The Book of Mormon & My Maya Travels & Collection

I collect Maya and other ancient American artifact replicas, especially those related to Book of Mormon archaeology, and have created this blogspot to show off some of my collection. I hope my collection may give pleasure to more than myself through sharing. I have also traveled a number of times to the ancient ruins of the Maya Civilization, and will share some of my experiences and insights on this blog, as well as some articles that I have written for publication elsewhere.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Fun Announcement! I received an email today which said, "On behalf of the IBD Awards. We had recently received a nomination for your book, MARK OF THE JAGUAR and have selected it as the Indie Book of the Day Award winner for 11th of September, 2014. As a result, your book is currently featured on our homepage for the entire day today until 8-10 am US CDT the next day. The book has also been added to our winners database (http://indiebookoftheday.com/past-winners/) and a 'for life' feature post has been created, which can be viewed here: http://indiebookoftheday.com/mark-of-the-jaguar-by-mark-f-cheney/ "

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"Dustmop" Mark CheneySeptember 11, 2014 at 2:12 PM
Coming after learning of my book being nominated for a Whitney Award, I am really having a great month so far!
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'MAYAB' - THE WORLD OF THE MAYA

Many fascinating sights and ideas await anyone interested in discovering the world of the ancient Maya ('Mayan' technically refers only to the glyphs and language, of which there are about thirty dialects - each with their own designation, e.g. Kiche' Mayan). The richness of the carvings on the temples and stelae, the variety of the glyphs representing words, places and concepts in the Mayan language and religion, and the magnificence of their architecture with the corbel arch and huge stones. Much more is still to be learned as it is estimated that only 5-10% of the ruins have been uncovered from the jungles of Mexico and Central America. This does not even discuss the various other peoples and cultures that have lived in the Americas in ancient times - the Inca, the Aztecs, the Olmec, Zapotec, Toltec and many others, or in North America the forbears of the more recent Amerind tribes which also have a tapestry of history yet to be unwoven from the myths and remains of a once great population.

Here I will add photographs and videos from my various trips to Mexico and Central America in the mid-90's, and I want to share some artifacts that I have collected, mostly replicas of course, since there are antiquities laws protecting the important evidences of these great, albeit at times brutal civilizations of the past in many countries.

Details of the glyphs on the jaguar haunches.

The Right Shoulder seems to show in simple pictograms, a personage with two legs bending over in obeisance an L- shaped altar. Below the altar are two uterine glyphs that have been known to represent females. So, this first part might be interpreted as "The man worships at the altar of the women or goddesses." Below that might be body parts of legs and an arm (?). Above on the Left Shoulder I would change the word "man" now to "sacrificial victim" because it seems to show the man bent over in obeisance, and this time his head being separated from his torso and falling upon that same L-shaped altar. On both the left and right rear haunches are two goggle-eye symbols which have often been connected to the Rain God Chaac, and on the bottom of the right rear haunch you also see the body and severed head of the victim as though buried under all else. I would be happy to have any suggestions as to other interpretations, and then again it could be just design gibberish to impress a turista! This is one of the favorite pieces of my collection because of those glyphs.

The Book of Mormon & My Maya Travels & Collection

Thursday, September 11, 2014

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Abalone & semi-precious stone mask

Marble Mask with bird