Image Source: Library Thinkquest.Org
The Ancient Maya wrote in a beautiful, highly artistic script. They carved with it, painted with it, and wrote it in in their bark-paper books. But, Bishop Diego de Landa did not share my view of their artistry. To him, the Mayan script was a tool that the devil used to spread heathenism. Consequently, he outlawed the Mayan language and writing. The Maya who disobeyed this law, were arrested and tortured. In 1562, the Bishop burned the Maya’s books; and destroyed much of their history, literature, and traditions in the process (Diego de Landa). Over time, the Maya lost their ability to read the ancient script.
Painting of Bishop Diego de Landa burning Mayan books
Photographed in Mani, Mexico by Keith Walbolt
It was not until the late 1800’s that serious decipherment began. Progress was hampered by the researchers’ preconceived notions. Yet, they were able to decipher the Mayan method for counting and recording dates. Tatanya Proscuriokoff decoded the glyphs for ‘birth’, ‘coronation’, and ‘death’. Then she correlated those glyphs with the stalea at archaeological sites. From this, she was able to read the history of several Mayan rulers.
Other researches added pieces to the puzzle. Uri Valenovich Konorokoff was the first to note that some glyphs represented the sounds of the Mayan language, while other glyphs were actual words. Perhaps the most startling discovery was that of 18-year old, David Stuart. He found that a single phoneme could be represented by many different glyphs. And, that these phonemic glyphs could be combined or merged with other glyphs, of the artist’s choosing. This added an unexpected complexity and flexibility to the script.
When about 80% of the glyphs had been deciphered, the researchers began teaching the modern-day Mayan how to read the ancient script. For the first time in centuries, the Maya could read their own history, in the words of their ancestors.
Image Source: Beryl Gorbman
Most of the information for this post comes from the fascinating documentary, Cracking the Mayan Code. There is much more to the decipherment story then what I have outlined here. For those who want to explore the subject further, the documentary is linked below.
This is so interesting! It completely contradicts the misconception that a written script was absent from Mayan culture (which I was taught in my ancient history class last semester...). As you stated, there are limited artifacts because it was either destroyed or perished (since it was made of organic material). I wonder how much beauty and genius has rotted away in these bark booklets that will always remain a mystery to us. Do you know if the majority of the script is based on characters or phonetics? It seems that characters would be preferred. Otherwise, comprehending would be like Americans trying to understand Beowulf.
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