Why do we learn
to write?
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Now a
day almost every boy and girl goes to school to learn how to read
and write. It's a very useful tool to have for it allows us to better
our communication skills through letters, information pamphlets
with other people; we can also read books and news papers to learn
more about what's going on in the world. Writing also helps us organize
and express our thoughts and feelings. The wonderful thing about
it is that it's so simple; all we need is a pencil and a piece of
paper.
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But
it was never this easy. The ancient Mayas didn't have any paper
or pencils or books, nor were children taught how to write. Individuals
who belonged to the nobility, the elite of the Mayan empire were
the ones allowed to write. In addition, when they were to commemorate
special events, they requested specially appointed scribes. And
that is how part of the Mayan history was preserved.
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How did the Mayas write?
The
Mayas did not use letters to write but used drawings. These drawings
are known as hieroglyphs, or just glyphs. In some occasions, we
also use drawings instead of written words. Check out these next
examples:
$
this symbol represents money.
An arrow indicates direction.
A cross almost always represents the church or religion.
A skull with bones represents danger. We sometimes see it on poisonous
contents and it is also a symbol that people who do not know how
to read can understand.
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If
the Mayas wanted to write the word “"jaguar" they
would draw the head of a jaguar. They also had glyphs that would
represent sounds, similar to our letters, however each glyph represented
a syllable, meaning a joining of letters not only a letter. To
write the word "jaguar", we use the letters a, g, j
, r and u. The Mayas would draw three glyphs and each one representing
a syllable like so:
ja + gu + ar
Sometimes the Mayas used the drawing and the symbol of a sound
in a single glyph. It is quite difficult for us to read the Mayan
glyphs. Some drawings, such as the head of the jaguar, are easily
understood, but others are still in search for meaning.
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What did the Mayas write with?
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The ancient Mayas didn't have a pencil or ink, nor workbooks. All
that they would use to write is what they would find in their natural
surrounding. They would make ink out of natural pigments and would
write with paintbrushes. They would use a certain type of paper
that was bleached with lime stone to smoothen it out. They also
didn't have books such as the ones we are familiar with, they used
to fold long pieces of their home-made paper like a note book and
they would use both sides of the page to write on.
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These
Mayan books are known as codices. They contain drawings and texts
written in glyphs of the history of the Mayas, their beliefs and
their way of life. Unfortunately only four codices survived the
colonial conquest and are the sole survive on our planet. Since
they are made out of a fragile type of paper, many were ruined by
the humidity in the weather. In addition, the Spanish conquistadores
burned many of these texts on the premise that they believed these
texts to be diabolic, they limited the Mayan people form reading
these texts as it went against their methods of converting them
to Catholicism. |
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Is it possible to read a ladder???
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One of
the most beautiful constructions of the classical Mayan world is
the Hieroglyphic staircase which is found in the Archaeological
Park of Copan Ruinas. It s a giant pyramid measuring 21 meters
high, with more than 2000 glyphs carved into the stairs. In the
middle of the path way you can see five kings made out of stone.
And at the very bottom you can see a giant head that represents
the opening to the underworld.
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This
staircase was discovered in a terrible state. Half of the stairs
had been eroded and it was near impossible to figure out the order
of their original placement. The first archaeologists began to
re-organize the carved stones but didn t know where exactly to
place them since they were not able to interpret the glyphs, they
simply put the stones in random places. It s a very complicated
and long process for archaeologists, their noble attempts to re-construct
the staircase was futile as it made a nice mess of things.
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How to decipher Mayan hieroglyphs?
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Deconstructing
hieroglyphs is far from easy. Sometimes we could recognize an image
for example the head of the jaguar, but in most cases what seem
to be familiar images that are seen in most glyphs do not have the
meaning that we may think. Nevertheless, in recent years with the
discovery of newer glyphs and meanings archaeologists have been
able to decipher 85% of all the Mayan hieroglyphs!
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of the most important individuals on the understanding of Mayan glyphs
is the Spanish Bishop Diego de Landa who arrived in the Yucatan of
Mexico in 1562; he took a strong interest in understanding and deciphering
the sounds that are represented by each glyph. The problem with this
what that he believed that each glyph represented a letter, similar
to today's language, and so he needed to wait a little longer until
the Russian linguist Yuri Knorosov discovered that these glyphs did
not represent letters but syllables, a conjunction of letters. Unravelling
Mayan hieroglyphs revolves around the comparison of many glyphs to
one another. In some occasions it's a guessing game what they could
possibly mean, by analysing the context or by using other information.
For example, if you were to read the sentence: Today was a hot
day because the XXX was very strong you could imagine which word
would be used to replaces the XXX. |
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Can a child
be an archaeologist?
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David
Stuart is a North-American archaeologist whom since very early in
his life has wanted to study Mayan culture, in part due to the heavy
influence and fascination his parents held to the Mayas. He was too
young to work with his parents out in the field but he loved seeing
the temples covered in mysterious drawings. When he was 10 years old
he was in Coba Mexico where they had just discovered two stelas. His
father, George Stuart, began to draw the glyphs and so would little
David. He would study the piece from all angles until he was able
to decipher certain ones. By the age of 15 David was already recognized
as a specialist in Mayan writing! He was granted a scholarship to
study at university and now, as an adult, he is the director of the
Mayan hieroglyphic department in the museum of Peabody in the United
States. |
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Why is Maya
Chorti barely spoken?
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The
Chorti language is barely spoken in the Copan valley and it is a
shame for it is part of the Mayan culture of Honduras.
The loss of language was due to many factors. Some persons left
their native communities to live in areas where only Spanish is
spoken, with no options of practicing their Chorti. In other cases
the Chorti were oppressed and discriminated, and so were forced
to hide their mother tongue for it was forbidden or they were embarrassed
to show it. The consequences were grave, the language was not conserved.
In other words: Chorti was not taught in schools, parents weren t
teaching their children and the result was that only a few words
were salvaged such as ixchocos (children), mix (cat)
and charco (mud well).
Fortunately enough, now a day there is a lot of interest to take
back this language. Many Chorti are reclaiming their culture, and
almost all rural community schools are being taught the language.
The Mayan glyphs help us understand the language of our ancestors
because many of the Chorti language were used back in the day of
the Mayas. Another excellent reason to protect our monuments!
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Did you know that...
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Deciphering
Mayan glyphs is no easy task; many scientists have made some serious
mistakes. One of the first archaeologists was sure that a glyph represented
elephants, which would be crazy, because the Mayas never even knew
about the elephant's existence! |
The
scribes were the ones in charge of writing the history and successes
of the kingdom. They formed a social class and were very highly
revered. Generally, they were relatives of the Kings and would live
in beautiful houses and would dress quite well.. |
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The scribes
were protected by an array of nahaules , like the rabbit
and monkey. They also had their alloted day in the calendar the Tzolk in,
dedicated to the scribes, the 11th day, el Chuen. |
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