Mayan Writing :: essays research papers

Mayan writing is one of the most beautiful but extremely complex and difficult scripts in the world. It is a system that uses pictographs and phonetic or syllabic elements. The Maya utilise this sophisticated style to carve symbols into stone. The most joint place for writing was the putrefiable books they made from block offk paper, coated with linden tree to devise a fresh white surface. These books were screen-folded and bound with wood and deer hide. They were referred to as codices, however only four re principal(prenominal) today because of their perishable nature and Spanish book burning. The Maya writing system was one of the superior achievements of their civilization.Maya writing also appears on an array of materials and in many places such(prenominal) as carved stone, door lintels, architectural stuccos, painted murals and carved on pottery. The Maya believed events were repeated over cycles of time, they kept detailed histories anchored in time by their calendar s to predict events. By keeping natures of rainy and dry seasons, the Maya could determine the outflank times to plant and harvest crops. They had developed these accurate calendars that could be utilise forprophecy. They also were able to predict planetary cycles, phases of the moon and Venus.The Maya, like all(a) Mesoamerican people, used a vigesimal numbering system. The first 19 numerals were similar to our English terms, with unique numerals from one through ten, and the numerals eleven through nineteen produced by combining one through nine with ten.The symbols used by the Maya to write numbers-bars and dots- were used throughout Mesoamerica. The dot has the value of one, and the bar has the value of five. The Maya be also believed to have the first known conceit of zero. This is represented by the elliptical shell.Symbols known as glyphs were used to record non-numerical information. The Maya used logographs (shorthand symbols) for many more words than we do. Another c lass of glyphs stood for hales that make up words. Mayan words are generally regular in sound structure. Most of the syllables consist of two or three sounds. There are a little over 800 known Maya glyphs. The glyphs usually contain some(prenominal) elements that are combined to give individual glyphs an oval appearance. The largest glyphic element is the main sign. Maya glyphs appear to me as very complicated. Although some are recognizable as pictures of natural objects, others are very unrecognizable and unclear.