How Do Scholars Read Maya Hieroglyphs Today?

Modern Maya epigraphy is a sophisticated, multilingual, computer-assisted discipline that brings together the methods of classical philology, comparative linguistics, archaeology, and art history. A new generation of epigraphers — most of them trained in graduate programs at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Calgary, and a small number of European institutions — can read roughly 90 percent of the surviving texts in some form, can read a large fraction of those texts fluently, and is making progress on the rest. The current state of the field is the result of roughly fifty years of work, beginning with the establishment of the phonetic values of the syllabary in the 1970s and continuing through the publication of electronic resources and the systematic application of digital imaging in the 2000s and 2010s.

The page on who first deciphered Maya writing tells the history. The pages on Maya hieroglyphs and the glyph system, the codices and surviving books, and Maya languages from Classic to modern describe the structure of the script and the languages it encoded. The page on Maya writing, language, and books sets the broader context.

The basic methods: drawing, photography, and the corpus

The fundamental method of modern epigraphy is the systematic study of the texts in their original context, in photographs, in hand drawings, and in three-dimensional scans. The Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, published by the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, has been issuing fascicles of hand-drawn, sign-by-sign drawings of the texts of major sites since 1975, and the corpus is the standard reference for the monuments. The PARI (Precolumbia Art Research Institute) journal Mesoweb and the digital resources of the University of Texas at Austin, FAMSI, and a number of other institutions provide online access to thousands of photographs.

The standard procedure for a new monument is to first obtain good photographs in raking light (light that strikes the surface at a low angle to bring out the carved details), then to make a hand drawing of the text block by block, then to identify the individual signs, and finally to produce a phonetic reading and a translation. The procedure is laborious, but it is the only way to recover the details of the script, and the procedure has been refined over the course of generations of fieldwork. The conventions of the corpus are reviewed in detail in the page on who first deciphered Maya writing.

A particular feature of the modern method is the use of three-dimensional scanning and of photogrammetry to recover the details of badly weathered or damaged monuments. The technique has been applied to a number of important monuments at Tikal, the heart of the Classic Maya world, Palenque and the court of Pakal, Copán and the dynasty of the 18-Rabbit, and Calakmul, Caracol, and the Snake kingdom, and the technique has produced important new readings of monuments that were previously unreadable. The convention is reviewed in detail in the page on who first deciphered Maya writing.

The Linda Schele / David Stuart era

The contemporary phase of Maya epigraphy is sometimes said to begin with the work of Linda Schele and David Stuart at the University of Texas at Austin in the 1970s and 1980s. Schele, who had been trained as a painter, brought a new visual sensitivity to the study of the monuments, and her Maya Glyph Dancers (1982) and subsequent works revolutionized the field by demonstrating that the script was fully phonetic and could be read. Stuart, who began as an undergraduate and became one of the most influential epigraphers of his generation, made a number of important contributions to the reading of the script, including the identification of the sign for the Ajaw day and the systematic application of the Isim K’uh convention.

The Schele/Stuart era produced a number of important reference works, including the Maya Cosmos: Myth, Astronomy, and Warfare (1993) by Schele, David Freidel, and Joy Parker; the Codex of Maya History (1990) by Schele and Nikolai Grube; the Maya Vase Book (1997) by Justin Kerr; the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions (1975–) of the Peabody Museum; and a number of important articles in the Texas Notes on Maya Epigraphy and in the Mayab journal. The convention is reviewed in detail in the page on who first deciphered Maya writing.

The era also produced a generation of students who went on to become the leading epigraphers of the next generation. The students of Schele and Stuart at the University of Texas at Austin — including David Mora-Marín, Joel Skidmore, Mark Zender, Christophe Helmke, and Simon Martin — have gone on to make important contributions of their own. The convention is reviewed in the page on who first deciphered Maya writing.

The FAMSI era

The Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies (FAMSI), founded in the early 1990s by the philanthropist William H. Donner Jr. and the archaeologist Sandra Noble, was a major force in the field for the next two decades. The foundation funded a number of important research projects, including the systematic digital imaging of monuments at major sites, the publication of electronic resources for epigraphy and linguistics, and the support of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The foundation also maintained an important website that hosted the Maya Hieroglyphic Database of John Montgomery, a number of important image libraries, and the FAMSI Digital Picture Archive.

The FAMSI era saw a number of important publications, including the Maya Hieroglyphic Database of John Montgomery; the Glyph Digitisation Project; the Codex of Maya History of Schele and Grube; the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions; the Maya Vase Book of Justin Kerr; and a number of important articles in the Latin American Antiquity, Ancient Mesoamerica, and Mayab journals. The foundation was wound down in 2007, but its legacy is still felt in the field. The convention is reviewed in the page on who first deciphered Maya writing.

The current standard reference works

The current standard reference works in the field are, in approximate order of importance:

The Peabody Museum Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, published in fascicles since 1975, is the standard reference for the monuments of major sites.
The Maya Hieroglyphic Database of John Montgomery, hosted by FAMSI, is the standard online reference for the values of individual signs.
The Maya Vase Book of Justin Kerr, now in its eighth volume, is the standard reference for the painted ceramics.
The Codex of Maya History of Schele and Grube is the standard reference for the dynastic history of the major sites.
The Maya Cosmos of Schele, Freidel, and Parker is the standard reference for the cosmology of the inscriptions.
The Maya Decipherment blog of David Stuart is the standard online resource for the current state of the field.
The Mesoweb journal is the standard online resource for new articles and reviews.
The Glyph Digitisation Project is the standard online resource for digital images of the glyphs.

