See the fact file below for more information on the Ancient Mayan or alternatively, you can download our 20-page Ancient Mayan worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment. The Mayans were a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for Maya script, the only known fully developed writing system of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. THE SPANISH CONQUEST AND END OF CIVILIZATION.Download the Ancient Mayan Facts & Worksheets.The de Landa alphabet, as it is known, became the Rosetta Stone for understanding Maya hieroglyphics. So, in an ironic way, the man who wanted to destroy Maya books gave later scholars the first clues to deciphering Maya text. Naturally, the translators gave the glyphs with those phonetic values.
#Mayan glyphs quizlet how to#
When he asked his Maya translators how to write "a", "b", "c", and so forth, in Maya, the translators heard the syllables "ah", "beh", "seh" (as "a", "b," "c". Apparently, de Landa assumed that the Maya, like the Spanish, wrote with an alphabet. When he was writing a book about his life in the Yucatan, he included a very sketchy "summary" of Maya hieroglyphics. Much was destroyed but, fortunately, not everything.Įven though Bishop Landa was set on destroying all the Maya books that he could find, he also created the first alphabetic translation of Maya hieroglyphics. As a result, he set about burning all of the books that could be found. Unfortunately, the first Bishop of Yucatan - the Spanish priest, Diego de Landa - believed the books to be filled with pictures of demons and devils. When the Spanish arrived about 600 years after the Maya civilization had disappeared, they found many Maya codices. Although the Maya wrote everything down, until very, very recently interpreting their writing remained a mystery. The Maya also used hieroglyphics on temple walls and pillars, and they have been found carved into wood and jade, as well as painted onto ceramics. The Maya city of Copan has numerous great examples of stelae with hieroglyphics. Because the first Spanish to the area destroyed so many Maya codices, only 4 in the world remain.įortunately, the Maya also covered their stelae with hieroglyphics. Most of those that did survive were destroyed by the Spanish when they arrived in the 16th century. Because the natural material on which the Maya wrote did not hold up well in the humid rainforest environment, it would have been difficult to preserve such tender texts. Maya books included illustrations and artwork, as well as glyphs. Maya text is written in paired vertical columns and read left to right and top to bottom.
The reader had to unfold them to read them. The Maya treated the bark with lime to whiten the page and make it more smooth.
The books that the Maya created were made of soft tree bark. Maya books were not like the books we have today. However, they also left records of their leaders, their daily life, and their special events. The world of the Maya is one that is filled with demons, devils, gods, and ancestors, so it’s no wonder that the Maya wrote quite a lot about their gods. The word, hiero, comes from the Greek and means “sacred.” So, hieroglyphics basically means “sacred writing.” A glyph is a picture or a symbol that is used to represent a sound, a word, or perhaps a syllable. The writing system the Maya invented was quite complex. Soon, however, they developed a unique style all their own. In the beginning, Maya hieroglyphics used pictures of birds and animals. Hieroglyphics use pictures to represent objects, sounds and groups of sounds. The system they used was a form of hieroglyphics. In order to keep long-term records, not only did the ancient Maya develop their own, unique system of record keeping, the Maya invented the most advanced system of writing in the ancient Americas. By recording the movements of the sky deities (the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars), they developed accurate calendars that they used for prophecy. By keeping records of the rainy and dry seasons, the Maya could determine the best times to plant and harvest their crops. Record keeping was essential to their farming, astronomy and prophecy. Record keeping was an important part of Maya culture. In this lesson, you will look at their writing, or record keeping system. In your last lesson on the Maya, you learned a bit about their cities. Those traits include specialized workers, complex institutions, advanced technology, record keeping, and advanced cities. From your lessons, you should remember that there are 5 traits of civilization.
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