Maya Glyph Activity

The Maya civilization flourished for over 1000 years in Central America before their decline around 900 CE.  Astoundingly advanced, the Maya are famous to this day for their incredibly accurate astronomy, their magnificent statues and infrastructure, and for their glyph writing system, which encompasses more than 800 known glyphs.  The Maya glyph system is incredibly complex and varied–there is a lot of room for artistic variation.  One name could have multiple potential glyph combinations depending on the scribe’s preference.

When the Conquistadors came to Central America, converted the local populations, and destroyed ancient texts, they rendered the Maya writing system largely a mystery.  However, thanks to surviving texts like the Dresden Codex, our understanding of Maya glyphs and their writing system has significantly improved.  Today over 75% of Maya glyphs are understood, and there’s still more to learn!

Have you ever wanted to write your name in Maya glyphs?

Well, now you can! This activity will teach you how to write your name with Mayan glyphs.

Begin by downloading the Maya Syllabary – this will be an important reference for this activity.

A syllabary is a list of syllables (rather than an alphabet, which is a list of letters).  The Maya Syllabary we use here comes from Writing in Maya Glyphs: Names, Places, and Simple Sentances: A Non-Technical Introduction to Maya Glyphs by Mark Pitts and Lynn Matson. We appreciate Mark Pitts’s permission to use this handy guide for our activity!

 

You can navigate using the menu on the left, or click here to begin!