Paul Schellhas

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Page 10 from the Codex Dresdensis

Paul Schellhas (born November 16, 1859 in Berlin ; † April 25, 1945 there ) was a German lawyer and Maya researcher.

Life

Schellhas was born in Berlin as the son of the businessman Julius Schellhas. He initially devoted himself to his professional career and took up the profession of lawyer. After studying law and camera studies in Berlin, he received his doctorate in 1884 . At first he worked as a lawyer , then around 1900 he was appointed judge at the Charlottenburg District Court and was a district judge when he retired .

As a part-time job, Schellhas initially dealt with the Egyptian hieroglyphic script , until the Mayan illuminated manuscript stored in the Saxon State Library in Dresden made a lasting impression.

From then on he tried to decipher Mayan script . In this he received significant support from Ernst Förstemann . His outstanding contribution to the topic between 1892 and 1904 was the identification of about 30 Maya gods , which he provided with letters, for example God B for Chaac , God D for Itzamná , God K for K'awiil or Goddess O for Ix Chel , and their names.

Since around 90% of Mayan writing can be interpreted today, Schellhas' assumption that it is ideographic has been refuted as incorrect. However, this in no way diminishes his contribution to research, which, on the contrary, continues to enjoy great recognition as a contribution to the decoding of writing. At an early stage, Schellhas especially recommended the inclusion of texts on grave ceramics and pointed out the possibility of interpreting inscriptions on stone monuments as the proper names of the people depicted. From 1959 this was realized by Heinrich Berlin and Tatiana Proskouriakoff , among others , and later also taken up by Michael D. Coe .

Schellhas was an honorary member of the Washington DC Anthropological Society

He died in 1945 during the fighting in the Battle of Berlin . Today it lies on the war cemetery at the Zehlendorf forest cemetery .

Publications

  • Ideals and Idealism in Law , 1886
  • The gods of the Maya manuscripts: a mythological cultural image from ancient America , Dresden 1897
  • Forensic records , 1900
  • The bankruptcy cases in judicial practice , 1902
  • Broadcasting and Copyright , Berlin 1929
  • The stele 12 by Piedras Negras , in: Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 66, 1934, pp. 416-422
  • Fifty years of Maya research , in: Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 69, 1937, pp. 365–389
  • Deciphering the Mayan hieroglyphs an insoluble problem? , in: Ethnos 10, 1945, pp. 44-53

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz Termer: In memoriam: Paul Schellhas 1859-1945. July 20, 2010, accessed July 23, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Schellhas, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and Maya researcher
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1945
Place of death Berlin