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THE “CANEK MANUSCRIPT” AND OTHER FAKED DOCUMENTS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 1999

Hanns J. Prem
Affiliation:
Seminar für Völkerkunde, Universität Bonn, Römerstrasse 164, D-53117 Bonn, Germany

Abstract

During the last two decades, four manuscripts have surfaced, all purportedly of sixteenth- to eighteenth-century origin and each describing historical episodes of the contact between the Maya and Spaniards. Although some of them received scholarly attention and have been used as authentic sources of Maya history and culture, their identification as modern fakes can be established beyond a reasonable doubt. The texts show characteristics identical to the Spanish translation of Sylvanus G. Morley's The Ancient Maya (1947), and they possess specific information and illustrative material (i.e., Mayan hieroglyphs) that were drawn from this work, indicating that these manuscripts were created between 1950 and 1965.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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