Question:
I`ve been hearing alot about Celtic and Aztec art, or what not used in
tattoo creation. Anyone have any advise of where on the net to find this
sort of art? Is there a Celtic and Aztec alphabet and numerals?
Any other interesting art used for tattoo creation? Anyone have any book
reccomendations?
Answer:
- The class is taught at the University of Texas, Austin, I believe, and is
about MAYA writing, rather than AZTEC,though they do overlap quite a bit. I'm
not too sure that a "Rosetta Stone" will be needed. There are modern natives
of Yucatan who still speak the Mayan language (now called Quechua ?) and it
turns out that the Mayan writing is largely phonetic, so we can now "read" some
of the hieroglyphic texts.
The longest such text is on a set of ceremonial steps, but in one of the
Mayan city-state wars, the city where the text was written, lost, and the rival
city then destroyed the steps, or at least jumbled the stones in the
inscription so they can not be read.
As an aside to the Aztec/Mayan theme, someone else recently posted a message
asking about sources for Native American tat design ideas. I posted about the
Haida culture of the Pacific northwest coast as a source, and had forgotten
about a magazine that I had boaught some months ago. The magazine is AMERICAN
INDIAN ART, and is published quarterly ($6-US per issue.) The Spring, 1997
issue has a lot of Haida and Tsimshian stuff in it. There are ads for material
from many different tribes in the issue, so if one checks a good library for
back issues, .... voila ! (The 'zine has been published for 19 years.)
- Ok, this is my semi-informed opinion . "Celtic" actually covers
both a huge area (from Russia to England, and almost every point in
between) and time span. However, when in common usage it usually means
stuff like you'll find The Book of Kells. While there are several
"Celtic" fonts out there, a "Celtic alphabet" would be something like
Ogham (pronounced "owam") Runes. These are a series of straight lines.
A net search will produce both Celtic and Ogham (sometimes spelled Ogam)
sites for you. (Tons and tons, so I'm not going to list 'em here).
Aztec however... The Aztec writing (again, I'm focusing on "common
usage" here) hasn't really been broken. We know what the words for
"born" and "died" are. Some names seem to be deciphered. There's an
incredibly neat class in Texas that gives people who sign up for it, a
chance to play with/explore/interpet the Aztec symbols. While my info
is a little out of date, I'm still pretty sure that the Aztec symbols
are still a mystery. (We need a "Rosetta Stone" for them)
- Never discount traditional sources (ie books). While there are
some absolutely fab. Celtic sites, which I keep losing, your local
university libraries are superbly suited for the purpose of cultural
research. At this point, I make the assumption that you have access to
such libraries. I found the Fine Arts section especially useful. As far
as alphabets go, I believe the Aztecs used a picture based written
language, while the Celts used runes similar to the Vikings. All this
should be in the main stacks of the libraries.
Of course, anybody can find sites for these subjects, I won't object.
- Actually, Insular Majiscule is pretty much what people think of when
they talk about "celtic" writing. It was mostly used in irish and
anglo saxon monastaries (I've seen some Scots examples, but the monastaries
didn't develop there as early as the irish ones). The current irish
alphabet is based on insular magiscule, with some differences in the
letters specific to irish. The Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospel
are probably the best examples of insular majiscule bookhand. In fact,
some anglo saxon texts have their glosses in anglo saxon -- using insular
majiscule with the runes Wyn and Thorn added.