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Cracking the Maya Code
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Program Overview
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NOVA chronicles
the 200-year worldwide quest by linguists, mathematicians, artists, architects,
archeologists, and others to decipher the Maya hieroglyphs.
The program:
describes
where the Maya region is located. recounts the
first documented discovery by an expedition from Spain, in 1785, of tablets
with hieroglyphs. notes that
the complexity of the hieroglyphs presented the greatest obstacle to
deciphering the images. reports that
Alfred Maudslay was the first to photograph the ruins in 1881. relates how
the Maya language faded to obscurity after, in 1562, Bishop Deigo de Landa and
other Spaniards destroyed—for religious reasons—all the Maya texts
he could find. reports on
how one of the first breakthroughs in deciphering the code came in 1810, when a
scholar first determined that some of the glyphs stood for numbers. pieces
together the puzzle of how numerous scientists and laypeople unraveled the mystery
behind the hieroglyphs, including what sound each glyph represented. reports on
present-day efforts to teach the original Maya language to children in the
region.
Taping Rights: Can be used up to one year after program is recorded off the air.
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