urcid 2011 written surface as cultural code.pdf

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TH EIR WAY OF WR ITI NG

Scripts, Signs, and Pictographiesin Pre-Columbian America

ELIZABETH HILL BOONE GARY URTONEditors

DUMBARTON OAKS R ESEARCH LIBR ARY AND COLLECTION

WASHINGTON, D.C.


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Dumbarton OaksTrustees for Harvard University, Washington, D.C.

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

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 bibliographica l references and index.

ISBN - - - - (hardcover : alk . paper)

. Indians of MexicoLanguagesWriting. . Indians of Central AmericaLanguagesWriting.

. Indians of South AmericaPeruLanguagesWriting. . Picture writingMexico.

. Picture writingCentral America. . Picture writingPeru.

. Mayan languagesWriting. . Nahuatl languageWriting.

. Quechua languageWriting.

I. Boone, Elizabeth Hill. II. Urton, Gary. III. Dumbarton Oaks.

. . dc

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 NotationalSystems in Pre-Columbian America, organized with Elizabeth Hill Boone and Gary Urton and held atDumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collect ion, Washington, D.C., on October , .

Cover illustrations: Inka khipukamayuq , drawing 137 of Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, Nueva cornica ybuen gobierno, 1615, photograph courtesy of e Royal Library, Copenhagen. Mixtec scribe, detail, folio 48vof the Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus.

www.doaks.org/publications


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T -ter owes much to the work of Roy Harris ( ,), who, in two seminal publications, outlined

an integrational semiological theory of writing.Among the premises underlying his approach isthat writing does not necessarily constitute a setof meta-signs for spoken language. From an inte-grational perspective, speech and writing are coex-istent forms of communication that both competewith and complement each other in social life(Harris : ). I posit that, to some extent, thescripts from southwestern Mesoamerica codedspeech. But since clues to unravel their phoneticriddles are as of yet unavailable, the integrational

model allows for an inquiry into their nonlinguis-tic communicative aspects and the exploration ofsemantic decipherments.

e integrational model also advocates theculturally and historically contextualized natureof the sign instead of a surrogational (as in thesemiotics of Peirce, where the sign stands forsomething else [Hartshorne and Weiss : ])

or a structural, systemic view (as in the semiol-ogy of Saussure [ : ], where signicationderives from the contrastive nature of the constitu-

tive units). is means that the sign is not necessar-ily a preexistent given but generates, when needed,the grounding for bringing together a host of socialpractices (Harris : , : ). One advan-tage of such a premise is its ability to account forsemantic polyvalence in signs, which is contingenton context. It also accounts for spatially coeval anddiachronic changes in sign systems.

An emphasis on contexts implies the analysisof syntagmatic relations at different levels (Harris

: , : ). In spoken and writ-

ten language, the syntagm, or set combinationsof signs that constitute meaning, is temporallyor spatially sequential, but in other semiologi-cal systems such combinations are not similarlybounded, and the way they are put together addsadditional layers of signication (Harris : ).Since the support of the written sign is mostly spa-tial, focusing on the uses of the written surface is

6

The Written Surface as a Cultural CodeA Comparative Perspective of Scribal Traditions

from Southwestern Mesoamerica

J A V I E R U R C I D


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a protable way to tackle macrosocial dimensionsof meaning.

e focus of this chapter is, therefore, on thewritten surface, a leitmotif that will enable me toexplore three themes revolving around the rela-tionship between writing, performance, and place-making; the relationship between writing, notionsof personhood, and the body; and the semiology ofscribal error. In the course of this exploration, I willcompare cases drawn from several of the scribaltraditions that developed differentially in south-western Mesoamerica throughout a span of sometwo thousand years.

By construing a writing system as a set ofsocial practices associated with an inventory ofwritten signs (Harris : ), I can currently

identify at least six scribal traditions in south-western Mesoamerica (Figure . ). eZapotecscribal tradition is the earliest. It endured somethirteen hundred years from the h century through the ninth century and spread over alarge portion of central Oaxaca. e script, seem-ingly logosyllabic, has mostly an iconic signary,and in certain localities recourse to the homopho-nic principle based on an ancient version of theZapotec language is most likely. e use of a sylla-bary appears to be conned to the spelling of per-sonal names and toponyms. Texts exhibit differentformats and reading orders, but linearly alignedsequences seemingly map the syntax of the ancientZapotec language(s). During the early uses of thescript, events were temporally situated by means of

Monte Albn

Quicopecua/Cuilapan YagulLambityeco

Macuilxochitl

Cerro de la CampanaSan Jos Mogote

Eloxochitlan

Chichicapan

Xoxocotln

Ixcaquixtla

Ro Grande

Piedra Labrada

Cola dePalma

Cerro Bernal

FraccinMujular

Lpez Mateos

Zanacatepec

Tehuacan

MatatlanEl Palmillo

San Pedro Quiatoni

Cerro del Rey Cerro de los Tepalcates

AtzompaNazareno

La CinegaZimatlan

Yogana

Etla

Noriega

Tututepec

Teotihuacan

Tepeaca

Veracruz

Puebla

Estadode Mxico

Morelos

Guerrero

OaxacaChiapas

Tabasco

0 50 100 kmPacic Ocean

Gulf of Mexico

Tequixtepec del Rey

San PedroAae

Cerro uyoo

Huamelulpan

Cerro de la Caja

Santa Mara CamotlanCerro Yucuniza

Santo Domingo Tonala

Tlaxiaco

Tilantongo

UIE SCRIBAL TRADITION

COASTAL SCRIBAL TRADITION

CHIAPANECSCRIBAL

TRADITION

Nejapa

Jalapa del Marqus

ZAPOTEC SCRIBAL TRADITION

POSTMONTE ALBNSCRIBAL TRADITION

LATER OAXACANSCRIBAL TRADITION

Zaachila

gure .Known geographical extent o the scribal traditions rom southwestern Mesoamerica and sites mentioned in the text.(Drawing by Elbis Domnguez.)


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The Written Surface as a Cultural Code

year dates and day dates of a lunar count (Justesonand Kaufman n.d.), but the practice shi ed duringlater uses to situating events temporally in termsof year dates only.

e uie scribal tradition was seeminglyderived from the Zapotec script and was usedfor some four hundred years, from the h tothe ninth centuries (Moser ; Urcid ).Geographically, it encompassed southern Pueblaand northwestern Oaxaca. e script appears tobe logophonic, and the signarywhich partakespredominantly of conventions from the Zapo-tec, and to a lesser extent the Teotihuacan, tra-ditionis mostly iconic. Texts are short andexhibit nonaligned, agglutinated formats. eseusually include as the most prominent glyph the

rendition of a royal headband that, depending onspecic contexts, provides annual dates or sig-nals the calendrical names of rulers. Events weretemporally situated by year dates and may haveinvolved at some point a shi from set II to set IIIyear bearers. e logophonic nature of the scriptimplicates its use by diverse linguistic communi-ties, including Popoloca and Mixtec.

e Coastal scribal tradition also appears tohave derived from the Zapotec script. It spannedsome three hundred years, from the seventh

through the ninth centuries , and spread throughthe eastern littoral of Guerrero and the westernhalf of coastal Oaxaca (Urcid ; Urcid and Joyce

). e script is logophonic and its signarywhich predominantly shares conventions from theZapotec, and to a lesser extent the Teotihuacan,traditionis mostly iconic, making it possible toencode and decode lexemes in various languages,including Chatino. No texts have been detected,and most glyphs appear to be name tags. e useof a temporal marker to specify year dates has been

attested in coastal Guerrero only and is rendered inthe style of the post-Teotihuacan Central Mexicantradition referencing set II year bearers.

e Chiapanec scribal tradition is a short-lived manifestation of some one hundred years,spanning from the h through the sixth centu-ries and geographically conned to the south-ern portion of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and

western coastal Chiapas (Navarrete ). escript appears to be logophonic and may haveimplicated several languages. e signarywhichpartakes of conventions from the Zapotec andTeotihuacan traditionsis mostly iconic. Signsexhibit at times a linear vertical arrangement, butthese sequences do not seem to reect a linguisticsyntax. Some of the glyphs seemingly function asname tags. As of yet, no temporal marker for yeardates has been attested.

