What type of writing did mayans use

Unlike our modern base 10 system, the Maya used a base 20 vigesimal system. The bar-and-dot counting system that is the base of Maya numerals was in use in Mesoamerica by BC; the Maya adopted it by the Late Preclassic, and added the symbol for zero.

This may have been the earliest known occurrence of the idea of an explicit zero worldwide, although it may have been predated by the Babylonian system. The earliest explicit use of zero occurred on Maya monuments is dated to AD.

The Maya script was in use up to the arrival of the Europeans, with its use peaking during the Classic Period. In excess of 10, individual texts have been recovered, mostly inscribed on stone monuments, lintels, stelae and ceramics.

The Maya also produced texts painted on a form of paper manufactured from processed tree-bark generally now known by its Nahuatl-language name amatl used to produce codices. The skill and knowledge of Maya writing persisted among segments of the population right up to the Spanish conquest.

The knowledge was subsequently lost, as a result of the impact of the conquest on Maya society. In an effort to suppress the Maya religion and to forcibly convert the Maya to Christianity, the Catholic Church and colonial officials, notably Bishop Diego de Landa , destroyed Maya texts wherever they found them, and with them the knowledge of Maya writing.

By chance three pre-Columbian books dated to the Postclassic period have been preserved. A few pages survive from a fourth, the Grolier Codex. Archaeology conducted at Maya sites often reveals other fragments, rectangular lumps of plaster and paint chips which were codices; these tantalizing remains are, however, too severely damaged for any inscriptions to have survived, with most of the organic material having decayed. Painted pictures and carvings depict Maya books with jaguar-skin covers, painted by specialized scribes using brushes or quills dipped in conch shell inkpots, but as far as we can tell in the modern day, none of these material artifacts has survived the Spanish conquest or the humid jungle.

Each cartouche contained various glyphs, as well as prefixes and suffixes. There is no Maya alphabet. Maya writing is difficult to interpret for a number of reasons. First, glyphs do not represent just sounds or ideas, they can represent both, making it difficult to know how each glyph or cartouche should be read. In addition, many Maya glyphs can have more than one meaning, and many Maya concepts can be written in more than one way.

Numbers, for example, can be written with Maya numerical symbols or with the picture of a god associated with that number, or a combination of the two. Some glyphs represent more than one phonetic sound, while also representing an idea. This means that a single idea can be written in many different ways. For example, the name of the Palenque ruler, Pacal , whose name literally means "Hand-shield", appears sometimes as a picture of a hand-shield, sometimes phonetically as pa-cal-la, and at other times as a combination of picture symbols and phonetics.

Deciphering Maya texts has become easier with the aid of computers, drawings and the knowledge accumulated over a century of scientific investigation. The hieroglyphic writing of the Maya has not been completely deciphered, however, and can still only be interpreted, rather than read.

To date nearly 85 percent of known Maya hieroglyphics have been decoded. The Maya considered writing to be a sacred gift from the gods. Most ancient Maya could not read, because the knowledge of reading and writing was jealously guarded by a small elite class, who believed that they alone could interact directly with the gods and mediate between the gods and the common people.

Detail from the Tablet of the 96 Glyphs, in the tower of the "Palace" at Palenque. This is considered one of the most beautiful inscriptions ever carved by the Maya. From the very beginning, the Maya used writing as a propaganda tool, rather than as a means of recording accurate details of history. In a hierarchical society where the elite competed for prestige and leadership positions, writing was used to reinforce a ruler's military power and to legitimize his descent from noble ancestors and the gods.

Writings on stone monuments were designed to place rulers in the most favourable light possible, and ancient sculptural inscriptions deal primarily with historical events, marriages, births, military campaigns and victories, rulers and other dynastic affairs. Kukulkan is the feathered serpent deity of the Mayan people. Kukulkan is often associated with — and might be the same deity as — the Aztec Quetzalcoatl.

Kukulkan is associated with rulership, agriculture, language, the sky, and earthquakes. Table of Contents.