By: The Mayan Civilization

This artifact is a Maya Glyph Block made out of stucco. Its origins go back to A.D. 650 Bellote, Mexico in the Mayan Civilization. At first glance, it looks like the face or head of a chameleon attached to that of a human. The eye of the left portion resembles the unique one of a chameleon, darting at a large angle, as does the very head shape. The right portion shares human qualities, such as those of an eye, ear, lips, and nose, as well as accessories such as earrings and a headpiece. In actuality, this artifact is likely a portion of a longer inscription on a building. It is a hieroglyph of the ancient Maya’s intricate written language. It is one of the many written symbols in which Native Americans used to express their ideas and write ancient texts. This writing was expressed on paper in this Native culture, as well as on buildings, monuments, and ceramics.

This one artifact has much to tell about lives of these specific Native Americans. Much of the paper and “written” evidence of Mayan writing was destroyed because 1500s’ Spaniards either banned the reading of the ancient paper texts, or religious zealots burned them. As a result, much of the only remaining evidence was the monuments, buildings, and ceramics upon which the Mayan writing was inscribed. This shows that writing was embedded into this Native American culture. By combining art and architecture with their writing, these Native Americans revealed how intricate and detailed their culture was. The artifact shows that the written word, although seemingly non-existent to foreigners, played a large role in the daily life of Mayan communities. It was present everywhere in their community whether on paper, or on public structures. While it is yet to be translated, the writing likely yielded great importance in relaying rules, stories, and other important ideas in the society for all to see.

This artifact helps to broaden the Narrative about New York City (NYC)/American history in that it revealed the “story” of the people not usually focused when discussing the development of NYC or America. It reveals the ignorance of the very immigrants who later populated the country: they viewed the Native Americans as barbaric. Written language was a key sign of a civilized people to migrating foreigners, but for lack of understanding, foreigners did not realize that the Natives had this. Part of the defense for Manifest Destiny in parts of America was that Natives were not “civilized” people like imposing immigrants themselves. Imposing immigrants did not see the civilized attributes of the Native people and as a result, this view encouraged actions such as the burning of their ancient texts and destruction of livelihood.