e PostMonte Albn scribal tradition alsoappears to be a short-lived script dating to theninth through perhaps the eleventh centuries .

e few known inscriptions have been found inthe central valleys of Oaxaca and the Mixteca Alta(Urcid : ). e script was most likely

logophonic, and the signary involves Zapotec conventions that also foreshadow graphic practicesof the subsequent scribal tradition, including therendition of an interlaced royal headband to signalyear dates, the mixed use of bars and dots and onlydots to express coefficients, and set III year bear-ers. e signary is iconic, and most likely the scriptwas used by speakers of various languages. No lin-early aligned texts are known, and glyphs appearpredominantly as name tags and as toponyms. Inaddition, events were temporally situated by means

of year dates only.e Later Oaxacan scribal tradition , com-monly known as Mixteca-Puebla (Nicholson

; Nicholson and Quiones Keber ) orMixtec (Smith and Heath-Smith : ),seems to have endured through some four hun-dred years, from the twel h through the sixteenthcenturies , and exhibits the widest geographi-cal distribution. It is a logophonic script with amostly iconic signary shared by speakers of dif-ferent languages. However, the local variant used

in the Mixteca Alta is known to resort at times tothe homophonic principle and thus encodes theMixtec language (Jansen and Aurora Prez ;Smith ). e users of the script did not ren-der linearly aligned texts, and glyphs were usedpredominantly as name tags and for renderingtoponyms. Furthermore, events were temporallysituated in terms of year and day of occurrence.


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Writing, Performance, and Place-Making

e participants in most, if not all, of these scribaltraditions wrote on monumental architecture,either on single or multiple surfaces. Facades cov-ered with inscribed orthostats; enclosures em-bellished with carved jambs, lintels, columns,or friezes; and open spaces punctuated by stelaeformed ensembles that integrated a host of prac-tices. Apprehending the messages in such con-texts required movement; thus, the inscriptionssymbolically reiterated past performances while atthe same time served as a script for subsequentreenactments.

A most intriguing case of multiple carved sur-faces set in monumental architecture is that of the

orthostats from Building L-sub, one of the earli-est known structures from Monte Albn, whichdates to the beginnings of urban life around the h or fourth centuries . A heuristic reconsti-tution of their probable architectural contextbased on the physical characteristics of the fewcarved megaliths found still in primary contextin the southeastern facade of the basal platform,the position and orientation of the human gurescarved on them, the extant corpus of similarlycarved stones that have been found so far through-

out the urban core, and the known characteristics

of the structureevinces a composite narrativethat most certainly was put together as part of theconstruction of the building, bespeaking a poly-semic message that, among other things, mimicsthe kinesis of the built space (Figure . , bottom).

e reconstruction shown in Figure . indi-cates with a thick line the orthostats that werefound in primary context at the turn of the twenti-eth century. e gray area refers to a section of thewall that has not been explored and that most likelycontains carved orthostats still in situ. e humangures carved on individual stones proceed in aboustrophedon sequence as if rendering the ascentof personages along the staircase that gave accessto the top of the platform. us, we can put torest the pervasive notion among scholars that the

native cognitive apprehension of the carvings waslike seeing from above the outline of a dead bodyin a crime scene. While there are precedents fornative representations of all-encompassing scenes,like one in the Codex Aute (Selden) of a ritualcircular dance (Figure . ), the scanning fromthe point of view of the scribe is not from above.Otherwise the representational mode would haverendered the top of the dancers heads and theprojection of their upper and lower extremities indifferent planes. Rather, the perspective is that of

the drummer in the center of the circle of dancers,

gure .Hypothetical reconstruction o the southeastern basal acade and o a structure on top o Building L-sub at MonteAlbn (ca. ). (Drawings by Elbis Domnguez.)


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scanning simultaneously from different points of view (Uspensky ). Hence the proled guresaround degrees.

e boustrophedon sequence of the narra-

tive in Building L-sub is equally evident in therecontextualization of the cornerstones inscribedwith texts (Figure . ). e one in the bottom row,carved on three contiguous orthostats, displays awell-known syntactical structure that begins at thetop of the cornerstone with a year date and endsat the bottom of the third block with the iconicsign of a tied bag. A reversed textual sequence ofthree columns, this t ime carved on two contiguousstones in the middle row, is evident from the plac-ing of the glyph of the tied bag at the bottom of the

corner stone. From this placement, one can deducethat an inscribed monolith is still missing, whosetext must start at the top with another year date. Inthe monolith on the top row, the year date indexesthe continuation of the boustrophedon reading; itsoccurrence at the bottom most likely enhanced the viewing of the year sign, given the higher positionof the carved stone. Because of its two columnar

inscriptions, one can surmise that there is anotheras of yet unfound orthostat that has the rest of thetext ending at the top with the sign of a tied bag.

e reconstruction of the basal facade of the

building by no means exhausts the available cor-pus of similarly carved stones. One of severaladditional yet distinct groups is characterized bygures with attributes of old age, such as wrinklesin the cheeks, beards, and hunchbacks (see Figure

. , top). Some of the carved orthostats in thisgroup have two and even three of their surfacescarved with elder personages displayed in overallupright position. e carving of such multiple sur-faces hints at their function as cornerstones and as jambs that framed an entrance. us, these stones

probably formed part of an enclosure built some-where on top of the platform, suggesting that theascent of the gures shown in the facade, all withphysiognomic features of younger adults, is not justperformative but signals age-related promotions.

e composition of rows in both the basalwall and the hypothesized structure at the summitalternates gures rendered in vertical postures at

a b

gure .Scenes rom codices where a centrally embedded perspectival view scans simultaneously in multipleradial directions: a) Codex Aute (Selden), page -I; and b) Codex Tonindeye (Zouche-Nuttall), page .(Drawings by Elbis Domnguez.)


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D139 D140 D141/104(reconstructed)

D142

M21

unattestedorthostat

unattestedorthostat

gure .Hypothetical placement

o the corner monolithsrom the southeasternacade o Building L-sub

at Monte Albn and theboustrophedon readingsequence o their texts.(Drawing by ElbisDomnguez.)


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the bottom with gures shown in horizontal posi-tions at the top. Such a syntagmatic relation con-forms to the pan-Mesoamerican representationaltrope that counterpoises the ontological status ofthe living with the ontological status of ancestors.Nowhere in the available gural corpus is there ahint of the contrasting strategy of rendering theprominence of a captor and the submissiveness ofcaptives, although the nominative signs in the textsappear to identify as many as three of the earlyrulers from Monte Albn, and iconic allusions todecapitation are present in four smaller orthostatswhose context within the narrative is uncertain.Elsewhere, I (n.d.) have proposed that the narrativein this building, rather than displaying sprawled,slain captives, renders members of the different

constituencies that made up the political structureof the pristine state institution, including warriorsodalities whose members are shown symbolicallyin the act of bloodletting from the genitals (sig-naled by scrolls in the groin areas), as a prelude toengaging ancestral beings for the purpose of war-related oracles. us, this narrative served primar-ily the purpose of fostering community identity inthe face of a new development of urban life amidregional factionalism and competition.

e use of writing as a prop to performances

revolving around inscribed monuments and tochoreograph ritual movements can also be dem-onstrated with a peculiar stone from the Zapotecscribal tradition (Figure . ). e monolith is asquare parallelepiped with a quadrilateral aperturein the center. Six of its ten well-dressed surfacesare inscribed. e inscription includes a year dateand the calendrical names of three persons, one ofwhom has in the adjacent lateral surface a glyphiccompound that depicts a human lower body seatedcross-legged. Given the way the stone is now dis-

played, this glyphic compound is seen inverted. Acomparative analysis of other occurrences of thesign Lower Body Seated Cross-Legged stronglysuggests that it indexes accession to high office(Van Meer n.d.), and the naming of two additionalpersons in the stone may constitute a record ofdynastic succession or identify the parents of theinstalled ruler. In its architectural context, the

monolith was most likely the capstone to a quad-ripartite memorial erected in the center of a plaza,within what scholars refer to as a Temple-Plaza-Altar (Winter ) (the altar being the basalremnants of quadripartite memorials like the onereconstructed in Figure . ). e way the glyphsare carved (some as if wrapping around adjacentsurfaces) implies that in order to visually scan theinscription, the viewer had to perform circumam-bulatory movements that began inside, at the cen-ter of the memorial and underneath the openingon the stone and roof, and proceeded outward toeach of the four quarters.

