferences on, 1–2; glottochronology applied to, 26,
1750), 284 28; heterography (variation at any one time), 34; as
Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 139, 145n16 hieroglyphic script, 15, 386–387; Japanese script and,
Levillier, Roberto, 353 16; living essence attributed to, 26; morphosyllables,
Lienzo de Amoltepec, 162–164, 163, 169n16 28–30, 29; non-Maya glyphs with, 26, 27; phonic and
Lienzo de Chiepetlan, 162 linguistic characteristics, 26–30; polycode nature
Lienzo de Cuauhquechollan, 162 of, 24; production of, 22, 22–24; somatic framework
Lienzo de Guevea, 153, 154 for, 26; supernatural resonances of, 24; surviving
Lienzo de Jicalan or Jucutacato, 162 examples and media, 21–22; Teotihuacan writing
Lienzo de Petlacala, 150, 162 and, 77–78, 90, 90–93, 91, 92. See also Knorosov, Yuri
Lienzo de Tequixtepec I, 158 Valentinovich, decipherment of Maya glyphs by;
Lienzo de Tira de Xalatzala, 162 variations in Maya glyphs over space and time
Lienzo de Tlapiltepec, 158, 165 McClelland, Donna, 239
Lienzo de Tlaxcala, 88, 102 McCormac, F. G., 364
liminal places, migration from, 162, 166 Medina Susano, R. Clorinda, 371
literacy, 23, 190 Medrano, Sonia, 48
literary themes, elaboration and abbreviation of. See Memoria de Juquila (Memoria probanza de Yetzegoa),
elaboration and abbreviation 166
llamas, Chuquibamba textiles’ symbolic use of, 261–262 Memoria de Yacuini (Memoria probanza de Yacuini), 166
llutu k’uychi (mourning/dark rainbow) textile colors, 339 Memorial de Sololá, 53
Locke, Leland, 278 Méndez, Cecilia, 373
Lockhart, James, 219 Codex Mendoza, 85, 178, 179, 181, 182, 184, 185, 188, 217,
logograms, and Knorosov’s decipherment of Maya 218, 219, 279, 309n17
script, 15–16 Mendoza, Antonio de, 212
logographic functions in Moche ceramic imagery, Mendoza y Velasco, don Juan de, 166
238–239 Mexica codices, 2, 177–184, 178, 179, 180, 182, 183, 198, 199.
Loo, Peter van der, 150, 151, 153 See also specific codices
Los Cerritos Norte, Cotzumalhuapa inscription at, 50 Mexica stone monuments, 184–190, 185, 187, 189
Los Horcones: Stela 2, 79, 80; Teotihuacan writing at, 78 Codex Mexicanus, 168–169n5–6, 178, 179, 181, 185, 186,
Lounsbury, Floyd, 1, 16 212, 213–215, 215
Lowland Maya writing, as “closed” system, 66 Códice Mexicayotl, 168n5
Lysenko, Trofim, 11, 16 Mexico-Tenochtitlan: Aztec writing at, 177–181, 182,
184–187, 192, 192n1; elaboration and abbreviation of
literary themes at, 157, 166; founding of, 217, 220;
machæc, 239 El Plano del Papel de Maguey showing chinampas at,
Mackey, Carol J., 354 88, 89. See also Templo Mayor, Mexico-Tenochtitlan
Macuilxochitl, carved human mandible from, 134, 136 Mexico-Tlatelolco, 180, 181, 192n1
Madrid Codex, 15, 35n2, 80, 81 Middle Horizon/Wari khipus, 321, 321–322, 322, 325, 350
Codex Magliabechiano, 202, 206 migration theme, 156, 162–168, 163, 165
Maksimov, A. N., 12 Millon, Clara, 84, 103
Malinowski, Bronislaw, 11 miniaturized items, 139, 145n16
Manco Capac, 297, 301–305, 302, 303, 304 mistakes in writing, semiology of, 139–143, 141, 142
Mapa de Cuauhtlanzinco, 162 Mixtec codices: Cotzumalhuapa writing and, 66; darts,
Mapa de Teozacualco, 157, 158 use of, 95; decipherment efforts, 2; Dumbarton Oaks
marcadors: El Mundo Perdido, Tikal, 83, 90, 101; La conferences on, 2; emblematic play in, 385; events and
Ventilla, Teotihuacan, 82, 83 places, manuscripts organized around, 177; jewels
Marcus, Joyce, 91, 385 in feminine names in, 150; Later Oaxacan scribal
marked beans (pallares) in Moche ceramic imagery, 229, tradition and, 113; migration theme and, 162–165;
230 Moche ceramic imagery compared, 238; places of
Marr, Nikolai Y., 11 origin, 158, 161; sacred birth theme and, 167; thematic
marriage alliances and genealogical slabs, 144n9 units in, 156
Marx, Karl, 11, 12 Moche ceramic imagery, 227–249; compounded signs,
Matatlan, genealogical slab probably from El Palmillo 239–240, 240; iconic signs with logographic functions,
embedded in wall of house in, 125, 128 239; machæc, 239; marked beans (pallares), 229, 230;
Matrícula de Huexotzinco, 52 Mixtec and Aztec traditions compared, 238; molds,

index 403
