“Silent and Alone”: How the Ruins of Palenque Were Taught to Speak the Language of Archaeology

Abstract

By tackling the debates and circulation of information about the ruins found close to Santo Domingo de Palenque (Chiapas), this chapter attempts to analyse the discourse network in which a manuscript wrote in Guatemala circulated in late colonial times was appropriated and transformed. The first part of this chapter focuses on its 1822 translation into English and the path it followed in the European literary circles, including the German translations of 1823 and 1832. The chapter aims at displaying the creation of meanings of Palenque in a world integrated and fragmented by global commerce, journals, books, post, trade routes and languages.