An analysis of a carved slab from Monte Albnrendered on a single surface, but whose externalsyntagmatics are unknown, provides a clue to

interpreting composite architectural narrativesin other scribal traditions from southwesternMesoamerica, which also implicate ritual perfor-mances (Figure . ). e slab depicts a ruler, shownas a jaguar-lord named Rain, pronouncing astatement encoded by the signs Serpent RattlesMatRootsLower Body Seated Cross-Legged.He appears standing on the sign representing thequadripartite division of the earth with re andsmoke scrolls on either side, and each corner ismarked by the butt of a dart. Pre-Hispanic and

early colonial documentary evidence attests thatwhen rulers acceded to high office, they kindled anew re, shot arrows or darts to the four cornersof the world to symbolically demarcate the terri-tory under their control, and sent four lords to thefour ends of such claimed territory to distribute theland among nobles (Oudijk ). e year Deerinscribed on the le side of the slab undoubtedlymarks the date of enthronement of Rain.

Such a symbolic expression of the rulers rolein centering the world and claiming territory in

ceremonies of enthronement appears to be alludedto in several now out-of-context carved stonesfrom Cerro de la Caja near San Pedro y San PabloTequixtepec, in the Mixteca Baja of northwest-ern Oaxaca (Rivera , ) (Figure . ). emonoliths in question, some of them with twosurfaces carved and evidently set as cornerstones,either render jaguar-lords with their calendrical


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inverted

glyphs Lower Body Seated Cross-legged

a

b

c

d

gure .a) Capstone o unknown provenience carved withZapotec inscriptions (ca. ); b) its display in theMuseo Regional de Oaxaca, Oaxaca; c) its hypotheticalarchitectural context; and d) a diagram o the circum-ambulatory movements needed to scan its inscribedsur aces. e stone is now stored in the cloister o theconvent at Cuilapan, Oaxaca (cat. no. - ).(Drawings by Elbis Domnguez.)

a

b

c

d


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gure .Slab rom Mound IIat Monte Albn and theglossing o its inscription(ca. ). (Drawings byElbis Domnguez.)


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a b

wall

corner

e

gure .Carved stones rom Cerro de la Caja andits environs and their hypothetical settingin monumental architecture (ca. ):a) Stone , unknown provenience, MuseoComunitario Memorias de Yucundaayee,San Pedro y San Pablo Tequixtepec; b) Stone

, unknown provenience but said to come

rom the environs o San Pedro y San PabloTequixtepec, Museo de Tehuacan, Tehuacan;c) Stone , unknown provenience, MuseoComunitario Memorias de Yucundaayee, SanPedro y San Pablo Tequixtepec; d) Stone ,unknown provenience, Museo ComunitarioMemorias de Yucundaayee, San Pedro y SanPablo Tequixtepec; e) Stone , Cerro de laCaja, in situ; ) Stone , Cerro de la Caja, insitu; and g) Stone , unknown provenience,plaza o San Pedro y San Pablo Tequixtepec.(Drawings by Elbis Domnguez.)

a

e

b


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c d

wall

corner

gf f g

c d


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identiers or depict personages whose guresare mostly subsumed by their glyphic names butwhose hands, projecting from the nominal car-touches, hold warfare paraphernalia. Some of theimagery on other carved monuments from Cerrode la Caja and its environs explicitly shows suchsynecdochical renditions of rulers vanquishingcaptives with clubs or jaguar-lords devouring cap-tives, a symbolic visual substitution for the enact-ment of human sacrice. e actual constructionof these commemorative platforms was probablyritualized when the inscribed basal cornerstoneswere set in place, but the symbolic act of center-ing those four quarters and thus demarcating thepolitys boundaries by graphic allusions to con-quest and sacrice would have been performed at

the time rulers took office. is practice of carv-ing composite narratives set in monumental plat-forms to publicly validate access to political powerwas geographically and temporally widespreadthroughout southwestern Mesoamerica, as may beseen in similar examples from Huamelulpan in theMixteca Alta ( ) and Ro Grande in coastal Oaxaca ( ) (Urcid :

and , g. ). We also know that at least bythe sixth century , writing in certain parts ofsouthwestern Mesoamerica served the purpose

of guiding movement within architectural spacesand regulating ritual performances while simulta-neously inscribing social memories through theirreiterations.

Such uses evince the role played by writing inthe cultural construction of spaces. Place as expe-rienced space is constituted through interactionsand thus is relational. Being a product of embeddedmaterial practices, place-making is a never-endingprocess. It is also the simultaneity of stories-so-far (Massey : ). e examples discussed

earlier have already illustrated the relationshipbetween writing and human-made temporal spa-tialities, but it is worthwhile to single out two othercases because of the way in which the written sur-face was used and because of the implications thatcan be derived from their broader contexts.

Writing in southwestern Mesoamerica wasdisplayed not only in the built environment, as I

have amply shown, but also in largely unmodi-ed landscapes. Localities such as caves and openspaces are known to have inscriptions. esemust have integrated a host of activities related to,among other things, the consecration of spaces, themarking of territorial boundaries, and the promo-tion of anamnesis aimed at creating and reinforc-ing identities and social memory.

e earliest known example of the use of writ-ing in southwestern Mesoamerica involves Monu-ment from San Jos Mogote, a carved stone foundatop a large pyramidal platform that symbolicallyreplicated a hill. Space limitations prevent me fromfully justifying the argument for deducing theprobable original context of the monument shownin Figure . . Suffice is to say that independently of

the debate over its dating (ca. [Flannery andMarcus : , : ] or [Cahn and Winter ]), the monolithalthoughfound in situmust have been reused because asit lies in a horizontal position, it seems to lack aportion of its le side (behind the gures head).

e iconicity of the imagery appears transpar-ent: it depicts a human gure with closed eyes andthe Heart glyph on its chest, from which a ow ofblood emanates, ending in two drops that drip overthe front narrow surface of the block. e Heart

glyph is marked on each one of its three lobularextensions by the iconic rendition of nose plugs, agraphic convention that indexes the notion of pre-ciousness (for similar examples of Zapotec graph-ics, see Urcid c: , g. ). e calendrical sign

L ( Eye) is carved between the legs. e latter maymark the identity of the sacricial victim or that ofthe captor.

Given the centrality of human sacrice inancient Mesoamerican ideology, it seems unlikelythat the primary context of the carved megalith

would have been a secondary transit over Build-ing . Rather, the stone could have been originallyassociated with a temple in order to mark the placewhere human immolation was enacted or wherecertain postsacricial bodily transformations ofthe victim(s) were performed. In this location, thestone would have had a similar function as themuch later circular monument of Coyolxauhqui


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placed at the base of the staircase for the shrinededicated to Huitzilopochtli in the Templo Mayorof Mexico-Tenochtitlan. e similarity in bodypostures in both representations may denote the

act of falling from stairs, graphically replicatingthe treatment of the victims a er their sacrice.Another example of writing as place-making is

known from Cerro de los Tepalcates in Chacahua,coastal Oaxaca. During low tide, the prominenthill forms part of the seashore, but when high tidesrise, it becomes isolated by peripheral mangroves.

e local name of the place attests to the evidence

of human activities, most of which appear to in- volve a burial ground. Here and there, li ed smallslabs attest to much looting at the locality, but theplace is also characterized by a concentration of

large exposed boulders with extensive horizontaland vertical at surfaces (Figure . ). Some of theseboulders are marked with day signs, most likelycalendrical names of persons who were memorial-ized in the context of the cemetery (although spa-tially unrelated to actual graves) or by kin memberswho visited their ancestors and le their personal-ized marks on such a unique landscape.

gure .Monument rom San Jos Mogote,its probable architectural context,and its comparison to the Mexicamonument o Coyolxauhqui.(Drawings by Elbis Domnguez.)