 manufacture and use of, 233–234, 234, 235; mortuary non-Maya glyphs, use of, 26; places of origin and,
contexts of, 229; notational elements, Larco Hoyle’s 157–162; Teotihuacan writing and, 77, 78, 84, 85, 88,
theories regarding, 228, 229, 229–231, 230; oral literary 89; thematic units in, 156
tradition and, 245; phases in, 246n1; porras (conical napa or puca llama, 262
mace heads), 235, 236, 239; preadaptation toward visual Naples documents and the khipu, 284, 306n6, 310n24,
signing in, 233; rebus devices, 239; relationship to 312n42
monumental and performance art, 228, 229; Revolt of Naranjo, identification of scribes producing Maya glyphs
the Objects scene, semasiographic nature of, 241–244, in, 23
241–245; semasiography defined and described, Navarrete, Federico, 175, 383, 385, 393–394
231–233; speech or language, not reducible to, 240– NeighborNet, 345–348, 346, 347
241; stepped pyramid motif, logographic aspects of, New Fire ceremony, 117, 158, 186, 192
238, 238–239; Warrior theme demonstrating use of Nicholson, H. B., 1, 2, 151, 190
conventionalized signs, 234–238, 235, 236, 237, 240 Noriega, Mound 4, genealogical slab from cist in, 125, 128
Moche costume and performance, 228, 229 Nowotny, Karl Anton, 2, 153
Moche murals, tocapu-like figures in, 293–297, 294, 295, Nueva corónica y buen gobierno (Guaman Poma, 1615),
296, 305 279–280, 280, 283, 301, 304, 310n24
Moche pyramid complexes and monumental art, 228, Ñuiñe scribal tradition: alabaster carved vessels, 134;
229 calendric notation in, 78; defined and described, 112,
Moctezuma, in Codex Mendoza, 218, 219 113; mortuary contexts, 130, 132
Molina el Cuzqueño, Cristóbal de, 288, 289, 297, 300, Nun Yax Ayiin, Tikal Stelae 31 and 32, 99, 100
307n7
Monaghan, John, 175
Montana site: Cotzumalhuapa writings and decline of, Ocelotzin, 213, 214
48; Teotihuacan cultural traits at, 48
Okladnikov, A. P., 16
Monte Albán: Building J, 140, 142; Building L-sub, 114,
Olderogge, Dmitri Alexeyevich, 14, 16
114–117, 116, 138, 139, 140, 145n17; calendrical names of
Olivier, Guilhem, 186, 187
owners, objects marked with, 134, 135; Estela Lisa, 91,
“open” versus “closed” writing systems, 66, 384
93; Fragments S11 and S16, South Platform, 140, 142;
oral literary tradition: Aztec writing and, 175–176,
Lápida de Bazan, 91, 92; Middle Formative danzante
191–192; ethnoiconological analogies drawn from, 156;
sculptures at, 100; miniature items from, 137, 139;
khipus and tocapus in, 279; Moche ceramic imagery
Monument SP2, South Platform, 140, 141; Monument
and, 245; written transmission versus, 4–5
SP8a, South Platform, 140, 142; Monument SP9, South
origin theme and places of origin, 156, 157–162, 159, 160
Platform, 140, 142; Mound II slab, 117, 119; scribal
orthographical issues, 6
error at, 140–143, 141, 142; Stela 1, 92, 93; Stela 7, 91;
orthostats: human skin as writing surface on, 138, 139;
Teotihuacan writing at, 83, 91, 91–93, 94; Terrace
79 house, ceramic plaque from, 134, 135; Tomb 7, preservation of performance and place-making in,
miniature weaving baton from, 137, 139; Tomb 104, 125, 114–116, 114–123, 118–121, 123, 124; scribal error on, 140
126–127, 134, 135, 140; Tomb 158, Terrace 27, carved lintel Codex Osuna, 212
from, 130, 131; Tombs 139–141, Terrace 21, 140, 142 Oudijk, Michel R., 149, 385, 394
Morgan, Lewis Henry, 11, 12, 17
Morley, Sylvanus, 14, 18, 30
morphosyllables in Maya glyphs, 28–30, 29 Pacaritambo, Inka caves of origin at, 297, 298, 308n11
mortuary contexts: of coastal writing tradition, 130–134, Pachacamac khipus, 328, 335, 344, 345, 348, 361
133; of Moche ceramic imagery, 229; of Ñuiñe scribal Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamaygua, Santa Cruz, 279, 297,
tradition, 130, 132; personhood and human body, 298, 299, 311n38
notions of, 125–139, 126–129, 131–133, 135–138; of Palacios, Enrique, 185
Zapotec writing, 125–130 pallares (marked beans) in Moche ceramic imagery, 229,
Moteuhczoma Ilhuicamina, 186, 188 230
Moteuhczoma Xocoyotzin, 186, 192 Palo Gordo: inventory of Cotzumalhuapa inscriptions
Motolinia [Toribio de Benavente], ix, 202 at, 50; Monument 10, 60; Monument 24, 63, 64;
Muchic or Yunga language, 239 Monument 25, 62–63, 63
