Playing cards with Maya Indians, drawn by Viktor Sveshnikov: How and why they appeared in the USSR

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

After Spain conquered America and the powerful Mayan empire finally disappeared, the native language of the Indians was lost, and the researchers had to be content with only incomprehensible ancient texts. However, it was possible to unravel the Mayan code. In honor of this event, unusual playing cards appeared in the USSR, dedicated to the mythology and writing of this ancient and mysterious empire. What connected Soviet citizens with American Indians?

Unraveling ancient glyphs

Before the Spanish was imposed on the Indians, the Maya had a complex writing system that consisted of hundreds of hieroglyphs. These letters adorned temples, household items and clothing.

Deciphering the meaning of these signs (glyphs) proved to be difficult, although many researchers tried to do this for centuries after the Spanish colonial occupation of America. But in the end it succeeded - not only not by the Spaniards, but by the Soviet scientist.

In 1952, after five hundred years of studying ancient symbols by Western specialists, the historian, linguist and ethnographer Yuri Knorozov deciphered most of the Mayan code. And this is despite the fact that the countries of the West and the USSR did not have close relations, which means that the Soviet scientist had difficulties with access to complete information on the Maya.

In 1963, Knorozov published an illustrated hieroglyphic catalog with explanations. He suggested that the writing of the Indians was based not on letters or images, as his colleagues mistakenly thought, but on syllables. Also, the scientist published a scientific work in which he put forward a hypothesis that the Mayan writing can be interpreted in the same way as the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs are deciphered, and in order to understand the ancient language, you need to use phonetic-syllabic reading.

Despite the fact that the scientific work was published during the Cold War between the USSR and the USA and the Soviet scientist acquired in the West not only admirers, but also ill-wishers, the world scientific community is still grateful to Knorozov for the enormous contribution he made to the field of the ancients. languages and writing. Indeed, thanks to its discovery, foreign researchers of the culture of the Indians can now read more than 90% of the Mayan symbols.

Strange deck

In 1975, in honor of such a significant discovery by Yuri Knorozov (for his work he received the State Prize of the USSR), a deck of playing cards was printed in the Soviet Union depicting the iconography of the Maya Indians. Their design was developed by graphic artist Viktor Sveshnikov, who had previously created other famous series of playing cards - for example, decks depicting opera scenes, folk popular prints, and so on.

Maps dedicated to the culture of the Maya people were printed for a very short time (until about the end of the 1980s) and were produced in a limited edition. Now this deck can be found for sale on classified sites eBay, Avito, etc. (of course, usually second-hand). The owners ask for a rarity from 400 to 10 thousand rubles.

Decoding characters on cards

According to Knorozov's conclusions, Maya writing was based on key signs, of which there were about 800. Most often they were in the form of a square or oval, which were often located in groups, which we see on playing cards. Such groups of signs are found in kings (four elements each), and queens (a block of three elements), and jacks (of two).

If we compare drawings on maps and ancient images of Indian gods on ceramics found in the places where the Mayans lived, it can be assumed that the king of the peak could personify a deity named K'ash-shi Chak, who was considered the patron saint of farmers and lumberjacks. Chuck was also considered the lord of the water element. Its recognizable attribute is a torch, which is exactly reflected by Sveshnikov on a playing card.

The Queen of Spades is most likely the famous "Red Goddess", the wife of Chuck, who was one of the creator gods. You can recognize her in ancient images by a ball of snakes on her head, and on Sveshnikov's map she has only one snake on her head.

The king of clubs depicts the god Itzamna (the supreme Mayan deity), and the lady - his wife Ish-Chel, the patroness of healing, motherhood and weaving. On the card, this queen is depicted with two braids. The ancient Maya Indians depicted Ish-Chel also with braids, only usually not with two, but with four.

As for jacks, it can be assumed that they mean four famous brothers (deities-bakabs): Hobnil, Kan-Tsik-Nal, Sak-Kimi and Khosan-Ek. The Maya Indians believed that these mythical characters stand at the four corners of the universe (in fact, these are the four cardinal points) and support the firmament so that it does not fall to the ground.

The ace of spades is the mythical feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl, and the king of hearts is most likely the Queen of Cable (Lady Xoc), wife of Kinich B'Alam II. Cable was the greatest representative of the power of the late classical period of the Mayan era, ruling the state with her husband for more than 20 years (from 672 to 692).

Cable was the military governor of the Wak kingdom and held the title of supreme warrior, which was even higher than that of her husband. On the map, as interpreted by Sveshnikov, in her hands is the ritual Serpent of Vision, which, according to Mayan beliefs, appeared during the religious rite of bloodletting.

It was almost possible to decipher the writing of this ancient people, but The mystery of the Mayan crystal skulls has not yet been solved.