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N1768905

N1768910

N1768915

N1768920

N1768925

E637370 E637375 E637380

N

Group 3

Group 4Group 7

Group 5

Group 2

Group 1

Group 6

gure .Exposed boulders at Cerro de losTepalcates, Chacahua, Oaxaca,inscribed with calendrical names(ca. ). (Photograph bythe author; drawing by Elbis

Domnguez.)


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Writing, Notions of Personhood, and theHuman Body

Most of the known inscriptions dating betweenthe fourth and ninth centuries , particularlyin the case of the Zapotec scribal tradition, comefrom mortuary contexts within domestic set-tings. Elite tombs were painted with murals, andtheir jambs, lintels, sealing-stone doors, and roofslabs were inscribed. Some of the material cul-ture placed as mortuary offerings was also usedas a canvas for writing. Mausoleums were at timesbuilt above tombs, facing the interior patios ofhouses, or set in their centers as quadripartitememorials. eir facades included entablatureswhose friezes were decorated with narratives and

inscriptions rendered on stone, red clay, or mod-eled stucco (e.g., Boos and Shaplin ; Urcidb: , ). Elsewhere, I ( b, b)

have commented that writing in domestic contextsdealt foremost with genealogical reckonings, argu-ing that such messages servedin the context ofdifferentially ranked corporate groupsas a wayto legitimate or contest membership and thus to validate unequal access to the landed estates andoffices that conveyed power.

One question, however, is who were the in-

tended audiences when messages rendered ina multiplicity of media were mostly entombedeither as part of the mortuary facilities or as partof the offerings meant to memorialize and accom-pany deceased persons. Tombs do not representsingle or unaltered snapshots of ritual life; theywere dynamic mortuary facilities, opened mul-tiple times not only to bury sequentially the deadbut to conduct rituals to propitiate the ances-tors. us, such deposits are cumulative yet frag-mented accretions of practices encompassing

arenas beyond death rituals and their domesticsetting. ere are reasons to assume that prior totheir placement with the dead, portable genealog-ical slabs, miniature stone versions of tomb andmausoleum facades carved with names of people,and other similarly inscribed objectsincludingceramic effigy vesselswere deployed outside thetombs and even beyond domestic contexts, being

circulated, repositioned, and displayed in a vari-ety of as yet unknown settings (Figure . ).

Evidence in support of such an assumptionis best provided by the genealogical slabs (Figure

. ). Most of the known ones have unattested pro- veniences, and only some of the few that have beenfound in tombs are intact; the rest were broken andincomplete. One extraordinary examplefoundtumbled but in a pristine condition inside Tomb from Cerro de la Campana, Suchilquitongois sin-gularly carved on four of its ve dressed surfaces(Figure . b). Even though it appears that at onepoint while being inside the tomb it was set in a ver-tical position, the syntagmatic relations betweenall its carved surfaces bespeak another context inwhich, as a stela, it would have triggered ample

movement in order for a viewer to fully appre-hend its messages. e carved lateral sides provide,based on epigraphic details, additional informa-tion on two of the four personages rendered inthe registers on the front surface. e sequence ofthese lateral texts indicates that the scanning ofthe messages on the three vertical surfaces of themonument proceeds from bottom to top, broadlymimicking the temporal and spatial domains ofthe ancestors (before/below) and the living (now/above). In order to see the messages, a viewer would

have had to move around the monument once thefrontal surface had caught his attention. Yet, theheight of the stela is such that to read the inscrip-tions on the top surface it was not enough to standon ones toes. erefore, the previous context of themonument may have been a niche at the base ofa staircase, like those documented in the Temple-Plaza-Altar architectural complexes. is way, theinscriptions on the upper surface would have beenlegible as people descended from the staircase.

Ceramic effigy vessels, especially those that

have signs inscribed on them (including daynames), may also be employed to argue for the muchbroader use of material culture found inside tombs.

eir consideration in a discussion of writing isbased on the skeuomorphism between glyphs inthe scripts signary and attributes of the effigy ves-sels (Figure . ). In some instances, these objectswere manufactured as sets of ve and arranged as


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nondomesticcontexts

domesticcontexts

tombs

mausoleums

b

a c

gh

i

j

a

b

gh

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quadripartite tableaus to reenact the order of things.But because of their particular biographies, in somecases they ended up as single items in mortuarydeposits or as offerings dedicated to the consecrationof temples and carved stelae. e portability of theseaesthetically charged objects favors the idea that theywere used to mediate important aspects of a myriadof ritual behaviors.

e study of these ceramic effigy vessels hasled to different perspectives about past notions ofpersonhood and the divine. One view posits thatthey were material instantiations of supernatu-ral entities, that is, the vesselswere gods. us, thesigns inscribed on some of them are assumed to bethe calendrical names of deities (Caso and Bernal

). Another view postulates that they mimicked


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d

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f

gure .Model o the social dimensions o Zapotecmaterial culture inscribed with genealogicalrecords ( ): a) entrance to the mainchamber o Tomb , Cerro de la Campana, SantiagoSuchilquitongo, ramed by Jambs and andStucco Bust , in situ; b) lintel o Tomb , Mound ,Quicopecua, in situ; c) rollout o painted murals,Tomb , Monte Albn, in situ; d) stone slabsealing the entrance to Tomb , Terrace C, Yagul,in situ; e) tableau o ve effigy vessels, entranceto Tomb , Monte Albn, Museo Nacionalde Antropologa, Mexico City; ) hypotheticalreconstruction o mausoleum built above Tomb ,Mound , Lambityeco; g) stone miniature replicao a mausoleums acade, attributed to the Etladistrict, central valleys o Oaxaca, Leigh Collection,

ormer Museo Frissell, Mitla (cat. no. );h) stone miniature replica o a tombs acade,San Pedro Quiatoni, Ethnographic Museum,Berlin (cat. no. ); i) slab o unknownprovenience, Museo Nacional de Antropologa,Mexico City (cat. no. - ); and j) effigy vesselprobably rom Etla, central valleys o Oaxaca,Dolores Olmedo Museum, Mexico City (InstitutoNacional de Antropologa e Historia, cat. no.

. . , ). (Drawings by Elbis Domnguez.)

d

e

f

humans who invoked natural forces through rit-ual, thus misconstruing Zapotec religion as ani-matistic (Marcus a, b). Common to thesetwo interpretative camps is the imposition of aWestern binary construct: natural/supernatural.A third opinion is that the effigy vessels repre-sented ancestral beings in the act of personifyingdivine notions intimately related to the mantic

system embedded in the -day calendar (Sellen, ).In ancient Mesoamerica, the constructed

notion of personhood did not place exclusiveemphasis onamong other valuesfree will,positivism, and assertiveness. e ontology ofthe person was not individual or centered in theself. Rather, personhood was construed in terms


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a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

gure .Examples o portable Zapotec slabs carved with genealogical records ( ): a) slab rom a cist in Mound ,Noriega, Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca, Oaxaca (cat. no. - ); b) stela in the main chamber o Tomb ,Cerro de la Campana, Santiago Suchilquitongo, in situ; c) slab attributed to San Baltazar Chichicapan, present

whereabouts unknown (afer photograph by John Paddock); d) incomplete slab, unknown provenience andwhereabouts (afer photograph in Sothebys Parke Bernet auction catalog, ); e) incomplete slab, Tomb ,Mound , Lambityeco, Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca, Oaxaca; ) slab embedded in the wall o a house inMatatlan, probably rom El Palmillo; g) slab rom La Cinega, Zimatlan, Museo Nacional de Antropologa,Mexico City (cat. no. - ); and h) lef hal o slab, unknown provenience, storeroom o the Museo de lasCulturas de Oaxaca, Oaxaca (cat. no. unknown). (Drawings by Elbis Domnguez.)

