Word and Image in the Maya Court

Writing is a hallmark of Maya civilization. Of the many Mesoamerican societies, from the Olmec to the Aztec, only the Maya developed a complete system of writing that represents the equivalent of speech. With more than five hundred hieroglyphs--phonetic or pictorial signs for sounds or words--Mayan writing long eluded modern attempts at decipherment.

By 1900 the elaborate calendar of the Maya had been deciphered and a correlation between it and the Christian calendar established. Beginning in the 1950s, and especially in the past two decades, scholars have made enormous strides in decoding Mayan glyphs. Much of Mayan writing can now be read, reproducing the sound and syntax of an archaic language no longer spoken today. This writing system saw its highest achievement in the seventh and eighth centuries AD.

The pictorial quality of Mayan glyphs meant that scribes were by necessity artists. Many scribes and artists came from the elite ranks; the specialized skills for the making and inscribing of fine things belonged to particular families and their workshops. Teams of sculptors produced large stone works, while a single artist painted any given Maya pot. Artists sometimes signed their work, as in the case of the "Fleur-de-lis vase."

Although no examples from the first millennium AD survive, books--screenfold manuscripts painted on fig bark paper--were a commonplace; their illustrations may have resembled the finely painted images on ceramics in this gallery. Such flourishing art production required wealthy patrons--not just the king, but warlords, noblemen, and noblewomen.