mummified remains, writing on skin of, 138, 139 Palo Verde: inventory of Cotzumalhuapa inscriptions at,
Murúa, Martín de: on khipus, 326; on tocapus, 281, 287, 50; Monument 1, 59
298, 301–305, 302, 303, 310n22, 310n24 Panofsky, Erwin, 150, 151
Paris Codex, 35n2, 80, 81
Parry, Milman, 149
Nahua and Nahuatl: Cotzumalhuapa writings and pars pro toto convention in Teotihuacan writing, 95, 98,
Nahua day names, 53; migration theme and, 162, 164; 98–100

404 i n de x
Pasa Qullqa (storehouse) and Kaha Wayi (khipu house), Post-Monte Albán scribal tradition, 112, 113
Rapaz, 355–360, 356, 357, 358, 359, 373 Prem, Hans, 385
Pasión, absolute size and relative proportion of Maya Primeros memoriales (Sahagún), 102, 202
glyphs at, 24 Probanza de Yetzelalag (seventeenth century), 166
patrimonial khipus in Rapaz, 353–377; Catholicism, processualism, 4
no association with, 358; dating of, 364–368, 373; propagative syllables in Maya glyphs, 32–34, 33
figurines, 362, 363, 364, 365, 367, 371, 373; historical Proskouriakoff, Tatiana, 1, 104
context, 353–354; Kaha Wayi (khipu house) and Pasa puca or napa llama, 262
Qullqa (storehouse), 355–360, 356, 357, 358, 359, 373; puka k’uychi (red rainbow) textile colors, 339
khipu collection, 358, 360–364, 361, 362, 363; meaning pyramid complexes, Moche, 228, 229
attributed to, 363; military history and Peruvian War pyramid motif, stepped, in Moche ceramic imagery,
of Independence in Rapaz area, 364–373, 366–369, 372; logographic aspects of, 238, 238–239
Pre-Columbian khipus, not resembling, 363–364, 374; Pyramid of the Moon, Burial 2, five Tlaloc water jars
scholarly study of, 355; Tupicocha khipus and, 354, from, 103
354–355, 374; village, description of, 355–356 Pyramid of the Plumed Serpents, Xochicalco, 93
Peirce, Charles S., 111, 233 Pyramid of the Sun, Late Preclassic Chicanel pottery in
performance: in Aztec writing tradition, 175–176, interior fill of, 78
191–192; elaboration and abbreviation of literary
themes and, 114–116, 114–123, 118–121, 123, 124; in
Moche culture, 228, 229; writing as cultural category Quelatinizoo (Lagoon of Primordial Blood), 158–162, 166
compared to, 380–381 queros with tocapus, 285, 286, 287, 297, 305
personhood and human body, writing conveying Quetzalcoatl, 152, 164
notions of, 125–139, 126–129, 131–133, 135–138 Quetzalteueyac, 158
Peten, San Diego wall carving at, 25 Quicopecua, Tomb 1, Mound 1, 125, 126–127
Peterson, Jeanette, 202 quilca, 278, 308n9
Philip II (king of Spain), death inventory of, 300 Quilter, Jeffrey, 2
pictographic systems versus hieroglyphic script, 386–387 quincunx motif: Tlaloc head with quincunx in mouth,
pictures versus glyphs, 385–386 Teotihuacan, 81, 90, 96, 98, 101, 101–103, 102; tocapus
Piedra Labrada: Stela 1, 81, 82; Stela 3, 133, 134; Stela 11, and, 297, 299
130, 133; stela with Teotihuacan water sign, 83, 84; quipu. See khipu
Teotihuacan writing at, 78, 81, 82, 83, 84
Piedras Negras: identification of scribes producing Maya
glyphs in, 23; Panel 2, 87 Radcliffe-Brown, A. R., 11
Pillsbury, Joanne, x, 3 Rapaz. See patrimonial khipus in Rapaz
Pintura de la Peregrinación de los Culhuaque-Mexitin Rawlinson, Henry, 18
(Mapa Sigüenza), 162, 168–169n5–6 rebus writing and rebus devices, 77, 210, 222n16, 234, 238,
Pipil and Cotzumalhuapa writings, 53 239, 384, 387
Pizarro, Pedro, 259 régime d’historicité (historical sensibility) in Aztec
place-making and performance, relationship of writing writing, 176–178, 184, 188, 190, 191
to, 114–116, 114–123, 118–121, 123, 124 Relación de la provincia de los Collaguas (Juan de Ulloa
places of origin and origin theme, 156, 157–162, 159, 160 Mogollón, 1583), 272
El Plano del Papel de Maguey, 88, 89 Relación de las antigüedades del Pirú (Santa Cruz
Plaza de los Glifos, Teotihuacan: day signs, 80, 81, 82; Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamaygua, ca. 1613), 279, 297, 298
Early Classic painted grids at, 87, 88; emblematic Relación de las cosas de Yucatán (Diego de Landa), 13,
glyphs (toponyms, titles, and personal names), 84, 85; 14–15, 16, 278
jaguars devouring hearts, 102; Tlaloc and quincunx Relación de las fábulas y los ritos de los incas (Molina el
