This website is an HTML version of CMGG, Sim Lee's Classic Maya Glyph Guide (Amsterdam: self-published, 2023-2025), with an accompanying Concordance that gives a visual cross-reference to Thompson, Bonn, and MHD glyph information, including all of their glyphs.

Maya script, also known as Maya glyphs, is historically the native writing system of the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica and is the only Mesoamerican writing system that has been substantially deciphered.

Most scholars accepted the theory that the Mayan writing system was entirely logographic—that is, that each glyph, or sign, represented an entire word. In addition, it was widely believed that the Mayan inscriptions were largely religious in character.

The Maya wrote what we call hieroglyphs (glyphs for short). Their writing is a logosyllabic system in which some signs called logograms represent words or ideas (like “shield” or “jaguar”), while other signs called syllabograms (or phonograms) represent sounds in the form of single syllables (like “pa”, “ma”).

The Maya hieroglyphic script was the only fully-fledged writing system in the Americas. There are over a thousand Maya glyphs known from carved stones, painted murals and ceramics. Most of them are logograms; the rest are phonetic signs. This article will show you how to …

2014年2月12日 · The Maya hieroglyphic writing system was a sophisticated combination of pictographs directly representing objects and ideograms (glyphs) expressing more abstract concepts such as actions, ideas and syllabic sounds. Maya writing has survived on stone carvings, stucco, various manufactured artefacts, and codices.

The Mayan script is logosyllabic combining about 550 logograms (which represent whole words) and 150 syllabograms (which represent syllables). There were also about 100 glyphs representing place names and the names of gods.

Maya glyphs and the ancient Maya language were used in all the cities of the ancient Maya world, including the famous cities of Palenque, Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Quiriquá, Copán and Tikal.

Glyphs from a Maya temple. This limestone lintel was found by A. P. Maudslay in 1882 among the rubble where it had fallen from Structure 12 at Yaxchilán. Eight lintels were housed in this building. Commissioned around 500, they record nine generations of rulers at Yaxchilán and the accession of Mah K’ina Skull II, the tenth king of Yaxchilán.

2024年12月8日 · Maya glyphs are primarily associated with Classic Maya, a language spoken in the Maya region during the Classic Period (250–900 CE). Understanding the phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary of Classic Maya is essential for reading glyphs.