Mayan script
Ancient logosyllabic system
Mayan script is the writing system used by the ancient Maya civilization of Mesoamerica, one of the few fully developed writing systems created independently in the ancient world.
It combines logograms (symbols representing whole words) with syllabic signs, allowing scribes to write the same word multiple ways.
Mayan script recorded history, astronomy, and ritual on stone monuments, pottery, and bark-paper books called codices.
It was deciphered largely in the late twentieth century after scholars recognized its phonetic elements.
- Long Count calendarMesoamerican system tracking vast epochs
- royal lineageHereditary line of sovereigns
- Dresden CodexMaya screenfold manuscript
- MesoamericaPre-Columbian Central American region
- Yucatan PeninsulaSoutheastern Mexico's Caribbean projection
Mayan scriptLatin alphabet
Standard Western letter system
Greek alphabet · Phoenician alphabet · Roman script · Arabic alphabet · Hebrew alphabet
Mayan scriptLatin script
Western alphabetic writing system
Greek script · Chinese characters · Arabic script · Hebrew script · Latin alphabet
Mayan scriptcuneiform
Stylus-impressed ancient script
Chinese characters · oracle bone script · Egyptian hieroglyphics · Sanskrit · Proto-Sinaitic
Maya, Mayan, Mayas, script, scripts, scripted, scripting, scripture, scriptures