Time Line of Decipherment
Present
Reviving
ancient Maya
Scholars
and the modern Maya can now read the majority of glyphs, like these from Copan.
They understand how the ancient language was spoken compared to modern Maya and
have begun to grasp the lost civilization's traditions by reading the
stories carved on walls and painted on pottery. From these images, they now
know, for example, that early Maya scribes held an exalted status, each living
like royalty and vying to develop his own glyphic style. Though many
traditional Maya scribes today write in the Roman script, there has been a push
since the 1980s among Maya to relearn their forebears' script and use it
themselves. Maya are now teaching the written language to one another in
workshops, while Maya schoolchildren are learning the glyphs along with the
history of their ancestors.