The authenticity of the Grolier Codex, an ancient manuscript considered to be one of the rarest books in the world that was discovery by looters in a cave in Chiapas, has been disputed since its discovery in the 1960s.
However, today, thanks to a painstaking study that was conducted to confirm its authenticity, scientists have officially confirmed that the Grolier Codex is the real deal and that it is the oldest conserved manuscript from Pre-Colombian America.
Professor Stephen Houston, Co-Director of Early Cultures from Brown University; Michael Coe, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology from Yale University; María Miller from Yale University, and; Karl Taube from University of California, Riverside all formed part of the team that was in charge of conducting the study.
The study, which was published in the journal Maya Archeology, “confirms that the manuscript, despite being disputed, is very real. The manuscript was stored in the basement of the National Museum of Art in Mexico City, and its history of full of drama. Looters found it in a cave in Mexico, and a rich Mexican art collector, Josué Sáenz, sent it abroad, before being returned to Mexican authorities,” explain Houston.
For years, academics and specialists debated over the legitimacy of the Grolier Codex. Many were convinced it was a falsification, arguing that there were modern techniques at the time that allowed people to imitate the style and materials used by the ancient Mayans.
According to reports, the codex was found in a cave with six other objects, which included a small wooden mask and a sacrificial dagger with a handle in the shape of a closed human fist. Scientists and historians have confirmed the authenticity of these objects; however, the fact that looters found the objects instead of archeologists put into question their authenticity.
The research team analyzed the manuscript's origins, the nature of its style and iconography, as well as the nature and significance of the Mayan Venus calendar in the codex, they performed carbon dating, and studied how the paper was made.
According the 50-page long transcript of the analysis, the team took into account the questions and criticism on behalf of the scientific community over the last four and a half decades, many of who said that the Grolier Codex differed from the other three known surviving Mayan manuscripts: the Madrid Codex, Dresden Codex, and the Paris Codex.
All of these codices include calendrical and astronomical elements that track the passage of time through celestial beings. And they were used as a tool of prophecy and ritual practice by priests, and helped leaders make decisions such as when to go to war.
The Grolier Codex is a 10-page fragment of the original book, and is painted and decorated with Mayan ritualistic iconography and a calendar that tracks the movement of the planet Venus.
The Venus calendar counts the number of days between the heliacal rising of Venus, or the days on which Venus, the morning star, was visible before the sun rose in the morning. This was vital information for priests, since they used these astronomical phenomena to create rituals and make decisions.