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of contextualized relationships with other formsof being (Lpez Austin , ). Such rela-tional epistemologies generated notions of personsas dividuals, that is, as entities whose existenceis based on extensions or transformations of theself (Bird-David ; Fowler ). e resultingontological taxonomies thus signicantly changedthe way concepts such as person, ancestor, anddeity were constructed.

Given the mortuary context in which Zapo-tec effigy vessels are frequently found, one mayassume that their use mediated relationshipsbetween persons living in the earthly plane andpersons living in parallel ancestral planes. Andsince the effigies in these vessels embody otherthan human beings, their use seemingly medi-ated as well relationships between mortals andthe divine. us, effigy vessels formed part of

0 25 50 cm

gure .Zapotec effigy vessels inscribed with calendrical names ( ): a) seated woman named Alligator (glyph V),

Atzompa, Museo Nacional de Antropologa, Mexico City (cat. no. - ); b) standing man named U, Yogana, ormer MuseoFrissell, Mitla (cat. no. ); c) seated man named Maize (glyph J), unknown provenience and whereabouts (afer Kerr

:K ); d) seated man named Night (glyph F-Owl), unknown provenience, ormer Museo Frissell, Mitla (cat. no.); e) seated man named Eye (glyph L), unknown provenience, Museum r Volkerkunde, Hamburg (cat. no. . . );

and ) seated woman named Night (glyph F-Owl), cistern no. IV at Monte Albn, Museo Nacional de Antropologa,Mexico City (cat. no. - ). (Drawings by Elbis Domnguez.)

a b c d fe


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technologies of communication that served criti-cal purposes in validating the sociopolitical inter-ests of the elite and that were efficacious meansof creating memories in the context of conictingorders generated by a social hierarchy of unequalpower relations.

e great majority of known effigy vessels rep-resent masked persons, and one of the most fre-quent personications is that of the dual-genderedrain deity. Others depict humans partially or fullytransformed into diverse beings such as jaguars,bats, opossums, or owls, powerful symbolic com-mutations that suggest classicatory substitutionsbetween certain entities and social institutions aswell as notions of parallel egos and alter-egos.One of these co-essences concerns the visual

conation of humans and felines. e latter servedas, among other things, symbols of aristocratic sta-tus and marked the political paramountcy of rul-ers as sacricers of human and animal dividuals(Urcid a). In the eyes of followers, such a rolemade rulers into social benefactors.

Focusing on a different kind of written surfaceallows me to explore other aspects of how person-hood was construed, particularly in terms of thecognitive categories of the living and the dead.

e representation of ancestors in mortuary visual

narratives is not lifeless. On the contrary, it is as ifthe ontological status of being dead was irrelevantwhen it came to issues of validating, promoting,or contesting membership in social groups andclaiming the transgenerational transfer of propertyand rights. A distinctive trait of some of the writ-ten props in tombs is the rendering of inscriptionson lintels that have two of their surfaces carved insuch a way that the message on the narrow frontalsurface appears inverted in relation to the carvingsexecuted on the underside, that is, the surface that

encompasses the entryway into the tombs (Figure. ). e narrow surface of the lintels evidentlybroadcasted their contents to whoever approachedthe tombs upon entry. But to view the undersideswhich span very low and narrow entrywaysonehas to be lying down, facing up, and with ones headtoward the posterior end of the funerary chambers,exactly the way ancestors were put to rest. at texts

inscribed inside the tombs were intended at timesfor the ancestors is also evident in the placementof carved surfaces of sealing door slabs toward theinterior rather than the exterior of the entrances.

A comparison of how the written surface wastreated in Zapotec mortuary contexts with analo-gous evidence from the uie and Coastal scribaltraditions is revealing. Tombs furnished withcarved jambs and lintels are known in the MixtecaBaja, and some have painted narratives on theirwalls (Figure . ). ere is also tantalizing evi-dence for friezes decorating mausoleums, althoughno such features built above tombs have been foundso far. Yet portable carved slabs recovered fromtombs do not contain genealogical reckonings.Rather, each one renders a single calendrical name

with a host of agglutinated signs. ese namesmost likely stand for ancestral beings, probablyapical ancestors of groups that traced descent fromthem. While effigy vessels were also manufactured,at times with calendrical or noncalendrical signs,there is no evidence for sets that may have beenused to form tableaus. e composition of narra-tives painted in tombs follows the same structureas in similarly placed Zapotec murals, with per-sonages on the lateral walls facing toward a maingure on the back wall. Such a structure evidently

focuses attention on the apical ancestor. In thetomb from Ixcaquixtla in southern Puebla (Figure. i), such an ancestral gure is shown as a rain-

maker, brandishing bolts of lightning symbolizedby obsidian eccentrics in the shape of undulatingserpent bodies. While the accompanying lateralpersonages are devoid of their calendrical names,most of them are seemingly identied by personalappellatives indexed by helmets supported overwooden tripods or held by the personages with ahand placed inside them.

No tombs with inscriptions have been reportedfor coastal Oaxaca, but a few stone monuments ofunknown contexts appear to have short genealogi-cal records including triplets of calendrical signs(Figures . a and . e). One of them (Figure

. a), carved on a tall multiton monolith set asa stela (which we know because of a tenon in thelower portion), presents the three calendrical signs


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gure .

e carved lintel rom Tomb in Terrace at Monte Albn(ca. ). (Drawings by Elbis Domnguez.)


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ab c

d

e

f g h

i

gure .Examples o inscribed uie material culture rom conrmed and suspected mortuary contexts ( ): a) slabo unknown provenience, Vlkerkundemuseum, Frank urt (cat. no. ); b) ragment o slab, Cerro Yucuniza, nearHuajuapan de Len; c) slab rom Tomb , Cerro Nuyoo (Cerro de las Minas), Huajuapan de Len; d) slab o unknownprovenience, Leigh Collection, ormer Museo Frissell, Mitla (cat. no. ); e) slab purchased in Tepeaca, Puebla,Ethnographic Museum, Berlin (cat. no. ); ) effigy vessel purchased in Huajuapan de Len, ormer Museo Frissell,Mitla (cat. no. ); g) effigy vessel rom Tomb , Cerro Nuyoo (Cerro de las Minas), Huajuapan de Len, Museo de lasCulturas de Oaxaca, Oaxaca; h) bipod effigy jar, Cerro Nuyoo (Cerro de las Minas), Huajuapan de Len; and i) rollout

o painted murals, main chamber o Tomb , Ixcaquixtla, southern Puebla, in situ. (Drawings by Elbis Domnguez.)

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a

b c d

e

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gure .Examples o inscribed coastal materialculture probably associated with mortuarycontexts ( ): a) Stela , Colade Palma, near El Ciruelo, in situ; b)Stela , Piedra Labrada, near Ocelotepec,in situ; c) Stela , Cerro del Rey, Ro

Grande, in situ; d) stela o unknownprovenience, Museo Comunitario YucuSaa, Tututepec; e) Stela , Piedra Labrada,near Ocelotepec, next to the basketballcourt in the community; ) Talum carvedvessel, unknown provenience, GentlingCollection, Fort Worth; g) Talum carvedvessel, unknown provenience (afer Kerr

:K ); and h) ragment o Talumcarved vessel, unknown provenience,Princeton University Art Museum,Princeton (cat. no. ). (Drawings

by Elbis Domnguez.)