sign, 102, 103 Cuzqueño, ca. 1575), 288, 307n7
Pleiades constellation and Chuquibamba textile notation Relación de Macuilxochtil, 52
systems, 259, 267 Relación geográfica of Cholula, 152–153, 160
polychrome mural fragment with Teotihuacan day sign, Reptile’s Eye glyph in Teotihuacan writing, 81, 81–82
83, 83–84 Revolt of the Objects scene in Moche ceramic imagery,
polycode nature of Maya glyphs, 24 241–244, 241–245
Ponce Monolith, Tiwanaku, 289 Río Grande 2, coastal Oaxaca, carved stones from, 122
Popol Vuh, 164 ritual petitions, counted offerings in, 153, 155
Porras, Bartolomé de, 300 River of Jade and Quetzal Feathers, 158, 162
porras (conical mace heads) in Moche ceramic imagery, Rivers, W. H. R., 17
235, 236, 239 Robertson, Donald, 177
Porter, James, 100 Roman Catholicism. See Catholicism

index 405
 Roman y Zamora, Jerónimo, 281 shields, Teotihuacan monumental rendering of, 99,
Rosny, Léon de, 15 100–103
Rowe, Ann, 256 singing canine heads and weapon bundles, Teotihuacan-
Rowe, John, 284 style, 95, 96
Roys, Ralph, 18 Sipan, 227, 228
Rufino Tamayo stela, possibly from Guerrero, 79, 94, size of signs: Cotzumalhuapa writings, oversized signs
94–95 in, 56, 56–57; Maya glyphs, absolute size and relative
Ruíz Estrada, Arturo, 355, 363, 364 proportion of, 24–26, 25
Rulers 13 and 15, Copan, 23, 24 skull birds in Cotzumalhuapa writing, 53, 53–54, 54
Russia. See Knorosov, Yuri Valentinovich, decipherment Smith, Mary Elizabeth, 1, 191
of Maya glyphs by social and cultural meaning. See cultural category,
writing systems as; cultural code, written surface as
somatic framework: for Maya glyphs, 26; for Maya stelae,
sacred birth theme, 167 36n5
Sahagún, Bernardino de, 168–169n5–6, 169n10, 202–204, Soviet Union. See Knorosov, Yuri Valentinovich,
206 decipherment of Maya glyphs by
Salomon, Frank, 353, 394 space. See time and space
San Baltazar Chichicapan, genealogical slab attributed Spanish conquest: Aztec writing and, 191;
to, 125, 128 ethnoiconological approach to representations
San Bartolo: origins of Maya glyphs and, 31; size of Maya of, 166; khipus in colonial and Catholic contexts,
glyphs used at, 25, 26 290, 353–355; Moteuhczoma Xocoyotzin’s failure to
San Bartolome Lachixova, title of, 166 build sacrificial stone and, 192; tocapus, colonial
San Jose de Moro, 227, 228 understanding of, 278–283, 287–288, 305. See also
San José Mogote, Monument 3, 122–123, 123 hybridity of graphic systems after Spanish conquest;
San Juan Tabaa, title of, 166 patrimonial khipus in Rapaz
San Martín, José de, 368–370 Spear-Thrower Owl, 90, 101
San Pedro Añañe, alabaster vessel from, 134–139, 136 speech and language: Moche ceramic imagery not
San Pedro Quiatoni, stone miniature replica of tomb reducible to, 240–241; writing as cultural category
facade, 125, 127 compared to, 380–381; writing, relationship to, 111–112
Sangro Sansevero, Raimondo di, ix, 284 SplitsTree4, 345–348
Códice de Santa María Asunción, 85 Spranz, Bodo, 1
Santa María Camotlan, writing on skin of mummified Squier, E. G., 290
remains from, 138, 139 Stalin, Joseph, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16
Santa Rosa site, Cotzumalhuapa inscription at, 50 Star glyph, Cotzumalhuapa writings, 50, 57–59, 58
Sarmiento de Gamboa, Pedro, 281, 288, 300, 307n7 Stephens, John Lloyd, ix
Saussure, Ferdinand de, 111, 232 stepped pyramid motif in Moche ceramic imagery,
Schele, Linda, 1 logographic aspects of, 238, 238–239
Schellhas, Paul, 13 Stone of Tizoc, 181, 184, 186–188, 187, 191–192
Schultze-Jena, Leonhard, 153 Stuart, David, x, 1, 24, 28, 32, 34, 88, 104
scribal error, semiology of, 139–143, 141, 142 Sucre, José Antonio de, 370–371, 373
seated character with Cotzumalhuapa Star glyph, syllabary, identification of Maya script as, 15
portable sculpture, 50 synharmony, principle of, 15
Codex Selden (Codex Añute), 114, 115, 150, 151, 167, 169n8 syntagmic relationships in spoken and written language,
Selden Roll, 164 111–112
Seler, Eduard, 57, 59
self-sacrifice rituals, 188–190
semasiography, 231–233; dialectic model of, 232–233; Tak’alik Ab’aj: Classic period, as important center
