Commentary Upon the Maya-Tzental Perez Codex with a Concluding Note Upon the Linguistic Problem of the Maya Glyphs   By: William Gates (1863-1940)

Typographical errors in the original have been maintained in this version. They are marked with a [TN ]. A list of the errors is found at the end of the present text.

The following codes are used for characters that are not found in the character set used for this ebook:

["o] LATIN SMALL LETTER O WITH DOUBLE ACUTE ['S] LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S WITH ACUTE

PAPERS OF THE

PEABODY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

VOL. VI. No. 1

COMMENTARY UPON THE MAYA TZENTAL PEREZ CODEX

WITH A CONCLUDING NOTE UPON THE LINGUISTIC PROBLEM OF THE MAYA GLYPHS

BY

WILLIAM E. GATES

PROFESSOR IN SCHOOL OF ANTIQUITY, INTERNATIONAL THEOSOPHICAL HEADQUARTERS, POINT LOMA, CALIFORNIA

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. PUBLISHED BY THE MUSEUM NOVEMBER, 1910

[Illustration]

THE ARYAN THEOSOPHICAL PRESS Point Loma, California

NOTE

In presenting this Commentary on the Codex Perez to students of American Archaeology, the Peabody Museum adds another paper to its series relating to the study of the hieroglyphic writing of the ancient peoples of Mexico and Central America.

The Museum is fortunate in adding to its collaborators Mr. William E. Gates, of Point Loma, California, who for more than ten years has been an earnest student of American hieroglyphs. From his lifelong studies in linguistics in connection with his research in "the motifs of civilizations and cultures," he comes well equipped to take up the difficult and all absorbing study of American hieroglyphic writing. Mr. Gates has materially advanced this study by his reproduction of the glyphs in type. These type forms he has used first in his reproduction of the Codex Perez, and now in this Commentary they are used for the first time in printing. The method used in the construction of this font of type is explained by Mr. Gates in the following pages. This important aid to the study will be highly appreciated by all students of American hieroglyphs, as it will greatly facilitate the presentation of the results of future research.

It will be seen that this Commentary is more in the line of suggestion to be expanded after further studies, than in the way of conclusions.

At the close of the paper the author presents the general deductions he has drawn from his comparative study of languages and cultures. His concluding paragraph forcibly presents the hope that the understanding of the Maya glyphs will furnish new and important data in the life history of man.

F. W. PUTNAM

PEABODY MUSEUM

October, 1910

[Illustration: PEREZ CODEX: PAGE 6]

[Illustration: PEREZ CODEX: PAGE 17]

THE PEREZ CODEX

The Perez Codex was discovered just fifty years ago by Prof. Léon de Rosny, while searching through the Bibliothèque Impériale, Paris, in the hope of bringing to light some documents of interest for the then newly awakened study of Pre Columbian America. It was found by him in a basket among a lot of old papers, black with dust and practically abandoned in a chimney corner. From a few words with the name Perez, written on a torn scrap of paper then around it but since lost, it received its name.