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Although the Maya did not actually write alphabetically, nevertheless he recorded a glossary of Maya sounds and related symbols, which was long dismissed as nonsense (for instance, by leading Mayanist J. E. S. Thompson in his 1950 book Maya Hieroglyphic Writing) [21] but eventually became a key resource in deciphering the Maya script.
The project Text Database and Dictionary of Classic Mayan (abbr. TWKM) promotes research on the writing and language of pre-Hispanic Maya culture.It is housed in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Bonn and was established with funding from the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts. [1]
Mesoamerican scripts deciphered to date are a combination of logographic and syllabic systems. They are often called hieroglyphs due to the iconic shapes of many of the glyphs, a pattern superficially similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs. Fifteen distinct writing systems have been identified in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, many from a single ...
Stuart's early work on the decipherment of Maya writing led to a MacArthur Fellowship in 1984. He is the youngest-ever recipient of that award. His insights into the structure and content of Maya hieroglyphic writing was highlighted in the award-winning documentary film "Breaking the Maya Code" (Night Fire Films, 2008).
Olmec Hieroglyphs, c. 1000 BC – 400 BC, possibly the mother script of Mesoamerica. [8] Thought to be logosyllabic like all of its descendants. Zapotec Hieroglyphs, c. 500 BC – 800 AD, possibly logosyllabic. Ñuiñe Hieroglyphs, c. 400 AD – 800 AD. Similar to Zapotec and possibly an offshoot of it in the Mixteca Baja. Possibly logosyllabic.
In retrospect, Prof. Coe writes that "Yuri Knorozov, a man who was far removed from the Western scientific establishment and who, prior to the late 1980s, never saw a Mayan ruin nor touch[ed] a real Mayan inscription, had nevertheless, against all odds, made possible the modern decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing."
The codex has played a key role in the deciphering of Mayan hieroglyphs. [32] Dresden librarian Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann published the first complete facsimile in 1880. [ 33 ] He deciphered the calendar section of the codex, including the Maya numerals used therein. [ 34 ]
The traditions of indigenous Mesoamerican literature extend back to the oldest-attested forms of early writing in the Mesoamerican region, which date from around the mid-1st millennium BCE. Many of the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica are known to have been literate societies, who produced a number of Mesoamerican writing systems of ...