Because writing systems were widespread across ancient Mesoamerica, the glyphic script of the Maya was not unique, nor was it the first of the area. The Maya script, however, is arguably the most systematic in Mesoamerica, and it is expressed in volumes of more text than all the other systems combined. The syllabic representation of glyphs in the Epi-Olmec script was an important precursor to the writing system that the Maya would adopt. This vase from a tomb at Rio Azul, Guatemala, is exemplary of the glyphic script. Look at the blue circle in the upper rim, immediately beneath the handle. Three separate images are combined to form a single glyph. The comb at left represents "ka"; the fish head in the upper right also stands for "ka"; and the two small objects below the fish head together mean "wa." When read together as one word, it reads "ka-ka-wa," from which the English word for cocoa originates. Chemical sampling confirmed that the vase did contain cacao beans!
National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
Copan took many aspects of Maya culture to the extreme, and its play with writing is no exception. Stele J was built to commemorate the accession of the king named 18 Rabbit in the year 695. Its text also recalls the Copan dynastic founder Yax K'uk' Mo' and the historic turning of the baktun round in the numerical date 9.0.0.0.0, which occurred in the year 435 and soon before the death of that first dynastic king. What is unique about the text on the east side of Stele J, as shown here, is that it is intertwined into a lattice, to create a sort of woven mat out of the text, according to William Fash. This textual "mat" would reinforce the authority of 18 Rabbit to sit upon his own throne mat.
Copan
The Yucatec title for scribe, ah dzib, meant "he of writing." The Maya scribe had a prestigious occupation as the recorder of dynastic and cosmic events. Much of our present corpus of Maya inscriptions comes from stone stelae and ceramic vases, but an important set of texts come from ancient folded books known today as codices. These books were prepared from stretched deer skin or from the pulp of specific tree barks, and each page was coated with a thin stucco plaster on which to paint. Many of the Maya books, which contained texts on ritual, politics, and history, were unfortunately destroyed by Spanish friars who believed that their unreadable script was pagan and therefore diabolical. Only four Maya codices are known today, and their content principally details the workings and rituals associated with the solar (365-day) and sacred (260-day) calendars. This small sculpture shows a noblewoman holding a codex, shut and bound between wooden covers.
National Museum of Anthropology and History
This monkey has much to do with writing. First of all, the small sculpture was discovered at the "House of the Bacabs" in the Las Sepulturas district outside the Copan urban center, a house which may have been occupied by a lineage of prominent scribes. Second, the monkey holds a pen in its right hand and a halved conch shell in its left, with which to hold ink. Third, monkeys are well associated with arts and writing across Mesoamerica, as for instance in Maya vases that depict monkeys writing with pens on paper. And, finally, symbols on this figure can be "read" to spell out the type of supernatural being this represents. The mesh across the brow is pauah, and the stone designs on its shoulders read tun, so combined to mean Pauah Tun, a celestial supporter deity.
Copan Sculpture Museum
While dozens of regional Mayan languages were and are still today spoken across the Maya zone, Ch'ol served as a lingua franca, an international language for writing and administration. The ability to read was a privilege of high social rank, and writing was a skill that was transmitted through very restricted lineages. Other artisans could at least attempt to produce art in the spirit of the written word, and that is an interpretation for the pseudo-glyphs, images that emulate Maya writing but do not seem to actually represent a syllable or word. This intricately etched panel illustrates a profile of K'awiil, the god of political authority, and it was applied to a wall along with similar pseudo-glyph plaques.
National Museum of Anthropology and History
An interesting aspect of writing on Maya vases is the ability of the painted figures to actually interact with the glyphic texts describing the historic events. Here we see a seated ruler on the right side facing a pair of glyphs and touching the lower glyph with the end of his fan. Writing on vases usually appears in toward the upper lip, as in this example, as well as in descending columns. On stone stelae, codices, and other vases, glyphs are typically written in pairs from left to right, then in an up-down sequence.
Amparo Museum
The Dresden Codex is the most famous of the surviving Maya books because of its well-preserved texts and elegant paintings. This codex is especially important for its detailed observations of the lunar cycle, one of the most precise of the ancient world. It also illustrates many gods and goddesses as they preside over major increments in the mythical 260-day calendar. They also appear in mythical episodes depicted across the manuscript.
Popol Vuh Museum