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Response to Coggins and Bricker

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael P. Closs
Michael P. Closs*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada KIN 6N5
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Abstract

Coggins and Bricker have accepted my phonetic reading of one version of the north glyph as xaman, "north." Nevertheless, they maintain that the traditional north-south axis in Maya directional symbolism pertains more properly to a zenith-nadir axis. In my response I argue against that position and provide evidence that the cardinal directions played a fundamental role in mesoamerican cosmology. These directions are interpreted in a relatively loose sense as sectors on the horizon and not as cardinal points. In particular, the north direction is viewed as a sector on the horizon centered at a point which is approximately 14 degrees east of north. The evidence includes three independent proofs of the cardinal direction hypothesis. These proofs specifically implicate the four Maya directional glyphs as symbols of the four cardinal directions.

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American Antiquity , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , April 1988, pp. 402 - 411
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1988

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