Mayans create Hieroglyphs 50 BCE

Mayan Hieroglyphs

    The Mayans started to use hieroglyphs in 50 BCE.  They were used for many different things.  For example they used them to count, used them in writing, and made a solar calendar with 365 days.  They were able to track the stars and calculate their solar years.  The hieroglyphs were also used for poetry which was used to tell stories.  We now are just starting to be able to decode them.  They are read from top to bottom and left to right making a zigzag shape.  Although the Mayans created hieroglyphs many years after the Egyptians, they were very advanced.

The Importance of the Mayan Hieroglyphs

 The Mayans achievements included inventing a writing system called glyphs.  They were usually painted on ceramics, wrote in books made of bark paper, carved in wood, stone, or stucco.  The paint has gotten worn off after all these years.  People who study hieroglyphs can now read about three-forths of Mayan hieroglyphs.  They also were first to understand the need for the number zero.  Mayan people only used three symbols to count.  A shell was zero, a dot was one, and a horizontal line for five.  Mayan hieroglyphs were usually written in blocked columns two blocks wide.    

  This is how a heiroglyph is read.

 Credits

Bingham, Jane. Encyclopedia of World History. Usborne, 2000.

Bower, Bert. History Alive!. TCI, 2005

Maya Script.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_script. 2007.