Figure 1.--This little American boy's parents were Mesoamerican scholars. They took David with them on some of their field expeditions. He developed an interest in Mesoamerica, especially the Maya as a boy and went on to play a major role in deciphering Mayan hieroglyphics. Like all little boys, he had a collection of toy cars. Here he is playing with a truck on an important historical site. It is his first childhood memory of Mesoamerica. It was Monte Alban, a major Zapotec site in southern Mexico.

The Maya were Mesoamerica’s only civilization which developed a written language, a system based on Hieroglyphics. The Mayan system of hyroghyphics like that in Egypt was interwoven with religion. Unlike Mesopotamia where writing developed part because of a need for economic record keeping, Mayan hyroghyphics seems much more associated with religious ceremony. Partly as a result, Spanish priests after the conquest set out to destroy these texts and were largely successful (16th century). The texts were written on a kind of paper made from the bark of fig trees and were easily burned. Only a few of these texts called codicies survived. They are named after the European cities with museums that recovered them. The most important is probably the Dresden Codex. Anthropologists in the 19th century who began to study these texts found it difficult to dechipher. They only succeeded after World War II. A Soviet linguist played a major role here working on material looted by the Red Army at the end of the War. Archaeologist George Stuart was interested in the Maya Hieroglyphics. He had a son called David. He took the boy with him on field trips to Maya archaeology sites. The boy became interested in their writing and became a junior archeogist. All the time learning more and more about this unreadable language. Scholars in the West and Communist word had formed different theories about the Maya language. The West thought the images reprecented concepts. The Russian scholars thought the images were phonetric. David eventually made a great discovery that was a break through in reading the Maya hierglyphs. He discovered that sets of images represented the same sound.

Mayan Language

The Maya is a misnomer, there were never one single unified people. They were many nations, probably better described as tribes. They were related by cultures, religions, and languages. There was no one single Mayan language. There were in fact many different languages, many which were related. As many of these languages are lost, it is difficult to tell how closely related they were. Archaeologists believe that only two (some say three) Maya languages were actually written down by a hieroglyphic system. For some time the Ch'olan and possibly the Tzeltalan language were seen as the Mayan languages which were the source of the Mayan Hyroghyphics. A third language, Yucatec, was also mimportant as speakers appear to have adopted the already developed script to write their own language. Mayan Hyroghyphics are further complicated by the fact that at some sites both languages were used. This both confused archaeologists and provided important clues into how Mayan languages have interacted. Some scholars now speculate that the Classic Mayan texts were written not in Ch'olan Mayan, as had been thought, but in a "prestige" language called Classic Ch'olti'an. This would be soimewhat similar to the way scholars used Latin during the European medieval period. Classic Ch'olti'an is believed to be related to the now extinct Ch'olti' language of the Eastern Ch'olan Maya language family. [Houston, Robertson, and Stuart] This prestige language is believed to have been developed in Petén,. It may have been not only used in Mayan writing, but also spoken by elites and priests. One critical advantage that archaeologists had when they began working on deciphering Mayan writing was that Maya was not a dead lanugage when they began to work on the hieroglyphics. While there is no Rosseta Stone, the existence of the Maya speakers was an enormous advantage.

Hieroghyphics

Most modern scholars asert that the Mayan hieroghyphicsare one of the three unique writing systems in the ancient world (the others are Sumerian cuneiform and Chinese ) to be invented independently. All other visual language systems were at least influenced by existing scripts. Here Incam Kipus are too often ignored. The Maya were Mesoamerica’s only civilization which developed a written language. It is a system coomonly described as hieroglyphics because there is superficial resemblance to ancient Egyptian writing, although the two are unrelated. It is the only writing system of the Pre-Columbian World that can completely represent spoken language to the same extent as the written languages of the Old World. The written language expressed the entire sound range of the language. The glyphs came to represent spoken syllables. The hieroghyphics must have begun as pictographsm but over time came to represent actual spoken sounds. Some Andean experts argue that the Inca Kipus encoded much more information than is now understood, but most archaeologist believe that the Mayan sysem was the most sophisticated. colars debate the nature of Mayan writing. One scholar insists that Mayan hieroglyphics should be classified astrue writing because they represent the sounds and structure of spoken language. [Fields] The Mayan system of hieroglyphics like that in Egypt was interwoven with religion. Unlike Mesopotamia where writing developed part because of a need for economic record keeping, Mayan hieroghyphics seems much more associated with religious ceremony. The Maya hieroglypic writing is prthaps the most visually striking of all the world's many varied writing systems and has attracted enormous interest. It is also enormously complicated. Modern students camn be very grateful that they did not have to learn Mayan. There are hundreds of unique signs called glyphs. ThevMaya used depictions of humans, animals, supernaturals, objects as well as abstract designs. These glyphs are both logograms/ideograms (expressing meaning) and syllabograms (phonetic symbol expressing sounds). Of course a knowledge of Maya is critical to decipher the syllabograms. Mayan glyphs can be used to express words, phrases, and sentences. And they do not signal in any way how the glyph is used such as a period in modern writing to signal the end of a sentence.