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in an unusual epigraphic context that includes atthe top a starry sky band, a symbolic reference to acomet in the form of a descending serpent, and anallusion to a powerful alter-ego equivalent to theZapotec Xicani, the Mixtec Yahui, and the NahuatlXiuhcoatl. is latter representation, with jag-uar paws, is shown with inward split imagery (seeTaube, this volume, for Teotihuacan examples ofthe same constellation of traits). Another differ-ence in the Coastal scribal tradition is the predom-inance of carved stelae, although it remains to beseen if these formed part of mortuary contexts. epervasive theme in these monuments is the depic-tion of rulers identied by their calendrical names(Figures . bd), who are o en shown as jaguar-lords and paramount sacricers (Urcid ; Urcid

and Joyce ).In terms of portable inscribed objects, peoplesfrom the western half of the Pacic littoral devel-oped around the eighth century a ceramic tech-nology similar to that of the region of Ro Blancoin Veracruz. Dubbed Talum carved, this cra -ing tradition involved the production of differentshapes of vessels molded with scenes. e moldsto produce them were carved using graphic conventions similar to those followed by scribes fromthe central valleys of Oaxaca. e molded panels

show scenes with single personages or with male-female or male-male couples facing each other andpresenting or exchanging vessels and other items(Figures . fh). e personages are named, sug-gesting the depiction of short genealogical state-ments or the arrangement of marriage and othersocial alliances. Quite possibly, the scenes referencethe actual vessels, implying that these items servedsimilar functions as the different kinds of inscribedobjects that in the central valleys of Oaxaca pro-moted legitimating claims to property and rights.

Producing these vessels not only involved distinctbiomechanical procedures to inscribe surfaces butalso a particular mode of scanning the scenes. Most vessels repeat the same scene two or three times, adetail that substantiates their use to bond in somekind of contractual agreement two or more parties.

Throughout southwestern Mesoamerica awide range of objects found mostly in mortuary

contexts was inscribed, suggesting the uses ofwriting to mark personal identity and to index realor attributed ownership (Figure . ). Exquisitelycra ed vases, jaguar paw and bat claw vessels,stirrup-spouted jars, spatulas made of deer bones,stone manoplas for the ball game, shell trumpets,and dart throwers are but some of the examplesof inalienable possessions used in ceremonial con-texts. For others, we do not have as yet a clue asto their purpose (Figures . gh). Objects madeof prized materials, such as human bone, alabas-ter, polychrome ceramics, and (once metallurgi-cal technologies were implemented) metal alloys,carried additional layers of meaning on their in-scribed surfaces (Figure . ). Apprehending mes-sages in these portable materials was different

than reading narratives in monumental architec-ture, tombs, and mausoleums because they did notnecessarily elicit movement around the objects butprovoked several other practices of manipulationand display.

e case of carved human bones illustratesanother biomechanical procedure for inscribingsurfaces, and such treatment required workingwith remains from recently deceased persons whohad been deeshed (before the bone became devoidof collagen and lost its malleable properties). Based

on the allusion to the taking of a captive on a com-plete carved skull of the Late Oaxacan scribal tra-dition, some of these examples may have derivedfrom sacricial victims, but graphic representa-tions and individuals buried with human man-dibles attached to their arms or used as pendantsequally suggest that revered ancestral bones werealso inscribed. e glyphic formats on some of theavailable mandibles that were used as pendantscontain one or a triplet of calendrical names.

ese carved mandibles are additional evidence for

the deployment of genealogical statements outsidemortuary contexts.Alabaster was a much prized material, undoubt-

edly because of its origin in water depositions and itstranslucency. e scanning of the carved surfaces inalabaster vessels inscribed in the Zapotec, uie,and Later Oaxacan scribal traditions most likelyinvolved rotating the vessels, a mode of apprehension


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ab

c d

e

f g h

gure .Objects rom southwestern Mesoamerica bearing signs with numerals, most o which may be the calendrical nameso their owners ( ): a) ceramic vases, Atzompa, near Monte Albn; b) stirrup-spouted vessel, Tomb ,Monte Albn; c) jaguar-claw vessel, Monte Albn, Museo Regional de Antropologa Carlos Pellicer, Villahermosa;d) carved stone manopla, Monte Albn, Museo Nacional de Antropologa, Mexico City (cat. no. - ); e) carvedbaton or spatula made o a deer tibia, Tomb , Mound , Lambityeco; ) carved wooden dart thrower, unknownprovenience (probably rom the Mixteca Alta), Pre-Columbian Collection, . . , Dumbarton Oaks ResearchLibrary and Collection, Washington, D.C.; g) stone cylindrical basin attributed to Zimatlan, Museo de las Culturasde Oaxaca, Oaxaca (cat. no. - ); and h) ceramic plaque, house in Terrace , Monte Albn, Museo de MonteAlbn. (Drawings by Elbis Domnguez.)

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a

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gure . Inscribed human bones and alabaster vases ( ): a) ragment o carved human right parietal attributedto Zimatln, present whereabouts unknown, plaster cast in the American Museum o Natural History, New York(cat. no. / ); b) carved human skull, unknown provenience, Ocina de Registro Arqueolgico, InstitutoNacional de Antropologa e Historia, Mexico City; c) ragment o carved human mandible used as a pendant,Macuilxochitl, central valleys o Oaxaca; d) carved human mandible modied as a pendant, Santo Domingo Tonala,Mixteca Baja (afer Rivera : , g. ); e) carved human mandible ound as pendant, burial rom Eloxochitlan deFlores Magn, Sierra Mazateca; ) alabaster vessel attributed to Yogana, ormer Museo Frissell, Mitla (cat. no. );g) alabaster vessel, San Pedro Aae, Mixteca Alta, present whereabouts unknown; and h) alabaster vessel, Tlaxiaco,Mixteca Alta, Muse du quai Branly, Paris (cat. no. . . . ). (Drawings by Elbis Domnguez.)

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a

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gure .Inscribed miniatures rom southwestern Mesoamerica ( ):a) miniature ceramic slit-drum, unknown provenience, ormer Museo Frissell,Mitla (cat. no. ); b) miniature ceramic drum, unknown provenience, ormerMuseo Frissell, Mitla (cat. no. ); c) miniature stone mano, Nazareno, easternslope o Monte Albn, present whereabouts unknown; d) miniature stone yoke,unknown provenience, ormer Museo Frissell, Mitla (cat. no. ); e) incompletebaton made o a deer emur, unknown provenience but attributed to ZapotecOaxaca, Department o Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton UniversityLibrary, Princeton (cat. no. ); and ) miniature weaving baton carved rom anonhuman bone, Tomb , Monte Albn (bone no. i), Museo de las Culturasde Oaxaca, Oaxaca. (Drawings by Elbis Domnguez.)

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Inscription onthe le arm

Inscription onthe right arm

a b c

d

pseudo-writing

e

gure .e human skin as a medium or writing

in southwestern Mesoamerica ( ): ac) orthostats D , D ,

and D , ound tumbled in ront osoutheastern acade o Building L-subat Monte Albn, Museo de Monte Albn(drawings by Elbis Domnguez); d) hollowceramic effigy, unknown provenience,Leigh Collection, ormer Museo Frissell,Mitla (cat. no. ) (drawings by ElbisDomnguez); and e) mummied remains

rom a cave near Santa Mara Camotlan,Mixteca Baja, Muse du quai Branly,Paris (cat. no. . . . ) (reprinted

rom Batres ).

a

pseudo-writing

inscription onthe le arm

inscription onthe right arm

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that provided much exibility for reading the mes-sages. Storytelling could proceed forward or back-ward or begin at any point in the narrative sequence,depending on the position of the vessel and thedirection in which the item was rotated. e typeof material used, the way the surface was inscribed,and the content of the inscriptions suggest that thesealabaster bowls were commissioned to inuencesocial constituencies through competitive generos-ity and to function as mnemonic aids in the perpet-uation of memories.

Some inscribed objects are miniature versionsof other items or, in the case of some effigy vesselsand terracotta gures, larger-than-life representa-tions of human/animal dividuals (Figure . ;see Figure . ). Such variable scaling, as argued by

Claude Lvi-Strauss ( : ), results from a sort ofreversal in the process of understanding. We o enmake sense of the totality of nonscaled entities byanalysis, breaking them down into their constitu-ent parts. e strategy of miniaturization reversesthat process. e object as a whole becomes lessformidable. By being quantitatively diminished, itseems to us qualitatively simplied (Lvi-Strauss

: ). Being homologues of the actual entitiesthey represent, miniaturization transforms triadsof objects-makers-users into subjects. Lvi-Strauss

further comments that miniatures are not simplyprojections or passive substitutes but active ele-ments in a real experiment. In other words, aswe come to understand what has been le out ofthe miniature, we also come to understand whatis essential in the original (MacCannell : ).

