Syllabus: Painted Books of Ancient Mexico

Syllabus: Painted Books of Ancient Mexico

Spring 2013 ANG6224, ANT 4930 Tuesday 3-5th periods, Turlington 1208H

Instructor: Dr. Susan Milbrath, University of Florida Affiliate Professor of Anthropology and Curator of Latin American Art and Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Office hours: after class or Thursdays 11:00 -12:00 110 Dickinson Hall (sign in first at front desk)

Course objectives: This seminar explores Pre-Columbian and early Colonial period codices from Mexico, including painted books created by the Maya in Yucatan, the Mixtecs in Oaxaca, and the Aztecs and Tlaxcalans in Central Mexico. The course of study features Mixtec genealogies recording mythological events and dynastic history, Aztec annals detailing historical events, including references to cataclysmic natural events such as floods and earthquakes, Central Mexican painted books treating the festival calendar and Maya books detailing ritual cycles related to planting, hunting, the seasonal cycle and cosmology. Links to all facsimile codices are available at: [select writing in menu] and

Course requirements: Students will research a selected topic in an individual codex or group of codices. Beginning in the second week of class, graduate students will be assigned articles to read on themes related to their research topic and make informal presentations based on their assigned readings. The course grade for graduate students is based on class presentations (30%), formal lecture at the end of the term (30%), and written paper of 10-20 pages with social science citations and bibliography (40%). This paper will be submitted in initially in draft form and revised for final submission. Undergraduates may take the course under 4930 or as an independent study; they will produce a written paper but be exempted from the formal lecture requirement.

Required Texts:

Heaven and Earth in Ancient Mexico: Astronomy and Seasonal Cycles in the Codex Borgia, Susan Milbrath, University of Texas Press 2013. ISBN9780292743731

The Madrid Codex: New Approaches to Understanding an Ancient Maya Manuscript, Gabrielle Vail and Anthony Aveni, University Press of Colorado 2009. ISBN9780870819391

Facsimile: The Codex Borgia, introduction and commentary by Bruce Byland, Dover 1993.

ISBN486275698

Facsimile: The Codex Nuttall, introduction by Arthur Miller, Dover 1975. ISBN486231682

Class 1Jan 7–Overview ofAncient Mexican Codices, provenience and cultural context. Hands-on codices.

Class 2 Jan 14– Introduction to History in the Aztec Codices from Central Mexico

Assigned: PDF of Boone’s Stories of Red and Black chapter 3 (pp. 28-63) and chapter 8 (pp. 197-237).

Class 3 Jan 21– Introduction to History in the Mixtec Codices from Oaxaca

Assigned: Miller introduction to Codex Nuttall (pp. x-xvii); and PDFs of Boone chapter 5 (pp. 87-124) and Furst’s Codex Vindobonensis, chapter 5 (pp. 129-158);handout:CodexNuttall chronology.

Class 4 Jan 28– Plants and Animals in Mexican Codices

Assigned: Codex Borgia, Byland text for Plates 1-24 (pp. xi-xxi); PDFs: Furst chapter 7 (pp. 197-214), Woolley and Milbrath 2011 (pp. 37-51), Bricker 1991 (pp. 285-292).

Class 5 Feb 4 –Landscape, geography, and the Seasonal Cycles in Mexico

Assigned:The Codex Madrid, Hernández and Bricker chapter 10 (pp. 277-320); PDF: Bricker and Bricker 2011 (pp. 149-162).

Class 6 Feb 11–Ritual and Festival Calendars in Ancient Mexico

Assigned: Heaven and Earth in Ancient Mexico, chapters 1-2 (pp. 1-36)The Codex Madrid, Hernández chapter 11 (pp. 321-366);handout:Aztec Calendar.

Class 7 Feb 18–Parallels in Central Mexican and Maya Codices

Assigned: The Codex Madrid, Vail and Aveni chapter 1 (pp. 1-30); Bricker and Milbrath 2011(pp. 497-531).

Class 8 Feb 25– Solar and lunar Deities in Central Mexico and Maya Parallels

Assigned: Heaven and Earth in Ancient Mexico, chapter 3(pp. 37-69); PDFsofMilbrath1995 (pp. 45-93), Milbrath2000 (pp. 31-54).

SPRING BREAK: March 1-8

Class 9 March 11–Venus Planetary Eventsin the Codex Borgia

Assigned: Heaven and Earth in Ancient Mexico,chapters 4 and 5 (pp. 69-110); Codex Borgia Byland text for Plates 25-76 (pp. xxi-xxxi).

Class 10 March 18– Codex Madrid

Assigned:The Codex Madrid Vail and Aveni chapter 5 (pp. 131-146) and Aveni chapter 6 (pp.147-170)PDF: Vail 2005 (pp.181-211).

Class 11 March 25 – Codex Madrid

Assigned:The Codex Madrid Vail and Bricker chapter 7 (pp.171-214)and Vail chapter 8 (pp. 215-254).

Class 12April 1 – Codex Madrid and Central Highlands

Assigned:The Codex MadridPohl chapter 12, pp. 367-414.

Class 13April 8– Codex Madrid and Archeological parallels

Assigned:The Codex Madrid Paxton chapter 4 (pp. 89-130).

Class 14April 15– Codices as records of natural events in cultural context

draft papers due

Class 15– April 22 Graduate Student presentations

draft papers returned to students; Final papers dueApril 28; Grades Available May 5