Maya Hieroglyphs, Calendars,
and math
 God
said, “Let there be
light…”
 “I
now pronounce you man
and wife”
 We
hold these truths to be
self-evident that all men are
created equal…
Hatshepsut’s tomb
 What
is a writing system?
 Maya math
 Calendars and time
 Maya hieroglyphs
 Practice exercise
 Break
 Library
 European
languagesalphabetic
 Maya
hieroglyphics
combination of signs that
represent words and
phonetic components
 Living
languages
 Not evolutionary or linear development
Maize god as scribe, K1185
Scribal workshop, K717
Rabbit Scribe, K05
Page from Madrid Codex, almanac
Basics:
 Vigesimal
 Bar-and-dot
 Zero
What do they say?
 Dates
Variants for the
numeric glyphs
 Linear
and cyclical
 Units of time
• K’in
• Uinal
• Tun
• Katun
 Day
names
• Monuments (left)
• Codices (right)
 Calendars
 260
days
 13 days, 20 day
names
• Ex: 12 Ahau
 Ritual
• Codices
• Still in use in some
areas of Maya
highlands
Madrid Codex
 18
months, 20 days
• Ex: 16 Mak
 No coefficient for
20th day- called the
‘seating’
 5 unlucky days at
end = 365 day year
 Agricultural
 Repeating
cycle
of 52, 365 day
years
 Used by
cultures
throughout
Mesoamerica,
not just Maya
• Two dates on
the monument
from Tikal.
• 9 Ahau 13 Pop
• 11 Ets’nab 11
Ch’en
• Victory of Tikal
lord over
Calakmul
Wooden lintel Temple 1, Tikal
 Unique
to Maya
 Linear, based on fixed point
in time
 Allowed rulers to connect
with mythical past
 5 places:
• Ex: 10.4.0.0.0
• 10 bak’tunob (ob is plural), 4
k’atunob, no tunob, no winalob, no
k’inob

ISIG glyph
Left: glyphs for LC
components with
inanimate variants (left)
and animal forms (right)
Right, top: variants of the
ISIG glyph
Right, bottom: example of
LC date


Or not.
There is no evidence the Maya ‘predicted’ that the world
will end in 2012.
 LC composed of 13 cycles,
December 21, 2012 marks
the end of the 13th cycle.
 What have you heard?
 Two Maya monuments
mention this date:
 Stela C at Quirigua
 Monument 6 at Tortuguero
Izapa Stela 25- Milky way?
Flood page, Dresden Codex
 Two
basic types of glyphs
• Syllabic
• Logographic
 How
to write words with glyphs
 Glyph
blocks
 Name
exercise
 Vowels
(pronounced like Spanish vowels)
 Consonants joined to vowels
 All syllables end in vowels
 Ex:
• English word note
 Maya: no+t(o)
• English word noote
 Maya: no+t(i)
 Unique
sounds: glottal stops
• T’o is not toe
 Approximately
250 known
Ma
 Stand
for whole words, usually written in
all caps
 Approximately 500 known
 When glyph looks like word,
called pictogram
 Reading
order ‘general rule of thumb’
• Both individual glyphs and texts read from top left
to lower right
Glyph blocks are collocations of glyphs
 Quick
example
of how a glyph
can be broken
down into
components
Was seated
Was born
 B’ALAM-
jaguar
3
1
4
5
2
 CHAN-
sky
CHAN
CHAN-n(a)
1.
Divide your name into Maya syllables
1. Ex: Anna. A-na
2. Ex: Adam. A-da-m(a)
3. Ex: Antonio. A-n(a)-to-ni-o
2.
3.
4.
Find your syllables in the syllabary
chart.
Choose a main syllable.
Place syllables into the glyph block.
Ex: Ana
Ex: Maria
 Look
at several different pre-Hispanic
and contact period codices