Maya Script : A Civilization and its Writing

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.

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."