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Of all the Mesoamerican writing systems, the Maya script was

•Most sophisticated
•Best developed
•Most used

•true writing system
•represented a spoken language

CHOLTI Maya is believed to be

the literary language of the Classic Period.

Developed from or influenced by the

Isthmian Script

•150 BC to AD 400

Maya Hieroglyphic Writing

•Limestone
•Jade
•Obsidian
•Bone
•Shell
•Plaster
•Ceramics
•Bark paper
•Wood
•Textiles

The Maya wrote on

Therefore, texts appear on

•Architecture
•Stone monuments
•Pottery vessels
•Books
•Jewelry
•Other personal things
•All sorts of artifacts
•Clothing / draperies

Maya script was

•Carved
•Incised
•Sculpted
•Molded
•impressed
•Painted

Our best examples of Maya writing
date to the Classic Period.

AD 200-900

The Maya writing system was

Logograph:

A sign that stands for a whole word or for part of a word.

Phonetic:

A system with signs that stand for sounds.

Logophonetic

A logophonetic system is one that uses a combination of
both of these.

Some Maya signs represent complete words;
others represent sounds.

The Maya used a SYLLABIC system.

Their phonetic signs stood for the sounds of syllables.

A combination of a consonant and a vowel

Our alphabet is phonetic.

The Maya system was NOT alphabetic!

ALPHABETIC systems use symbols to stand for a single
sound, commonly called a

Phoneme.

Maya glyphs are read in double columns, from left to right, and
Top to bottom.

Decipherment of the Maya System

Diego de Landa

Bishop of Yucatan, 1549-79

Landa’s “Maya Alphabet”

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•Record keeping

•Histories

•Almanacs

•Mythology

The Maya used their hieroglyphic system for:

FOCUS

Elite lives

•Birth
•Death
•Important events

Calendrical dates

The professional scribe was a skilled
Calligrapher, painting the glyphs on
Books, pottery, walls, etc.

•Maya scribes were from the elite families.

•Kings and their close relatives were scribes.

The chief scribe in the royal household was called

AH K’U HUN

meaning “he of the holy books”

The Scribe was an important and highly respected professional.

The scribes painted glyphs with brushes and
quill or reed pens.

Glyph for
“scribe”

Shell ink pot

There are only 4
Surviving Maya
Codices:

Dresden

Paris

Madrid

Grolier

Name Tagging

Maya named

•Buildings
•Rooms
•Stela
•Pots
•Jewelry
•Everything

“His Ear Flare”

“His Bone”

•Epi-Olmec times

•150 BC to AD 400

•Developed in southern Veracruz?

•Derived from Olmec?

Origin of Maya Writing?

Early Maya Writing

Kaminaljuyu

Early Highland

Maya

Early Lowland Maya Writing

El Mirador

Stela 2

Tikal

Stela 29

A.D. 292