Archaeologists have made a rare turn by confirming that the Mayan book written nearly 900 ago is true. For decades, it was believed that it was a fake. Groliers Code got its name from being exhibited in New York in 1971 at the Grolier Club of Book Lovers. Archaeologist Michael Coe, who arranged his performance in 1971, later described his relatively dubious history in the book.

How they got the Groliers Code

Josué Sáenz, a Mexican collector, obtained the code in 1966 in a particularly fraudulent way. According to Coe's, Sáenz told him that a group of unknown men had offered him a book to buy, along with several other artifacts that had been found "in a dry cave" near the foothills of the Sierra de Chiapas. The sale of this book was conditioned by the fact that Sánéz must never tell anyone about it or show it to anyone. Collectors were fascinated by it. He flew to a distant runway with two experts who called the code a forgery. However, Saenz gathered all his courage and still bought the code. After approving Coue's display in New York, he passed the code to the Mexican government.

There were several good reasons to believe that the Grolier Code had been falsified. One of them was, among other things, a very easy way for Saenz to get it. Unlike the other three findings of the Mayan Codes, the ten pages of the Grolier Code are always described on one side only. In addition, the text of some pages seems to end quite abruptly. There are also strange inconsistencies in the book's calendar system, which may be a trace that the counterfeiter was trying to imitate a calendar player he saw on another Mayan artifact.

The drawings are also unusual with respect to Mayan documents, as they combine the styles of Mesoamerican Mixtecs with Toltec clothing. The Aztecs often celebrated the Toltecs as their ancestors, and their art is similar in many ways, as it was in the later Maya. The results of the carbon dating method placed pages made from tree bark into the late Mayan period. The robbers of monuments knew well that the price of the artifacts found in the ancient Mayan hiding places would rise significantly after the blank pages were filled with false hieroglyphs.

Is the Groliers Code Right?

Currently, Coe and a team of other researchers, along with social science researcher Stephen Houston of Brown University, have again carefully reviewed the Groler Code and they called him the right one. The results of their analyzes, together with a complete exact copy of the code itself, were published in the latest issue of Mayan Archeology. It turned out to be a calendar for a period of 104 years, and also predicts the movements of Venus. The Toltec book influenced a style that was quite common at the time of its creation. This is the late Mayan period when the city of Chichen Itza was built on the Yucatan. The architect in the city combines the influences of the Toltecs with more classic Mayan symbols.

Donna Yates, a professor at Glasgow University, summarizes the new findings of researchers who have been studying the Codex:

• Objections to the calendar in the codex can be explained by alternative functions of the Mayan codices and regional or temporal differences relating to the mythology of Venus.
• The sharp cuts found on the code do not point to modern tools. Rather, these are cracks in the gypsum plaster that was used to prepare the surface of the document
• The process by which figures were placed in the Code confirms the use of sketches and drawing grids. They were also found on Mayan wall paintings displaying calendars
• The Radiocarbon method has determined the code time interval between 1257 ± 110 BC and 1212 ± 40 (this is only the age of the paper, not the age of the drawings themselves)
• No modern pigments were found on the codex, with the exception of parts related to the difficulty of reproducing "Mayan blue".
• The other items allegedly found together with the code turned out to be unadulterated

The book contains images of everyday gods and deities

Houston said:

,, The book contains depictions of ordinary gods and deities. The deities who had to be invoked for the simplest needs of life: the sun, death, K'awiil - the lord, protector and personification of lightning - even though they performed the demands of the 'star' we call Venus. [The Dresden and Madrid Codes] both illuminate a wide range of Mayan gods, but we will find only basic information in the Grolier Code. "

He added that the scribe of the codex was working at a "difficult time" when the Mayan civilization was at the beginning of its decline. However, this scribe expressed aspects of armaments with roots in the prehistoric period - simplified and captured Toltec elements, which were later deployed by artists in Oaxaca and the aging of Mexico.

Researchers say this is an unusual case where the emergence of a "dogma" about the falsity of a code arose simply on the basis of its origin. Even another detailed investigation did not reveal "no smallest detail as false". The Grolier Code is the oldest known book that was created in America. It is an unadulterated record of the astronomical calendar dating back to the late Mayan civilization.

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