Maya Script - a Civilisation and its Writing

Maria Longhena

ISBN 10: 0789206536 / ISBN 13: 9780789206534

Published by Abbeville Press, New York, 2000

About this Item

Card covers, 180pp inc index with b/w illustrations. Covers have lightest signs of use and a slightly sunned spine. A VG copy. Ref:104044.

Seller Inventory # 004044

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Maya Script - a Civilisation and its Writing
• Publisher: Abbeville Press, New York
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0789206536
• ISBN 13: 9780789206534
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: First English Lang. Edition
• Condition: VG++
• Dust Jacket Condition: N/a

About this title

Synopsis

This volume presents about 200 Maya glyphs (symbolic figures). Some are ideograms (pictorial symbols representing things, not words); others are phonetic signs. The glyphs express people, animals, things, and such abstract concepts as death. Each one opens a window onto fragments of everyday life, religious beliefs, or even emotions. The complexity of the Maya calendar, mathematical computations, and astronomy reveals a highly-developed civilization. This book also features two-colour drawings of the glyphs, illustrations from reliefs and Spanish codices, and examples of Maya sculpture and paintings. Concluding the book is a chapter on writing systems of the New World, a list of museums to visit, a bibliography, and an index of glyphs.

About the Author

Maria Longhena is a scholar of pre-Columbian civilizations and history. Her studies of Maya writings have been published in international journals. She has also participated in such museum exhibitions as "Inca-Peru: 3000 Years of History" and "In Search of the American Past."