According to the article in La Jornada one of the codices is a palimpsest! Under multispectral imaging older erased Aztec text is visible. If anything substantial can be recovered there it may be this should be counted as four new codices.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.jornada.com.mx/2024/03/21/cultura/a03n1cul" rel="nofollow">https://www.jornada.com.mx/2024/03/21/cultura/a03n1cul</a>
> The newly discovered corpus was acquired by the Mexican government from a local family that wants to remain anonymous, but which were not collectors but rather traditional stewards of the cultural legacy of Culhuacan and Iztapalapa<p>It’s fascinating to imagine the journey of these books throughout the years. Kept in a basement somewhere? Passed down from generation to generation for safekeeping?<p>Reminds me of the Sarajevo Haggadah, surviving from the 1300s: <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarajevo_Haggadah" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarajevo_Haggadah</a>
There are remarkably few surviving Aztec codices. Wikipedia lists 39, of which only 3 are possibly pre-hispanic. The new codices all seem to be in the later group, but this is still a substantial increase of the corpus.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_codex" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_codex</a>
I'm sharing my admiration for the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City, one of the best museums in the world. An absolutely astounding collection of history, archaeology, and art. Well presented. Worth a visit to CDMX just for itself. If you ever are in the area plan at least a half day at the MNA; you could spend two full days and not see everything. (Take another day to visit Teotihuacán!)
How many of these are by Aztecs about Aztecs?<p>* "The first is called Map of the Founding of Tetepilco, and is a pictographic map which contains information regarding the foundation of San Andrés Tetepilco ...": San Andrés Tetepilco must have been Spanish, of course.<p>* "The second, the Inventory of the Church of San Andrés Tetepilco ...": Churches would be Spanish.<p>* "Tira of San Andrés Tetepilco, is a pictographic history ... comprising historical information regarding the Tenochtitlan polity from its foundation to the year 1603.": At least it seems to be about Aztecs.<p>Why were the first two books about Spanish topics but written in the local language? If Spanish people writing, wouldn't they write in Spanish? If Aztecs were writing, why would they care to record these things? I suppose the latter is plausible if they were absorbed into Spanish society.
Very nice. Will be interesting to see what comes out of studying these.<p>Semi-related, I still hold out hope for more discoveries of the Isthmian/Epi-Olmec script. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isthmian_script" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isthmian_script</a>
Can someone tell me what an Aztec codex is? I assumed Aztec writing was not on paper but on stone... these seem to be from the colonial period, so are they hybrid cultural forms or what?
It will be interesting to find out why Cortes is depicted as a Roman. Considering the church inventory, it reminds me of the Holy Week processions in Spain where you often see people dressed as roman soldiers.
Before someone asks: No you're not gonna see this in an LLM/ML/AGI anytime soon. The corpus of text is far too small to make the statistical simulation viable.
There's so few surviving because guess what? European colonizers destroyed a bunch for religious reasons.<p>On the Mayan side the destruction rate is well north of 99%. To quote one of the bishops that did a book burning party:<p>"We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they contained nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction."<p>Yeah, because that was their literature, history, science, philosophy ...<p>I'm glad we aren't currently so dedicated to destroying stuff.<p>Hopefully some indigenous scholars managed to stash some in a cave or tomb somewhere 500 years ago and we simply haven't found them yet.