Amate bark paper (huun)
Papel de corteza amate (huun)
- Date
- c. century V · confidence low
- Place
- Petén, Guatemala
- Credited to
- Lowland Maya
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Paper made by beating the inner bark of the fig tree with stone beaters, whitened with lime and burnished. It was the support of Maya and Aztec codices.
There are signs of bark beaters from the Preclassic and of paper in the Late Classic; the date of origin has not been fixed.
What it led to
- Maya and Aztec screenfold codices
- paper tribute from peoples subjected to the Mexica
- today's amate folk-art paper