- Editorial:
- FORGOTTEN BOOKS
- Materia:
- Estudios mayas
- ISBN:
- 978-1-60506-860-2
- Páginas:
- 124
MAYA HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING
SIDNEY THOMPSON, JOHN ERIC
The Maya script, also commonly known as Maya hieroglyphs, was the writing system of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, presently the only deciphered Mesoamerican writing system. The earliest inscriptions which are identifiably Maya date to the 3rd century [BC], and writing was in continuous use until shortly after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century [AD] (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 however the Maya writing system is not at all related.