Although the few known examples pertain tothe Later Oaxacan scribal tradition, skeletal rem-nants of nonhuman species were incised with pat-terned sequences of day signs. Such patterningindicates that these bones contain mantic formulas

based on the -day calendar and that they wereused as charters for descrying and divination (Pohland Urcid ). Most of the known examples areminiature versions of weaving batons, suggesting ametaphorical linkage between the production of tex-tiles and intricacies in the foretelling of outcomes.

At present, little can be said about the rela-tionship between writing and the perception of

the human body. Yet although the available evi-dence is sparse and mostly indirect, it appearsthat the human skin was also used for renderinginscriptions (Figure . ). Several of the gurescarved on the orthostats that formed the narrativein Building L-sub at Monte Albn have inscrip-tions partially overlapping their bodies, althoughthis may be akin to the name tagging of person-ages in Maya writing. Another outstanding exam-ple involves a small hollowed terracotta gure ofunknown provenience that renders a Zapotec-styletext on its back, on the posterior side of the neck,and on the anterior surface of the upper arms. eback of the head may have been inscribed as well,but at some point in the recent cultural biogra-phy of the object, the broken head was replaced by

another one incised with pseudo-writing. Directevidence of the use of human skin as a canvas forwriting comes from the naturally mummiedremains of several persons found in a cave nearSanta Mara Camotlan in the Mixteca Baja. eirtattooing includes signs that belong to the LaterOaxacan scribal tradition. But the actual numberof mummies, the full variety of the signs that wereinscribed on their skin, and the specic anatomicalplaces where they were executed remain unknown(Batres ).

Scribal Error

In our own scribal tradition, we commonly crum-ple the written surface and toss it into a wastebasket(if inscribing on paper using varied biomechanicalmeans) or obliterate our mistakes with the elec-tronic pulses of digita l technologies (if using a wordprocessor). We ignore the full range of possibleresponses that ensued when scribes in southwest-

ern Mesoamerica wrote on perishable media andthen made a mistake. But the treatment of writingon stone in such cases helps us not only to under-stand the semiology of scribal error (allowing usto detect inscriptions that were rendered invalidor unrelated to subsequent messages), but also tomake sense of the inversion of signs in otherwiseunblemished inscriptions.


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Although unique, the corpus of Zapotec in-scriptions provides us with a telling case: one of thecornerstones that in a secondary use ended up beingplaced in the northeast corner of the basal body ofthe South Platform at Monte Albn (Figure . ).

is megalith is carved on three of its surfaces. Anunfolded view evinces that one surface has a dra -ing of what is rendered on the opposite side. A closecomparison of the two carvings discloses not onlythe process of carving but also the mistake. ecarver began by making the outline of the entireimagery and of the accompanying text. e mis-take was omitting a pair of human footprints in themiddle of the vertically aligned inscription. ereis no doubt that a pragmatic consideration, that is,the ready availability of a large block of stone, nar-

rowed down possible responses. But instead of eras-ing the mistake by chiseling the surface, the scribeused the opposite surface to redo the carving. Yetwe can see that the conguration of the stone couldnot have prevented the scribe from reinscribing themonument by simply turning over the large mega-lith on its own vertical axis. Rather, once the stonewas turned over, the scribe proceeded with the newcarving so that the faulty attempt was inverted inrelation to the nal version. us, the invalidatedinscription ended up upside down, and once the

orthostat was set as a cornerstone, the error washidden from view.ere are two similar examples of carved

orthostats from Building L-sub (D and D ;see Scott ), except that in these instances thecarvings on the opposite sides of the megaliths aredifferent. What may have triggered the rotationof the blocks on both the vertical and horizontalaxes was their reuse at a later time, but it is evidentthat the intent was to leave testimony of the previous messages. A similar process was followed

in the case of the slab that sealed the entrance ofTomb at Monte Albn (see Urcid b: ,g. . ). e stone has three of its surfaces carved,but the inscriptions on each surface display differ-ent orientations. Each time the stone was carved,the preceding inscription was not chiseled away.Rather, the block was simply rotated and carvedon another surface to signal that the previous

textby then turned sidewayscontained anunrelated message.

Since inversion of inscribed surfaces seeminglyalludes to contrasting properties (valid/invalid,distant/near, forward/backward), the semiology ofscribal error provides a hint as to the semantic valueof inverted signs that occur in otherwise uncom-promised texts (Figure . ). In several instancesthe inversion involves glyphic compounds andis partial. For example, some calendrical namesinclude the main sign in customary reading posi-tion, but the bent ends of one of the numeral bars orthe dotsas evinced by the upside-down U-shapednotches within themappear inverted (Figures

. cd). In certain contexts, such inversions likelydisambiguated references made to ancestral beings,

some perhaps more distant than others.Another relevant example includes the invertedheads, at times with closed eyes, inscribed on mostof the orthostats that were reused in the con-struction of the three major architectural phasesof Building J at Monte Albn and whose originalsetting is now lost (Figure . h). Given the semio-logical implications of scribal error, the hypothesisof Alfonso Caso ( ) that these representationscarry the semantic value of death seems substan-tiated. Yet contrary to the pervasive view among

scholars (exceptions are Buigues and Carter), there is no reason to extend metonymicallysuch a value to that of conquest. Considering theinterpretation that has been posited for the earliernarrative program in Building L-sub, one can alsoassume that the visual program originally consti-tuted by these orthostats made a grand statementhonoring dead rulers and high-ranking warriorswho provided their services on behalf of the politycentered at Monte Albn (their demise not beingnecessarily connected with death on the battleeld

or with capture and sacrice). e different attri-butes of the rendered faces, including facial marksand headgear, may index the rank or place of ori-gin of the honored heroes. e inscribed toponymin these orthostats, always the same, appears toname a particular locality at Monte Albn, and thesigns above the hill glyphs and below the invertedheads provide the nominal identity of the deceased


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Surface A Surface B Surface C

Surface A Surface C

rotated 180 gure .An example o scribal error on Monument SP , northeast corner o the South Plat orm at Monte Albn, MuseoNacional de Antropologa, Mexico City. (Drawings by Elbis Domnguez.)

Surface A

Surface A Surface Crotated

Surface B Surface C


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a

b

c

d

e f

g h

gure .Examples o inversion o signs in the Zapotec scribal tradition ( ) (ad: standard and invertedcollocation o numeral bars): a) glyph F ( Owl) carved on the lintel o Tomb A rom Xoxocotlan, presentwhereabouts unknown; b) glyph P ( Xipe) carved on a ceramic vase, unknown provenience, Yale UniversityArt Gallery, New Haven (cat. no. . . ); c) glyph B ( Jaguar) incised on a ceramic cylindrical pedestal,unknown provenience, Museo Amparo, Puebla (cat. no. ); d) glyph ( Ball Court) composed o cut blockscovered with stucco, remnants o a mausoleum associated with the houses o Tombs in Terrace at MonteAlbn, in situ; (e : standard and inverted collocation o glyph J in the personal name Heart-Maize): e) glyphiccompound carved on Monument SP , South Plat orm, Monte Albn, Museo Nacional de Antropologa, MexicoCity; ) glyphic compound carved on Monument SP a, South Plat orm, Monte Albn, Museo de Monte Albn;g) inversion o an entire linear text, Fragments S (top) and S (bottom), South Plat orm, Monte Albn,northeastern and northwestern acades, in situ; and h) inversion o a proled head, inscription on OrthostatJ / , embedded broken and incomplete in a wall rom the second phase o construction o Building J atMonte Albn, in situ. (Drawings by Elbis Domnguez.)