glottography versus, 384–385; hybrid graphic systems through, 48; Late Preclassic writings from, 46–47
as semasiographic, 198, 233; mathematical notation Talum carved vessels, 133, 134
as semasiographic, 231–232; Mexican pictography as Tamarindito, identification of scribes producing Maya
semasiographic system, 198; in Moche Revolt of the glyphs in, 23
Objects scene, 241–244, 241–245; musical notation as tattooed mummified remains from Santa María
semasiographic, 231; origins and meaning of term, Camotlan, 138, 139
221n3; road signs as semasiographic, 232; triadic Taube, Karl, 47–48, 61, 77, 134, 385, 394–395
model of, 233 Tawantinsuyu, 298–299, 299
semiological theory of writing, 111–112 tecalli bowl carved with Reptile’s Eye glyph, 81, 82
serpents devouring hearts in Teotihuacan art, 102, 103 tecalli plumed serpent with Teotihuacan day names, 78, 79
shawls. See Chuquibamba textile notation systems tecalli sculpture with Tlaloc and quincunx sign, 101

40 6 i n de x
Techinantitla, Teotihuacan writing at, 84 Thomas, Cyrus, 15
Codex Telleriano-Remensis, 178, 179, 180, 181, 183, 188, Thompson, John Eric Sidney: Cold War decipherment of
202, 206, 212 Maya glyphs and, 10, 14–18; Cotzumalhuapa writings
Temple of the Sun, Cuzco, 259 and, 43, 51–52, 54
Temple-Plaza-Altar complexes, 117, 118, 125 Tikal: Burial 116, incised bone from, 90, 90–91;
temple signs, Teotihuacan, 86, 86–87 identification of scribes producing Maya glyphs in,
Templo Mayor, Mexico-Tenochtitlan: Aztec writing 23; somatic framework of stelae at, 36n5; Stela 1, 90;
depicting, 177–181, 184–186; Coatepec, representing, Stela 31, 99, 100, 105n6; Stela 32, 99, 100, 104; Temple
161; Coyolxauhqui monument at base of staircase, of the Inscriptions, 24, 25; Teotihuacan arrival at, 88,
122–123; dedication stone, 188–190, 189, 191–192; 104; Teotihuacan writing at, 78, 83, 90, 90–91
deposition on cult images removed from, 212–213, Tikal dynasty: Maya glyph changes and, 32; probable
213, 219 usurpation by Teotihuacan, 88, 104
Tenoch, enthronement of, Codex Azcatitlan, 216, 216–217 Tilantongo, 157, 167
Tenochtitlan. See Mexico-Tenochtitlan time and space: Aztec writing, chronotopes in, 176–178,
Tenosique Bowl, non-Maya glyphs in Maya inscriptions 181, 184, 190, 191; tocapus used to represent significant
on, 27 spaces, 297–300, 298, 299. See also variations in Maya
Teocalli de la Guerra Sagrada, 181, 184–186, 185, 187, glyphs over space and time
190, 192 Tiquisate bowl, Cotzumalhuapa writing and, 53
(Teo)Colhuacan, 158, 162 Tira de la Peregrinación, 168–169n5–6. See also Codex
Teohuaonohualli, 213, 214 Boturini
Teotenango script: inventory of inscriptions compared Tira de Tepechpan, 192n2, 199, 211, 215
to Cotzumalhuapa, 49; lack of study of, 77 Tiwanaku monoliths and tocapus, 288–289, 289
Teotihuacan: grid plan of metropolis, 88. See also Tizoc: dedication stone, Templo Mayor, Mexica-
La Ventilla, Teotihuacan; Plaza de los Glifos, Tenochtitlan, 188, 190; Stone of Tizoc, 181, 184,
Teotihuacan 186–188, 187, 191–192
Teotihuacan-style statuette with day sign, 79, 80 Tlachihualtepec or Great Pyramid of Cholula, 160, 161
Teotihuacan writing, 77–109; in context of coastal writing tlacochcalco, 87
tradition, 47–48, 66; Cotzumalhuapa writings and, Tlaloc heads: in Cotzumalhuapa writing, 53;
48–49, 95; day signs in, 78–84, 79–83; development Teotihuacan Tlaloc head with quincunx in mouth,
of Early Classic central Mexican writing and, 77–78; 81, 90, 96, 98, 101, 101–103, 102
emblematic glyphs (toponyms, titles, and personal Tlaltecuhtli, 185, 186, 187, 188
names), 84–88, 85, 86, 87, 385; grids, central Mexican Tlamanalco church choir paintings, 202
examples of writing in, 87, 88–90, 89; Guerrero, Tlapacoya, lack of writing tradition at, 77
monumental texts from, 78, 79, 93–97, 93–98, 94, Tlapanecs, ritual use of counted bundles by, 153, 155
104; head signs in frontal view, 104; human sacrifice, Tlatelolco. See Mexico-Tlatelolco
depictions of, 102, 103; Maya influence, 77–78, 90, Tlatolatl, 212
90–93, 91, 92; “open” systems, trend toward, 66; tlatoque (ruler) successions in Mexica codices, 178–181, 184
pars pro toto convention, 95, 98, 98–100; shields, Tlaxcallan property plan, 213, 214