Social Class

Mayan writing was not for the acerage person. Only members of the upper classes were able to read and write the glyphs. The fact that the glypohs may have been written in a prestige language provides further evidence that only a small strata of society could read the glyphs. We are not entirely sure about just who were trained nor do we know much about Mayan schools.

Mayan Books

The Maya had an extensive literature covering a range of interests about the world in which they lived. Tragically we will never know just vhow extensive their interests were or what they bhad to say. The Maya wrote on a widec variety of materials. They carved inscriptions on stone and wood which were used within architecture. Stone stella were important Maya artifacts. The Maya made Folding books. They folded like fans oir accirdinas (cocertinas) The Maya used fig tree bark and maguey to produce the paper. The volumes were left in royal tombs. The paper was coated with lime to create a fresh white surface on which they could write. The books were screen-folded and finally bound with wood and deer hide. Tragically few Mayan books surviced. The humid environment and zelous Spanish priests destroyed almost all of the books. The books are important because they can contain much more extensive texts than architectural encriptions. Unfortunately, many of these books did not survive the humidity of the tropics. Rectangular lumps of plaster and paint chips are commonly found archaeologists. They are the remains of what remains of books after the organic material has decomposed.

Calendar

The intricate calendar system of the Maya utilized ,any Mayan symbols. It was more elaborate than that of the Aztec, Zapotec, or other Mesoamerican people. It has been extensicely studied. It was extrodinarily accuate. The calendar was based on a series of katuns (cycles) consisting of 20 (or 24), 52, and 260 years. Mayan priests acting as historians recounted their history down for an estimated 13 centuries. This mean that the Maya werecrecording historical information during the European Dark Ages. The completion of each lesser katun was noted by memorial stone placed in the wall of the great temple at Mayapan.

Destruction (16th-17th centuries)

Countless Mayan books were burned by zealous Spanish priests. Spanish priests after the conquest set out to destroy the Mayan books. One factor was that many were connected to Mayan religion. Another factor is the dramatic appearance of many glyphs which decicted terrible looking beings. The priests were convinced that they were the work of the devil. As the priests could not actually read the books, this was probably the most important reason that they were targetted. The texts were written on paper made from the bark of fig trees and maguey and were thus easily burned. And the priests suceeded in destroying almost all of the Mayan books. Bishop Landa publically burned 27 Mayan parchment books at Mani (1562). It was a kind of literary auto-de-fe. Ther were other burnings at various locations. Famed defender of the Indians, Fr. Bartolomé de las Casas lamented the loss. "These books were seen by our clergy, and even I saw part of those which were burned by the monks, apparently because they thought [they] might harm the Indians in matters concerning religion, since at that time they were at the beginning of their conversion." [Las Casas] The Spanish burned many other books when they stormed the Itzá capital (1697).

Codices

Many stone inscriptions survive, mostly from the cities the Maya had abandoned before the Spanish conquest. Only three books survived. They are today called codices. A few pages survive from aof a fourth fourth. These include: Dresden Codex (Astronomy), Madrid Codex, Paris Codex, and Grolier Codex. They are named after the European cities with museums that recovered them. The most important is probably the Dresden Codex.

Post-Conquest Writings

In addition to the pre-Spanish hieroghyphics there are a number of works in the native language by Christianized Maya, shortly after the conquest. These are particularly valuavle because the authors were aware of Mayan culture. Brinton in his "Maya Chronicles" has published these accounts.

Decipering Mayan Hieroglyphics

Anthropologists in the 19th century who began to study these texts found it difficult to dechipher. Scholars over the Mayan glyphs. After laborious study, small bits were deciphered in the late-19th and early-20th century. The easiest proved to be the numbering system. Other bits associated with the calendar and astronomy were also deccipered. Mahor advances, however, did not occur until after World War II. And surprising important advances came from the Sioviet Union--not a country that had exhibitedf muvh interest in Mesoamerican archaeology. Soviet scholars got involved when the sized the Dresden Codex as war booty. Western and Soviet scholars formed different theories about the Maya hieroglyphics. A Soviet linguist played a major role here. This led to major advances in the 1960s and even more in the 70s. Archaeologists and Mesoamerican scholars George and Gene Stuart was interested in the Mayan hieroglyphics. They took their son David with them on field trips to Maya archaeology sites. David Stuart became fascinated by the Mayan writing and became a kind of junior archeogist. All the time learning more and more about the then unreadable language. Western scholars tended to think Masyan glyphs reprecented concepts. The Soviet scholars thought the images were phonetic. David eventually made a great discovery that was a break through in reading the Maya hierglyphs. He discovered that sets of images did indeed represent the same sound. Today scholars can read Mayan texts in their entirety.

Sources

Fields, Virginia M. "Deciphering Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: The State of the Art," Visible Language Vol. 24, No. 1 (Winter 1990), pp. 62-73. Special Issue: "The Origin of Visible Language in the New World."

De las Casas, Fr. Bartolomé.

Houston, Robertson, and Stuart. (2000).

"Cracking The Maya Code," TV documentary.

Created: 7:23 PM 2/5/2010
Last updated: 8:33 AM 6/1/2010