Songs by Dzitbalché

The songs of Dzitbalché , Spanish Cantares de Dzitbalché , are a collection of 15 songs or poems that were recorded during the colonial era in the Mayan language Mayathan , but with Latin script .

The name is based on the town of Dzitbalché, Municipio Calkiní , where Ah Bam, one of the village elders, compiled the material in a manuscript in the 18th century. The texts themselves are in the Postclassic the Mayan culture dates back to the year 1440 and are very close to the Maya Principality Ah Canul and Chilam-Balam connected -Manuskripten. In terms of content, the topics of cosmology, philosophy and rituals as well as love are taken up. The manuscript was discovered in 1942 and first published in 1962 by Alfredo Barrera Vásquez in Mexico as El libro de los cantares de Dzitbalché .

The manuscript, along with very few others (e.g. Popol Vuh or Rab'inal Achí ), is one of the Mayan texts that provide an insight into the high culture of the Mayans of the post-classical period before the Conquista , and, like them, is also ethnologically and linguistically from great value for relevant research.

Web links

• The Songs of Dzitbalché (English, Mayathan)
• Dzitbalché en la historia (Spanish)
• Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI) (Spanish, optionally English)
  • Las Cantares de Dzitbalche - Introduction (Spanish)
  • Los Cantares de Dzitbalche - Songs 2, 7, 10 and 11 (Spanish, Mayathan)
  • Los Cantares de Dzitbalche - biography (spanish)
• Songs 4, 5, 7, 12 and 15 (PDF) (Spanish)