monumental rendering of, 99, 100–103; speech scrolls Tlaxiaco, alabaster vessel from, 134–139, 136
in, 61; symmetry as characteristic of, 100; Tlaloc head Tlazolteotl, 208
with quincunx in mouth, 81, 90, 96, 98, 101, 101–103, toads, Chuquibamba textiles’ symbolic use of, 261–262
102; Zapotec writing and, 48, 77–78, 83, 90, 90–93, 91, tocapu, 277–317; ancestral mummies wrapped in
92, 100, 104; zoomorphic vehicles, 92, 93 textiles with, 5; arrangement of, variations in, 292;
Tepantitla, Teotihuacan writings from, 84, 85, 96, 102, Berlin cross painted with, 284–287, 285; on chullpas,
103 290, 292; color schemes, significance of, 286–287;
Tepecuacuilco: Stela 1, 95–96, 96; Stela 2, 96, 97, 98; defining, 286–288; Dumbarton Oaks conferences
Teotihuacan writing at, 78 on, 2; fixed set of signs, problem with interpretation
Tepelmeme de Morelos, Oaxaca, Protoclassic murals, as, 305; Inkas’ lack of writing system and, 281–283,
80, 81 308n9; Jama-Coaque vessels with, 296, 297, 305;
Tepeyollotl-Tezcatlipoca, 186 khipus and, 279–284, 288, 289–290, 300–301; Lake
Testerian manuscripts, 206–209, 206–210 Titicaca and ruins of Tiwanaku, association with,
Tetitla, Teotihuacan emblematic glyphs from, 86 288; in Manco Capac portraits, 301–305, 302, 303,
Texcocan manuscripts, organization of, 177 304; Moche murals, tocapu-like figures in, 293–297,
textiles: color system for, 339; costume and performance 294, 295, 296, 305; multiple media, appearances in,
in Moche culture, 228, 229; tocapus and, 278, 287, 289. 290–293; on queros, 285, 286, 287, 297, 305; quilca,
See also Chuquibamba textile notation systems; khipu relationship to, 278; quincunx motif and, 297, 299;
Tezcatlipoca, 103, 186, 187 as señales (signs), 300–301; significant spaces, used
Tezozómoc, Fernando Alvarado, 181 to represent, 297–300, 298, 299; Spanish conquest,

index 407
 in writings and images after, 278–283, 287–288, 305; characteristics, 26–30; Postclassic-period glyphs,
specific meanings for individual forms, efforts to 34; Preclassic- and Early Classic-period glyphs,
decipher, 283–284; symbolic meanings attached 31; propagative syllables, use of, 32–34, 33; social
to, 288–290; textiles, relationship to, 278, 287, 289; circumstances affecting, 23, 31, 32, 34–35; vowel
Tiwanaku monoliths and, 288–289, 289; uncus (male notations, introduction of, 32
tunics) with, 281, 282, 284–287, 290, 291, 293–294, Codex Vaticanus A/Ríos, 178, 180, 206
295, 300, 301–305, 302, 303, 304; urpus painted as if Codex Vaticanus B, 103
wearing uncus with, 290, 293 Vega, Garcilaso de la, 281, 326, 328
Tokarev, Sergei Aleksandrovich, 12, 13 Ventris, Michael, 18
Toledan-era viceroyalty, khipus of governance under, 353 Veracruz: Teotihuacan writing at, 78, 100; Xochicalco
Tollan, 159–161 Glyph A on monument probably from, 82, 83
Tollan Cholollan, 152 Codex Vienna, 385. See also Codex Vindobonensis
Tolstov, Sergei Pavlovich, 11–12, 13, 14 Codex Vindobonensis, 159, 164–165, 165. See also Codex
Codex Tonindeye (Codex Zouche-Nuttall), 115, 152, 158, Vienna
167, 169n8 Viracocha, 288
Torres Straits Expedition (1898), 17 Vista Linda, Monument 1, 58
Totometla, Tlaloc and quincunx sign from, 101 Von Winning, Hasso, 82, 86, 103
Tovar calendar, 206
Townsend, Richard, 186
Tozzer, Alfred, 18 Wari/Middle Horizon khipus, 321, 321–322, 322, 325, 350
tribute khipus, 344, 345 Warrior theme in Moche ceramic imagery, 234–238, 235,
Codex Tudela, 202, 206 236, 237, 240
tukapu. See tocapu White Patio mural at Atetelco, 96
Tula: lack of study of, 77; Teotihuacan writing and, 82, 87
Whittaker, Gordon, 385–386
Codex Tulane, 170n22
Wichmann, Søren, 30
tunics, male. See uncus
women and writing: Chuquibamba textiles for women,
Tupicocha khipus, 354, 354–355, 374
252–253 (See also Chuquibamba textile notation
systems); ethnoiconology of representations of
women, 150, 151; Maya glyphs, female literacy in, 23
U-shaped element serving as toponymic sign for
writing systems in Pre-Columbian America, ix–x,
Teotihuacan and Xochicalco, 96, 97
1–7; comparative dialogue, importance of,
Uaxactun Stela, 27
3–6, 18; as cultural category, 379–390 (See also
