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History, power and legacy: Another large part of the pre-Columbian literature is found carved into monumental structures such as stelae, altars and temples. This kind of literature typically documents power and heritage, memorize victories, ascension to rulership, dedications of monuments, marriages between royal lineages.
The Cambeba were a populous, organized society in the late pre-Columbian era whose population suffered a steep decline in the early years of the Columbian Exchange. The Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana traversed the Amazon River during the 16th century and reported densely populated regions running hundreds of kilometers along the river.
Fifteen distinct writing systems have been identified in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, many from a single inscription. [2] The limits of archaeological dating methods make it difficult to establish which was the earliest and hence the progenitor from which the others developed.
Pre-Columbian cultures are documented as primarily oral, although the Mayans and Aztecs -- in present-day Mexico and some Central American countries -- for instance, produced elaborate codices. Maya script consisted of complex glyphs describing history, mythologies, etc. The Incas in present-day Peru expressed written records through Quipu.
Throughout the history of Mesoamerica, an unknown number of languages and language families became extinct and left behind no evidence of their existence. What is known about the pre-Columbian history of the Mesoamerican languages is what can be surmised from linguistic, archeological and ethnohistorical evidence. Often, hypotheses concerning ...
Maya codices (sg.: codex) are folding books written by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in Maya hieroglyphic script on Mesoamerican bark paper. The folding books are the products of professional scribes working under the patronage of deities such as the Tonsured Maize God and the Howler Monkey Gods. The codices have been named for the cities ...
During the 19th century, the word 'codex' became popular to designate any pictorial manuscript in the Mesoamerican tradition. In reality, pre-Columbian manuscripts are, strictly speaking, not codices, since the strict librarian usage of the word denotes manuscript books made of vellum, papyrus and other materials besides paper, that have been sewn on one side. [1]
This category is the overall parent category for the prehistory of the Americas, containing sub-categories and articles relating to the era defined as the pre-Columbian era (occasionally also referred to as pre-Hispanic in some contexts).