The Mayan Rabbit Scribe

I first learned about the Mayan Rabbit Scribe backthe Mayan way of life. One, by the name of
in 2000 when my husband and I traveled toEleanor "Bunny" Coates, had been coming to
Guatemala to explore the ruins at Tikal. I hadMayan sites for many years. She told me about
been to several various sites in the past, includingthe Rabbit Scribe.
Chichen-Itza, Tulum and Coba because I've beenI glommed right onto that entity, as I'm a writer
fascinated with the Mayan culture ever since Imyself, and I know what it is like to be the family
was a child. Perhaps I even manifested thesedocumentarian. I know how important the writer
Mayan temple journeys as a teenager whileis - although unsung - in any movie or video
coloring in the drawings of a Mayan-Incan-Aztecproduction you will ever happen to see. Without
coloring book I bought at a second-hand store.the writer, nothing gets written down! Without the
The amount of information that you can findwriter, the memory of an event or series of
about the Mayan culture online or in your localevents loses detail and soon fades into obscurity
library is nothing compared with the facts and loreThe rabbit scribe first appears as part of a scene
you hear from the tour guides onsite.on a painted Classic Maya vase (circa 300 to 900
While visiting Tikal, I learned that the Mayans hadAD), that may have been used to serve a
kept journals of their history and culture, calledchocolate beverage. Scribes conducted the
"codices" most of which were destroyed byimportant business of recording important events
order of a Spanish padre, Father Diego de Landa,for royalty using a phonetically-based hieroglyphic
in a great bonfire in a central Yucatan town calledscript. These rabbit scribes appeared on murals
Mani. The padre believed that the books were theand vases usually writing on a fan-folding book, or
work of the devil and were preventing the"codex," that was covered with jaguar-skin.
Mayans from becoming truly civilized. By his order,Writing was very important to the Maya and they
anyone caught with a codex was summarilyrecorded important events on everything - walls,
tortured and or killed. Only four codices (some ofstairs, sculptures, ceramics, plates and stone.
them partial) have survived.Fortunately, the plan of Padre Diego de Landa to
For generations, as the stelas and other stonecompletely destroy the written history of the
carvings of the Mayans disintegrated, no oneClassic Mayan culture, has been foiled by diligent
could understand what the carvings meant, andarchaeologists who have, over last several
an entire culture was about to be submerged bydecades, been able to decipher many of the
the tides of history until a few archaeologistsMayan glyphs. Dr. David Stuart of the University
figured out the mysteries of the glyphs.of Texas at Austin has been a prominent force in
I met a couple of archaeologists who had comeshining a light on the meaning and impact of
to Tikal to photograph artifacts and carvings.Mayan culture, and continues to make inroads
They had dedicated their lives to understandingwith his fascinating work.