Maya writing
Maya script
by admin on Jan.24, 2012, under Maya writing
An inscription in Maya glyphs from the site of Naranjo, relating to the reign of king Itzamnaaj K’awil, 784-810
The Maya script, also known as Maya glyphs or Maya hieroglyphs, is the writing system of the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica. Presently the only Mesoamerican writing system that has been substantially deciphered, the earliest inscriptions found which are identifiably Maya date to the 3rd century BCE in San Bartolo, Guatemala.[1][2] Writing was in continuous use until shortly after the arrival of the conquistadors in the 16th century CE (and even later in isolated areas such as Tayasal).
Maya writing used logograms complemented by a set of syllabic glyphs, somewhat similar in function to modern Japanese writing. Maya writing was called “hieroglyphics” or hieroglyphs by early European explorers of the 18th and 19th centuries who did not understand it but found its general appearance reminiscent of Egyptian hieroglyphs, to which the Maya writing system is not at all related.
Although most Mayan languages utilize the Latin alphabet, Maya writing is still used and taught in some Maya speaking areas of Mexico where it has received official support and promotion by the Mexican government and is taught in universities and public schools in Mayan speaking areas.
Languages
It is now thought that the codices and other Classic texts were written by scribes, usually members of the Maya priesthood, in a literary form of the Ch’olti’ language. It is possible that the Maya elite spoke this language as a lingua franca over the entire Maya-speaking area, but also that texts were written in other Mayan languages of the Peten and Yucatán, especially Yucatec. There is also some evidence that the script may have been occasionally used to write Mayan languages of the Guatemalan Highlands.[3] However, if other languages were written, they may have been written by Ch’olti scribes, and therefore have Ch’olti elements.
Researchers
Current leaders in the field of interpreting Maya culture and Maya decipherment include many archaeologists, epigraphers, linguists, and art historians. Key names working at present are:
David Stuart at the University of Texas
Dmitri Beliaev, Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow
Diane Chase and Arlen Chase at the University of Central Florida
John Costello, linguist at New York University
Arthur Demarest at Vanderbilt University
William Fash at Harvard University
David Freidel at SMU
Nikolai Grube at the University of Bonn, Germany
Stephen Houston at Brown University
linguists Katherine Josserand (deceased as of 2007) and Nicholas Hopkins
Tom Jones at Humboldt State University
Alfonso Lacadena at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Simon Martin at the University of Pennsylvania Museum
linguist John Robertson at Brigham Young University
Robert Sharer at the University of Pennsylvania
William Sanders of Pennsylvania State University (deceased as of 2008)
Karl Taube at the University of California, Riverside
Dennis Tedlock at the State University of New York at Buffalo
Marc Zender at Harvard, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
linguist Søren Wichmann, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology at Leipzig
and many others, including a growing number of scholars in Latin America, in the nations of the Maya area.
epigrapher Yuriy Polyuhovich, at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
linguist Talakh Viktor at Kiev.
Notes
- ^ K. Kris Hirst (6 January 2006). “Maya Writing Got Early Start”. Science.
- ^ “Symbols on the Wall Push Maya Writing Back by Years”. The New York Times. 2006-01-10. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
- ^ Kettunen and Helmke (2005, p.12)
Bibliography
Coe, Michael D. (1992). Breaking the Maya Code. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05061-9.
Coe, Michael D.; and Mark L Van Stone (2005). Reading the Maya Glyphs. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 9780500285534.
Houston, Stephen D. (1986) (PDF). Problematic Emblem Glyphs: Examples from Altar de Sacrificios, El Chorro, Rio Azul, and Xultun. Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing, 3. (Mesoweb online facsimile ed.). Washington D.C: Center for Maya Research. ISBN B0006EOYNY.
Houston, Stephen D. (1993). Hieroglyphs and History at Dos Pilas: Dynastic Politics of the Classic Maya. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-73855-2.
Kettunen, Harri; and Christophe Helmke (2005) (PDF). Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs. Wayeb and Leiden University. Retrieved 2006-10-10.
Lacadena García-Gallo, Alfonso; and Andrés Ciudad Ruiz (1998). “Reflexiones sobre la estructura política maya clásica”. In Andrés Ciudad Ruiz, Yolanda Fernández Marquínez, José Miguel García Campillo, Maria Josefa Iglesias Ponce de León, Alfonso Lacadena García-Gallo, Luis T. Sanz Castro (eds.). Anatomía de una Civilización: Aproximaciones Interdisciplinarias a la Cultura Maya. Madrid: Sociedad Española de Estudios Mayas. ISBN 84-923545-0-X. (Spanish)
Lebrun, David (2007). Breaking the Maya Code. Los Angeles: Nightfire Films. ASIN B001B2U1BE.
Marcus, Joyce (1976). Emblem and State in the Classic Maya Lowlands: an Epigraphic Approach to Territorial Organization. Dumbarton Oaks Other Titles in Pre-Columbian Studies. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-88402-066-5.
Mathews, Peter (1991). “Classic Maya emblem glyphs”. In T. Patrick Culvert (ed.). Classic Maya Political History: Hieroglyphic and Archaeological Evidence. School of American Research Advanced Seminars. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 19–29. ISBN 0-521-39210-1.
Montgomery, John (2002). Dictionary of Maya Hieroglyphs. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 978-0781808620.
Montgomery, John (2004). How to Read Maya Hieroglyphs (Hippocrene Practical Dictionaries). New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 978-0781810203.
Saturno, William A.; David Stuart, and Boris Beltrán (3 March 2006). “Early Maya writing at San Bartolo, Guatemala” (PDF Science Express republ.). Science 311 (5765): 1281–3. doi:10.1126/science.1121745. PMID 16400112. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
Schele, Linda; and David Freidel (1990). A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 0-688-07456-1.
Schele, Linda; and Mary Ellen Miller (1992) [1986]. Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art. Justin Kerr (photographer) (reprint ed.). New York: George Braziller. ISBN 0-8076-1278-2.
Soustelle, Jacques (1984). The Olmecs: The Oldest Civilization in Mexico. New York: Doubleday and Co. ISBN 0-385-17249-4.
Stuart, David; and Stephen D. Houston (1994). Classic Maya Place Names. Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology Series, 33. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-88402-209-9.
Tedlock, Dennis (2010). 2000 Years of Mayan Literature. California: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23221-1.
Van Stone, Mark L (2010). 2012: Science and Prophecy of the Ancient Maya. California: Tlacaelel Press. ISBN 978-0982682609.
Links
- Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs by Harri Kettunen and Christophe Helmke
- A partial transcription, transliteration, and translation of the Temple of Inscriptions text by Michael D. Carrasco
- A Preliminary Classic Maya-English/English-Classic Maya Vocabulary of Hieroglyphic Readings by Eric Boot
- FAMSI resources on Maya Hieroglyphic writing
- Maya Writing in: Guatemala, Cradle of the Maya Civilization
- Mayaweb: Learn how to write your name in Maya Hieroglyphs
- Nova online – ‘Cracking the Maya Code’
- Wolfgang Gockel’s morphemic interpretation of the glyphs
- Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Program at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
- Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, Volumes 1–9. Published by the Peabody Museum Press and distributed by Harvard University Press
- Talakh Viktor (2011-03-19). “Introduction to hieroglyphic script of the Maya. Manual”. www.bloknot.info. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
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