Ulloa Mogollón, Juan de, 272
cultural category, writing systems as); as cultural
Umberger, Emily, 186, 187, 188
code, 111–148 (See also cultural code, written
uncus (male tunics), 252–253; Peabody Museum
Chuquibamba uncu with solar calendar, 252, 253, surface as); cultural superiority associated with
257–258, 258, 266, 268, 269; with tocapu designs, 281, possession of writing system, 306n3; Dumbarton
282, 284–287, 290, 291, 293–294, 295, 300, 301–305, 302, Oaks conferences on, ix–x, 1–3; elaboration and
303, 304; urpus painted as if wearing, 290, 293 abbreviation of literary themes in, 149–174 (See
Urcid, Javier, 2, 111, 382, 386, 395 also elaboration and abbreviation); hybrid graphic
urpus painted as if wearing uncus with tocapu designs, systems, 197–225 (See also hybridity of graphic
290, 293 systems after Spanish conquest); Inka lack of, 281–
Urton, Gary, ix, x, 1, 2, 319, 320, 323, 324, 334, 338, 339, 345, 283, 308n9 (See also Chuquibamba textile notation
380, 395 systems; Cuzco; khipu; tocapu); oral versus written
USSR. See Knorosov, Yuri Valentinovich, decipherment transmission, 4–5; orthography of, 6; true writing,
of Maya glyphs by status as, ix, 2; use of writing as term, problem of,
Uxmal, Yukatekan terms in script at, 27 379–380, 387–388. See also specific systems, e.g.,
Uxul stelae, size of glyphs on, 24, 25 Maya glyphs

variations in Maya glyphs over space and time, 21–42; xiuhamatl, 177
in absolute size and relative proportion, 24–26, Xiuhtecuhtli, 103, 187
25; consonant sensitivity, development of, 32, 33; Xochicalco Glyph A on Teotihuacan-style vessels and
diversity, accounting for, 30–34; heterography monuments, 82, 82–84
(variation at any one time), 34; Middle and Late Xochicalco script: animated signs in, 59, 59–60;
Classic-period glyphs, 32–34; morphosyllables, inventory of inscriptions compared to
28–30, 29; number of glyphs in use at any one Cotzumalhuapa, 49; lack of study of, 77; Temple
time and place, 30–31; phonic and linguistic of the Feathered Serpent, 59; Teotihuacan writing

40 8 i n de x
 and, 48, 66, 78, 82, 87, 93, 94, 101; Tlaloc head with Zapotec writing: alabaster carved vessels, 134; and
quincunx in mouth, 101 Cuilapan cloister stone, 117, 118; defined and
Xolochiuhyan place name, Codex Mendoza, 85 described, 112, 112–113; genealogical records,
Xoxocotlan, Tomb A, lintel, 140, 142 inscriptions of, 125, 126–128; human skin as writing
surface for, 139; length of use of, 21; migration
theme and, 162, 165–166; mortuary contexts of many
Yagul, Tomb 28, Terrace C, 125, 126–127 inscriptions, 125–130; places of origin and, 158–160;
Yaxchilan, absolute size and relative proportion of Maya scribal error in, 140–143, 141, 142; symmetry as
glyphs at, 24, 25 characteristic of, 100; Teotihuacan writing and, 48,
Yaxha stela, 24, 25 77–78, 83, 90, 90–93, 91, 92, 100, 104; Xochicalco
Yaxitzadao, 166 Glyph A probably originating in, 83
year counts: in Mexica codices, 178–181; on Mexica stone Zender, Marc, 34, 385
monuments, 186 Zhdanov, Andrei, 10–11
Yogana: alabaster vessel attributed to, 134–139, 136; effigy Zimatlan: human carved parietal bone attributed to, 134,
vessel from, 125–130, 129 136; stone cylindrical basin attributed to, 134, 135
Yucatan, number of Maya glyphs in use in, 30 zoomorphic vehicles, Teotihuacan figures riding, 92, 93
Yukatekan terms in script at Uxmal and Chichen Itza, 27 Codex Zouche-Nuttall (Codex Tonindeye), 115, 152, 158,
167, 169n8
Zuidema, R. Tom, 251, 286, 345, 386, 395
Zacuala Palace mural, Teotihuacan, 93 Zumárraga, Juan de, 212–213, 214

index 409
 dumbar ton oak s pre- columbia n
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The Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian Symposia and the exchange of ideas on the art and
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Dumbarton Oaks Conference on the Olmec, Falsifications and Misreconstructions of

edited by Elizabeth P. Benson, 1968 Pre-Columbian Art, edited by Elizabeth Hill
Boone, 1982
Dumbarton Oaks Conference on Chavín, edited
by Elizabeth P. Benson, 1971 Highland-Lowland Interaction in Mesoamerica:
Interdisciplinary Approaches, edited by Arthur G.
