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S. D. Houston

Author of Maya Glyphs

22+ Works 318 Members 1 Review

About the Author

Includes the names: Stephen Houston, Stephen D. Houston

Works by S. D. Houston

Maya Glyphs (1989) 91 copies
Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea (Peabody Essex Museum) (2010) — Editor and Author — 49 copies
The Classic Maya (2009) 20 copies
A Maya universe in stone (2021) 4 copies

Associated Works

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Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Houston, Stephen D.
Gender
male

Members

Reviews

The second book I've read in this series "Reading the Past" (Egyptian Hieroglyphics was the first). I'm sorry to say Houston doesn't come across nearly as well as Davies as a writer for the lay audience. A big chunk of the early book is about history, but the history of Western attempts to decipher the script rather than its own history - okay, but I have no particular interest in the lives and rivalries of these academics. When he does begin discussing the scripts, it didn't go too well. It's a very complicated system, involving intricate pictures that are combined in clusters to create words, which are themselves arranged in rows. Houston just never spends the time to explain simply how a basic reading goes, by showing you a cluster and breaking it down into parts. The very first example you see, he's making a point about exceptions to the rules and shows a few signs and a reading, but since he's making about three separate points in the same example I couldn't decipher it at all. It's not clear how the transcription relates to the clusters, let alone the individual symbols. As a result I never had a sound basis to follow the further explanations. I didn't expect to come out understanding Mayan writing, but I did hope to come out feeling like I knew how it worked, as I did with the hieroglyphs. Sadly, Davies doesn't pull that off. It's a pretty dry book that doesn't really accomplish its aim, in my view.… (more)
 
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Shimmin | Nov 29, 2013 |

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Associated Authors

James E. Brady Contributing Author
Barbara W. Fash Contributing Author, Contributor
Nicholas Carter Contributing Author
Saint Louis Art Museum Host Institute
Terry Ann Neff Coordination and Editing
Marc Zender Contributing Author
Megan O'Neil Contributing Author
Caitlin Walker Contributing Author
Cassandra Mesick Contributing Author
Victoria Lyall Contributing Author
Luis Alberto Martos López Contributing Author
Michelle Rich Contributing Author
Rafael Cobos Palma Contributing Author
David A. Friedel Contributing Author
Mathew H. Robb Contributing Author
Nathaniel Walker Contributing Author
Mary E. Miller Contributing Author
Peabody Essex Museum Organizer and Host Institute
Heather Irene McKillop Contributing Author
Karl A. Taube Contributing Author
George Schwartz Contributing Author
Simon Martin Contributing Author
David Stuart Contributing Author
James Doyle Contributing Author
Kimbell Art Museum Host Institute
Alfonso de Maria y Campos Contributor Statement
Jaime J. Awe Contributor Statement
Juan Carlos Meléndez Mollinedo Contributor Statement
Dan L. Monroe Foreword
Robert Bagley Contributor
Thomas Devaney Contributor
Sam Smiles Contributor
Timothy Webmoor Contributor
Diane Favro Contributor
Clark Maines Contributor
Michael Shanks Contributor

Statistics

Works
22
Also by
4
Members
318
Popularity
#74,348
Rating
3.9
Reviews
1
ISBNs
28

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