Best products from r/mesoamerica

Some years ago, I wrote a screenplay for a short film about a cursed Aztec sword that was found by a Young man in modern times, and he fought against all kind of monsters and creatures from Mexican folklore and mythology.

This was never filmed, but we took a lot of conceptual pictures, and some friends made a few drawings, we even build a real black macuahuitl.

Using this old drawings (with the approval of the friends who drew it), I finished the prologue of the story, in storybook form. It’s a very short story, and I made it bilingual, so people who knows english or spanish are able to read it.

It has 16 pages with drawings, but the digital version will be free for the rest of the week, so, if someone wants to download it, I’ll add the links on Amazon Mexico and Amazon US (It's free in every marketplace).

Thank you for taking the time to read this, downloading it, and giving me your opinion.

Black Macuahuitl on Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JR4SCMF

Black Macuahuitl on Amazon MX: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B07JR4SCMF

The Tlacochcalcatl picture is actually the best picture you're going to get for instant recognition. Basically whenever you see Tlacaelel portrayed (which isn't often) he's wearing his Tlacochcalcatl costume or a costume that looks somewhat like the dress of a Tlatoani, but the second costume would not set him apart very well. The Tlacochcalcatl costume is significantly more recognizable, and whenever I see it he is the first person I think of.

As for glyphs, the Mexica did not have a fully phonetic writing system, instead they combined pictograms and phonetic writing. It was possible that his name was written in a more "writing-like" form at some point, but unfortunately 99% of the native books were lost to Spanish fires, including every single one from Tenochtitlan, and the majority of the remaining codices are post-conquest, so I can't really think of a better way to represent him than that picture.

Fortunately, we do actually know enough about him to write an entire biography of him! Several of the post-conquest nahua historians, such as Chimalpahin, wrote extensively about his life. Just earlier this year historian Susan Schroeder wrote the book Tlacaelel Remembered: Mastermind of the Aztec Empire. I bought it the day it came out and it is a fantastic book. I would definitely recommend it, it's amazing and rare to have so many details about a precolumbian historical figure.

https://www.amazon.com/Tlacaelel-Remembered-Mastermind-Civilization-American/dp/0806154349

While not specifically about only pre-Colombian Mesoameirica, Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts contains good information about the languages of some of the Central American cultures. Specifically the Mayan and Isthmian scripts. A pretty decent review of the book can be found here.

I'm a believer in using language to tell us more about ancient peoples and their cultures. And this book has been a pretty addition to helping me understand some things.

I would recommend this text for learning Classic Maya. It's a beautifully written resource and is very easy to follow.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0806151218/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519135060&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=translating+maya+hieroglyphs&dpPl=1&dpID=61IbX7hZ77L&ref=plSrch

Last year I did the audio book of Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs

I cannot recommend the book enough. A truly amazing story.

The way it was taught to me in the 70's was basically Cortes hopped off the boat, took a look around and made a beeline for the Aztec capital. Not even close to the real story.

The tale of Cortes marching an army across the volcano is incredible in itself.
I think that feat is Hannibal worthy.

I think a great place to start would be "The Maya" by Michael Coe

and

"Mexico, from the Olmec to the Aztec" By Michael Coe and Rex Koontz.

Both are quite academic in nature though, so if you have trouble with academic writing they may not be the best choices, though they are certainly some of the best background books on Mesoamerica I have found.

Edit: Also, nitpicking, but that would be Maya, as Mayan is an adjective describing things (eg: Mayan Ceramics), and Maya is the name of the people. :)

To be clear, you mean this and this respectively for the examples you gave?

Do you have any other specific recommendations or links?

I second that book, though be aware that there's an error in learning to calculate the calendar dates somewhere. It often (but not always) ended up a day off using the calculations in the book. Extremely frustrating until I emailed the author and he confirmed that it wasn't just me.

Other than that it is a great book. I also recommend Painting the Maya Universe if you find yourself interested in learning what the glyphs on ceramics means.

This book is a better resource then searching without knowing where to start.

Indian Clothing Before Cortes

https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Clothing-Before-Cortes-Mesoamerican/dp/0806122889/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=mexico+clothing+before+cortes

Seconding both of wallaby1986's suggestions (anything by Coe on the Maya is bound to be superb). The Coe and Koontz text is actually a decent starting point for understanding any of the myriad cultures of Mesoamerica.

I'd further recommend "The Olmecs" by Richard Diehl. He's a frequent collaborator with Michael Coe and his book can be seen as a companion piece to Coe's "The Maya."

"Thirding" Wallaby's and Rabbit's suggestions, I'd recommend Arthur Demarest's "Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization".

Well, you chose a complicated subject of study! Maya glyphs are mostly written in classic Cholan, wich is a dead language... so, first you need to have a basic understanding of at least Yukatek (modern) maya, it's the very basic requirement to study maya glyphs.

Once you have the basic understanding on Maya as a language, you can start using this

BEGINNER'S VISUAL CATALOG OF MAYA HIEROGLYPHS by Alexandre Tokovinine

http://www.mesoweb.com/resources/catalog/Tokovinine_Catalog.pdf

And then use a somehow more advanced book like this

https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Maya-Glyphs-Second-Michael/dp/0500285535

Enjoy,

https://www.amazon.com/Shaft-Tombs-Figures-Mexican-Society/dp/0981979998/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474592033&sr=8-1&keywords=christopher+beekman+robert+pickering

Also a catalog is coming out by Pickering and Cheryl Smallwood-Roberts on the shaft tomb figures in the Gilcrease Museum collection. That's going to run $25, but consists of almost as many pages at the above book (240 pages)

I've been looking for something comprehensive also.... not really finding anything.

For the Maya, I'll throw in Lynn Foster's Handbook to Life in the Ancient Maya World https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Life-Ancient-Maya-World/dp/0195183630. Had lunch with her not too long ago and got to pick her brain some. There's another book in the series about the Aztecs by another author but I haven't read it.

I'd start with the work of Mark Zender and Gabby Vail:

https://www.amazon.com/New-Catalog-Maya-Hieroglyphs-One/dp/0806143711 & https://books.google.com.mx/books?id=yEPYU92H0HQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Gabrielle+Vail&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjv-5eV5MLlAhVJKawKHQnEAL4Q6AEIODAC#v=onepage&q=Gabrielle%20Vail&f=false

&

https://books.google.com.mx/books?id=u-23cQAACAAJ&dq=marc+zender&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjIguTE5MLlAhUIIKwKHY6BCX8Q6AEILzAB & https://books.google.com.mx/books?id=f2QsuwEACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%22Marc+Zender%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwic5OfN5MLlAhVHKKwKHUaLCsYQ6AEINjAC