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Mayan Writing System and Culture

The Mayans used their writing system to track time through calendars and the cycles of Venus. Their glyphs recorded astronomical and religious concepts, appearing on stelae erected every five years to commemorate rulers. Early scholars incorrectly believed the glyphs were not phonetic due to not fully understanding Mayan culture and the overlapping nature of the signs. Deciphering the code has revealed that the Mayans had a mixed logographic-syllabic system with a few hundred signs, and inscriptions provided royal titles, dates of events, and descriptions of rulers' lives and titles.

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64 views1 page

Mayan Writing System and Culture

The Mayans used their writing system to track time through calendars and the cycles of Venus. Their glyphs recorded astronomical and religious concepts, appearing on stelae erected every five years to commemorate rulers. Early scholars incorrectly believed the glyphs were not phonetic due to not fully understanding Mayan culture and the overlapping nature of the signs. Deciphering the code has revealed that the Mayans had a mixed logographic-syllabic system with a few hundred signs, and inscriptions provided royal titles, dates of events, and descriptions of rulers' lives and titles.

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Cheung To Man
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Uses of the writing system among the Mayans

- A calendar to mark time


- Tracking the cycles of the planet Venus (warfare)
- focus on time, and that their stelae were built to commemorate its passage. The figures in
their art were priests and gods, and their glyphs were symbols recording the mysteries of
the heavens
-

Preconceptions that delayed the understanding of the writing system


- Thompson: Hieroglyphics were not phonetic, but
- Not fully understanding the culture
- Overlapping of the signs/symbols

What have we learnt about Mayan culture from the decipherment of the code?
-

 Mayan scribes were forced to learn European writings (by Spanish)


 A stelae is placed in front of the temple one every five years
 Life story of a particular ruler
 20 to 35 signs: probably alphabetic, representing simple sounds
 80 to 100 signs, it is probably based on syllables
 several hundred signs, it is surely logographic, or based on signs for whole words.
 Mayan glyphs: limited logographic system, with signs of only a few hundred words
 Palenque’s inscriptions: names of royal title, accompanied with date and a glyph
describing the event
 *Lord Shield
 Phonetic substitutions (one sound is represented by many signs!!!)

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