Mayan Script : A Civilization Revealed Through the Signs

By the time Spanish conquistadors arrived in Mexico in the 16th century, the Maya cities had long since fallen into a state of decay and abandonment. Europeans were impressed by the painted books of the Maya but concluded that they did not have a system of writing because no alphabetic value could be given to their script. This impression remained in the West until recently, when researchers finally succeeded in deciphering the written record of the Maya.

Maya Script presents about 200 Maya glyphs, or symbolic figures. Some are ideograms (pictorial symbols representing things, not words); others are phonetic signs. The glyphs express people, animals, ceremonies, and such abstract concepts as death. Each one opens a window onto fragments of everyday life, religious beliefs, or even emotions. The book also features two-color drawings of the glyphs, illustrations from Spanish codices, and examples of Maya sculpture and paintings. Concluding the book is a chapter on writing systems of the world, a list of museums to visit, a bibliography, and an index. Maya Script will be welcomed by anyone who is intrigued by ancient civilizations, including travelers to present-day pre-Columbian areas.

Other Details: 300 2-color and b-w illustrations 180 pages 6-1/2 x 6-1/2"

the Aztec and the Maya peoples believed the end of the world had taken place several times before, and they were living in the fifth creation.

However, the Maya were able to avert the impending danger by studying the calendrical cycles of other planets, whose divine bearers would continue to carry the precious time/sun witness even if the fifty-two-year cycle should end, as they feared.

According to this highly complex system, which the Maya called the "Long Count," the fifth creation in which they believed they were living had begun in 3113 B.C. and would end in A.D. 2012. If we compare this system to our calendar, the Long Count permits us to assign an exact date to the Maya artifacts and monuments.

With the exception of the writing system that we are analyzing in this book, I think no other form of writing could have served Mesoamerican culture, for these peoples did not use writing to communicate with other men, but to link their rulers to the gods, to the sacredness of nature, and to the cosmos. The link was provided by glyphs, which were written in a rich and varied style and represented the subjects they addressed. Although glyphs were also used to express words that had no specific religious meaning, the glyphs nonetheless expressed a sacred nature they were endowed with. Whether written with conceptual or syllabic meanings, as key words or as phonetic signs, these symbols were a link to the sanctity of nature, the cosmos, and the gods.

This would not have been possible with words written using the abstract letters of any alphabet, since letters cannot individually express sacred meaning. Thus Maya writing had as an additional meaning—or perhaps as an essential element—this intimate link to the divine.