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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”
