Manuscript 'Lost' for 500 Years Reveals Ancient Mexico's Gender-Equality RT.com | |
go to original August 23, 2016 |
Codex of a lost civilisation revealed under 16th Century manuscript (News Video)
A spectacular, ancient document housed in the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford University since the 17th Century has finally been revealed - and the story it tells gives a dazzling insight into Mexican civilizations prior to the arrival of the conquistadores.
The Codex Selden, a pre-colonial manuscript written in about 1560, was donated to the libraries by art collector John Selden in the 1600s. It is one of fewer than 20 Mexican codices surviving from the period prior to Spanish colonization and, through colorful pictures and symbols, describes wars, dynasties, religious beliefs and general culture of the native peoples of the Mixtec region (now Oaxaca).
... Scientists employed the hyperspectral scanning technique, sometimes used by astrophysicists to learn more about planets, to finally get a clear look at the original work. And what they found was spectacular.
The images depict, among other things, a king’s council including both men and women, a prominent individual who is thought to be the ancestor of two major family lines, people wielding spears, females wearing headdresses and place signs for a river.
... That women are represented so frequently and apparently in positions of power suggests a degree of gender-equality rarely seen in societies from this period.
It’s not yet clear exactly how old the original text is, but it certainly dates prior to 1560.
Read the rest at RT.com
Related: Have We Been Misreading a Crucial Maya Codex for Centuries? (National Geographic)
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