A small number of newer resources are also important. The Foundation for Maya Cultural Heritage, founded in 2008, has become an important source of funding for the field. The Maya Archaeology and Heritage Research Network is an important online resource for new research. The Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages (Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala, or ALMG) is an important source of information on the modern Maya languages, and the Mexican Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) is an important source of information on the monuments of Mexico.

The Tayasal-style reading

A particular feature of modern Maya epigraphy is the so-called Tayasal-style reading, in which an unknown text is read by comparison with a similar text that is already known. The convention is named after the Postclassic Maya town of Tayasal, on the shore of Lake Petén Itzá, where Spanish friars and indigenous assistants translated Christian prayers into the local language in the early colonial period, using a system of glyphs that was, in effect, a “modern” version of the ancient script. The Tayasal-style reading is a useful tool for the modern epigrapher, and the convention is reviewed in detail in the page on who first deciphered Maya writing.

The Tayasal-style reading is not, of course, the only method available. A skilled epigrapher will also use the conventions of inscription, the diagnostic spellings of the Cholan languages, and the iconographic conventions of the monuments to make sense of a difficult text. The conventions of inscription are reviewed in detail on the page on Maya hieroglyphs and the glyph system.

Knotted-string memory devices

A particular feature of the modern Maya tradition is the use of knotted-string memory devices, in which a length of cotton string is knotted in a particular way to record a particular piece of information. The convention is preserved in a number of modern Maya communities, including the K’iche’ of highland Guatemala and the Tzotzil of highland Chiapas. The convention is described in the works of the colonial chroniclers, including the Relación de las cosas de Yucatán of Diego de Landa, and the convention is also attested in the pre-Columbian period by the depiction of similar devices in the painted programs of Bonampak and the Usumacinta.

The knotted-string memory devices are useful for the modern epigrapher in two ways. First, they provide a source of evidence for the conventions of Maya writing, since the conventions of the devices are consistent with the conventions of the inscriptions. Second, they provide a source of evidence for the conventions of Maya calendrical calculation, since the devices were used in part to keep track of the positions of the 260-day Tzolkin and the 365-day Haab’. The conventions of the devices are reviewed in the page on how do Maya temples align with the stars.

Conventions of inscription: the Initial Series and the Distance Number

The conventions of inscription are the most important tool of the modern epigrapher. The conventions are the result of centuries of scribal practice, and they are remarkably consistent across the corpus. The conventions include:

The Initial Series, in which the Long Count position of the date is given, together with the Tzolkin day, the Haab’ day, the Calendar Round, the lunar age, the position of the 780-day cycle, and the position of the 819-day cycle. The Initial Series is the standard opening of a royal inscription.
The Distance Number, in which the number of days between the Initial Series and the event to be recorded is given. The Distance Number is the standard way of linking two events in time.
The Period Ending, in which the completion of a 360-day tun, a 7,200-day k’atun, a 144,000-day b’aktun, or a longer period is recorded. The Period Ending is the standard way of marking the end of a calendrical cycle.
The Supplementary Series, in which the lunar age, the position of the 780-day cycle, and the position of the 819-day cycle are recorded in addition to the Initial Series. The Supplementary Series is a feature of the late Classic period and is found chiefly in the inscriptions of the central Petén.

The conventions of inscription are reviewed in detail on the page on the Long Count and Calendar Round, and the conventions of the calendar are reviewed in detail on the page on the Maya calendar system.

The Isim K’uh and personification

A particular feature of the late Classic period is the Isim K’uh, the “loss of the god’s essence,” a process in which the syllabic signs of a word are spread across the various elements of a glyph block to create a visual pun. The convention is described in detail on the page on Maya hieroglyphs and the glyph system, and the convention is closely related to the personification of syllabic signs, in which a syllable sign is dressed up as a deity or mythological animal.

The Isim K’uh is one of the most distinctive features of the late Classic period, and is the source of much of the visual richness of the monuments. The convention is reviewed in detail in the page on who first deciphered Maya writing.

Current standards and the future of the field

The current standards of the field are, in summary, the following. A new epigrapher is expected to be conversant with the Thompson–Coe–Kelley syllabary; with the conventions of inscription of the major sites; with the comparative phonology of the Cholan languages; with the iconographic conventions of the major sites; and with the conventions of the codices. A new epigrapher is also expected to be conversant with the modern Maya languages, in particular Ch’ol, Chorti’, and Tzeltal, and with the conventions of the modern K’iche’ day-keeper. The standards are reviewed in detail in the page on who first deciphered Maya writing.

The future of the field is bright. The application of new technologies — three-dimensional scanning, photogrammetry, machine learning — is producing new readings of monuments that were previously unreadable. The application of new methods — corpus linguistics, digital imaging, comparative philology — is producing new insights into the conventions of the script. The conventions of the modern Maya day-keeper are providing a new source of evidence for the conventions of the ancient inscriptions. The field is in a period of rapid growth, and the next generation of epigraphers is making important contributions of its own.

Sources

Coe, M. D. & Van Stone, M. (2005). Reading the Maya Glyphs (2nd ed.). Thames & Hudson. — link
Houston, S. D. (2004). The First Writing: Script Invention as History and Process. Cambridge University Press. — link
Martin, S. & Grube, N. (2008). Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens (2nd ed.). Thames & Hudson. — link
Boot, E. (2009). The Updated Preliminary Classic Maya–English / English–Classic Maya Vocabulary of Hieroglyphic Readings. Wayeb. — link
Knorozov, Y. V. (1952). Ancient writing of Central America. Sovetskaya Etnografiya, 3. — [link](https://www.worldcat.org/title/sovet skaia-etnografiia/oclc/60638864)
Proskouriakoff, T. (1971). Commoners in Classic Maya sculpture. In Memoirs of the Peabody Museum vol. 6. Peabody Museum, Harvard. — link