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.