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personages. e narrative, rather than enumerat-ing towns subjugated by Monte Albn or delimit-ing its territorial boundaries, may describe a scoreof local people and those from neighboring com-munities who formed alliances with Monte Albnin the interests of the state.

Conclusion

e macroregional comparison of most of thenow-identied scribal traditions of southwesternMesoamerica evinces both the sharing of com-monalities and the existence of distinct practicesthat were contingent on differences in ethos and varied historical trajectories. We are far away

from disentangling the web of connections in theintricate genealogy of these scribal traditions orthe social processes that led to their prestige and,except for the Later Oaxacan scribal tradition,their eventual extinction. An analysis centered onthe written surface attests to the rich semiologicaldimensions of inscribed materials that go beyondthe contents of the rendered messages, opening awindow into the role that writing played in a hostof culturally constructed notions, including per-formance, place-making, personhood, and the

body. e macrosocial uses of writing inferred thusfar include, in the case of inscriptions anchored tomonumental architecture, claims privileging themonopoly of political power. Although my dis-cussion of carved stones in monumental settingsemphasized their primary context, these monu-ments were also imbued with values and meaningsthroughout their ancient biographies, either as ameans to perpetuate or to disclaim political agen-das. An array of inscribed portable objects dis-played in a variety of nonhousehold settings and of

inscribed mortuary xtures within domestic con-texts was the outcome of a major preoccupation

with reckoning descent, disambiguating groupmembership, and claiming or contesting accessto the means of production and to social positionsthat conveyed knowledge and power. Varieties ofportable objects, some of them miniaturized, wereinscribed to index personal identity and actualor attributed ownership. Other inscribed items,charged with much aesthetic value because of theirmaterials and degrees of cra ing, mediated groupalliances and dyadic agreements, their exchangeaimed at inuencing the involved parties throughcompetitive generosity. Other inscribed objectscontained mantic formulas used as charters forprognostications, and the human skin may havebeen used as another movable prop for convey-ing messages or inuencing inner states of being.

Ultimately, these diverse uses imply that the gen-eral function of writing was to create and per-petuate social memories, with many examples ofinscribed material culture used to promote, inte-grate, and guide a variety of ritual performances.

Acknowledgments

I am most grateful to several foundations for theirsupport in the documentation of inscribed material

culture from southwestern Mesoamerica (in theeld, museums, and private collections) through-out the past three decades, including the SocialScience Research Council ( ), the WennerGren Foundation for Anthropological Research( ), the Foundation for the Advancement ofMesoamerican Studies ( ), and the LatinAmerican and Latino Studies Program at BrandeisUniversity ( ). A special note of grati-tude goes to Elbis Domnguez for cra ing theillustrations included in this chapter. anks also

to Elizabeth Boone for her insightful editorialcomments.


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Set II year bearers refers to the names of theyears drawn from day names (Lightning/Wind),

(Deer), (Soap plant/Grass), and (Earthquake/Motion). Set III year bearers refers to the namesof the years drawn from day names (Owl/House),

(Rabbit), (Reed), and (Flint). Examples of this scribal tradition are discussed by

Taube, this volume, under the rubric of Teotihuacanwriting, and include inscriptions from CerroBernal and Fraccin Mujular, both in Chiapas. eextent of the scribal tradition shown in Figure . isfurther based on inscribed monuments from LpezMateos, Chiapas, and Zanacatepec, Oaxaca.

e reconstruction of the platforms facade shownin Figure . includesfollowing the catalog des-

ignations of Scott ( ) and Urcid ( )stonesD D , D , D , D D , D D , D , D ,D D , D D , D / , D , D / / , D /J , D /WL , D / / , D / , D / ,D , D , D , D / , D , D D ,D , D / , D , D , D , D , D D ,D / , D , I , I , J a, J , J , J , J , J ,J , J , J , J , J , J , J , J J , J , J , J ,J / , J / , J , J , J , J , J , J , K ,K K , M M , M M , N , N , N , N , N / ,N , N , N , N , N , N , N , Q , Q , S , S ,VGE , and VGA . e reconstruction of the struc-

ture atop the platform includes stones D , D ,D , D / / , D , D a, D a, D b, I , J / ,N , and N .

As noted by Elizabeth Boone (personal commu-nication ), the glyphs in these three texts donot consistently face toward or against the read-ing order as they do in the mantic codices or inAztec manuscripts. e closest analogue to suchpeculiarity occurs in the La Mojarra Stela, with itsinward split of image-text along the central verti-cal axis of the monument (cf. Wineld Capitaine

: ). In a sense, the suggested reconstruc-tion of the facade of Building L-sub at Monte Albnexhibits an off-centered outward split between textand image.

For a similar argument applied to the compositearchitectural narrative assembled during the sec-ondary use of the carved orthostats that were even-tually set in the South Platform at Monte Albn, seeUrcid :ch. , b: .

For a discussion of inscriptions in the uie scribaltradition rendered on the walls of a through-cave inthe valley of Coixtlahuaca, see Urcid .

ese inscript ions were origina lly published byJorrn ( :g. a) without much reference totheir context. My visit to Cerro de los Tepalcatesin yielded more glyphs, but I failed to locatethose labeled , , , and in her gure. e GPSreadings that enabled a recording of the spatial dis-tribution of the inscriptions shown here were madeby Arthur Joyce and Peter Kreffes.

Since Zapotec genealogical records found in tombsand mausoleums were o en rendered on a multi-plicity of carved surfaces, the generational sequenceis not straightforward. For a model to ascertain

genealogical sequences based on the identicationof apical ancestors, see Urcid b, b. e pervasive view among scholars is that these

slabs focus primarily on recording marriage alli-ances. Yet there is ample evidence to demonstratethat the genealogical records inscribed on themare framed within imagery that alludes to diverseritual practices besides marriage (Urcid c).

A detailed exegesis of the slab from Tomb atCerro de la Campana and of its larger funeraryand epigraphic context appears in Urcid ,

b: . For detailed commentaries on other

genealogical slabs, see Urcid , , c,c; Urcid and Winter .

For detailed studies of a uie carved slab, aninscribed uie effigy vessel, and a uie-stylenarrative painted in a tomb, see, respectively, Urcid

, b, a. Despite temporal and spatial variations in south-

western Mesoamerica and the central high-lands, the full-bodied graphic representation ofthis alter ego included a zoomorphic face withupturned nasal appendage, a turtle carapace orsectioned serpents body, and a stepped, compos-ite tail. In early colonial native documents, theMixtec wordYahui appears glossed in Spanish asNecromancer (a sorcerer who practiced divi-nation through communication with the dead[i.e., with ancestral spirits]) (Smith : ). eNahuatl word Xiuhcoatl literally means Comet-Serpent or Turquoise-Serpent (Molina [ca. ]: v [Cometa grande que parece gran

N O T E S


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llama], v [Xiuitl]). Among the Mexica, theterm was an epithet for the blue insignia (a dartthrower) of Huitzilopochtli and was also used todesignate the burning dart or torch in the shapeof the serpent with which this war deity slew hissister Coyolxauhqui (Sahagn [ ]: : ).

For an earlier discussion of Talum carved ceram-ics and an illustration of fragments, see Urcid

: and , g. . See Winter and Urcid for a detailed discussion

of a human mandible carved in the uie scribaltradition.

e semiology of a short narrative incised on aceramic cylinder in the Zapotec scribal tradition isdiscussed in Urcid a.

Some grand-scale objects, as argued by Lvi-Strauss, can be construed as miniatures in terms ofthe messages they convey. To him, the paintings inthe Sistine Chapel are small because of their theme(the end of time). In addition, because their physi-cal setting places most viewers at a distance, theimages actually appear smaller.

ere are two other examples of megaliths fromBuilding L-sub (N and N / ; see Scott ) thatwere also carved on opposite surfaces with dif-ferent images and without them being inverted.

e fact that these monuments were intended asorthostats demonstrates that these are not cases ofscribal error but instantiations of later reuses thatpurposefully le evidence of the original carvings.

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