The Cult of the Feline, edited by Elizabeth P. Miller, 1983
Benson, 1972
Ritual Human Sacrifice in Mesoamerica, edited by
Mesoamerican Writing Systems, edited by Elizabeth Hill Boone, 1984
Elizabeth P. Benson, 1973
Painted Architecture and Polychrome Monumental
Death and the Afterlife in Pre-Columbian America, Sculpture in Mesoamerica, edited by Elizabeth Hill
edited by Elizabeth P. Benson, 1975 Boone, 1985
The Sea in the Pre-Columbian World, edited by Early Ceremonial Architecture in the Andes, edited
Elizabeth P. Benson, 1977 by Christopher B. Donnan, 1985
The Junius B. Bird Pre-Columbian Textile The Aztec Templo Mayor, edited by Elizabeth Hill
Conference, edited by Ann Pollard Rowe, Boone, 1986
Elizabeth P. Benson, and Anne-Louise
Schaffer, 1979 The Southeast Classic Maya Zone, edited by
Elizabeth Hill Boone and Gordon R. Willey, 1988
Pre-Columbian Metallurgy of South America,
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Chimor, edited by Michael E. Moseley and Alana
Mesoamerican Sites and World-Views, edited Cordy-Collins, 1990
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Wealth and Hierarchy in the Intermediate Area,
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Mexico, edited by Elizabeth Hill Boone, 1982

4 11
 Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan, edited Twin Tollans: Chichén Itzá, Tula, and the
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World, edited by Jeff Karl Kowalski and Cynthia
Latin American Horizons, edited by Don Stephen Kristan-Graham, 2007
Rice, 1993
Variations in the Expression of Inka Power, edited
Lowland Maya Civilization in the Eighth Century by Richard L. Burger, Craig Morris, and Ramiro
AD, edited by Jeremy A. Sabloff and John S. Matos Mendieta, 2007
Henderson, 1993
El Niño, Catastrophism, and Culture Change in
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Elizabeth Hill Boone, 1993 and Jeffrey Quilter, 2008
Tombs for the Living: Andean Mortuary Practices, Classic Period Cultural Currents in Southern and
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Native Traditions in the Postconquest World,
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Cummins, 1998 Kingdoms Represented Themselves in Architecture
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Function and Meaning in Classic Maya
Leonardo López Luján, 2009
Architecture, edited by Stephen D. Houston, 1998
New Perspectives on Moche Political Organization,
Social Patterns in Pre-Classic Mesoamerica, edited
edited by Jeffrey Quilter and Luis Jaime Castillo B.,
by David C. Grove and Rosemary A. Joyce, 1999
2010
Gender in Pre-Hispanic America, edited by
Astronomers, Scribes, and Priests: Intellectual
Cecelia F. Klein, 2001
Interchange between the Northern Maya Lowlands
Archaeology of Formative Ecuador, edited by and Highland Mexico in the Late Postclassic
J. Scott Raymond and Richard L. Burger, 2003 Period, edited by Gabrielle Vail and Christine
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Gold and Power in Ancient Costa Rica, Panama,
and Colombia, edited by Jeffrey Quilter and John The Place of Stone Monuments: Context, Use, and
W. Hoopes, 2003 Meaning in Mesoamerica’s Preclassic Transition,
edited by Julia Guernsey, John E. Clark, and
Palaces of the Ancient New World, edited by Susan Barbara Arroyo, 2010
Toby Evans and Joanne Pillsbury, 2004
Their Way of Writing: Scripts, Signs, and
A Pre-Columbian World, edited by Jeffrey Quilter Pictographies in Pre-Columbian America, edited
and Mary Ellen Miller, 2006 by Elizabeth Hill Boone and Gary Urton, 2011

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