Maya script

<p>Maya script, also known as Maya glyphs, is historically the native <a href="/facts/Writing_system/ABG251A0">writing system</a> of the <a href="/facts/Maya_civilization/JMynpRSR">Maya civilization</a> of <a href="/facts/Mesoamerica/cFjUFklr">Mesoamerica</a> and is the only <a href="/facts/Mesoamerican_writing_system/SGQJgooK">Mesoamerican writing system</a> that has been substantially deciphered. The earliest inscriptions found which are identifiably Maya date to the 3rd century BCE in <a href="/facts/San_Bartolo_(Maya_site)/41TmrpDw">San Bartolo</a>, <a href="/facts/Guatemala/MoMcSnla">Guatemala</a>. Maya writing was in continuous use throughout Mesoamerica until the <a href="/facts/Spanish_conquest_of_the_Maya/MBKdgB5z">Spanish conquest of the Maya</a> in the 16th and 17th centuries. Though modern <a href="/facts/Mayan_languages/5J0QpcLa">Mayan languages</a> are almost entirely written using the <a href="/facts/Latin_alphabet/pqWVHpBz">Latin alphabet</a> rather than Maya script, there have been recent developments encouraging a revival of the Maya glyph system.
</p><p>Maya writing used <a href="/facts/Logogram/wWYAITGc">logograms</a> complemented with a set of <a href="/facts/Syllabary/GCbFXaJ4">syllabic</a> <a href="/facts/Glyph/A7Gesbxj">glyphs</a>, somewhat similar in function to modern <a href="/facts/Japanese_writing/0Jt6VooH">Japanese writing</a>. Maya writing was called "hieroglyphics" or <a href="/facts/Hieroglyph/Tr41pTYA">hieroglyphs</a> by early European explorers of the 18th and 19th centuries who found its general appearance reminiscent of <a href="/facts/Egyptian_hieroglyphs/qXRpprLe">Egyptian hieroglyphs</a>, although the two systems are unrelated.
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Maya script open-in-new

Maya script