Book: A Forest of Kings

A Forest of Kings--The Untold Story of The Ancient Maya, by Linda Schele and David Freidel, is a treat to examine.






















The Mayan hieroglyphs constitute the first written history of the New World before the European invasion. The authors have spent considerable time learning to read the hieroglyphs and thus tell us of the way civilization was like in the Americas 2000 years ago.


What interests me is the Mayan language of symbols and how it is used to communicate the legend of their Kings and their Conquests.


We gain an understanding of the structure involved in their monumental statements. Their announcement has four parts--Date of event, the Event, the Actor involved, and "in the land of" location described by an expression.













We could use their system and have our painting contain these four ingredients, in a wide variety of ways, both symbolically and realistically.

We could even use their system of pictograph symbols and tell our story this way.