Editing Maya script (section)

{{short description|Writing system of the Maya civilization}}
{{hatnote|Since Maya [[glyph]]s can be read either as [[syllable]]s or as [[morpheme|entire words (morphemes)]], this article uses {{sc1|small caps}} to mark morphemic readings and lowercase for syllabic readings.}}
{{Infobox writing system
| sample      = Palenque glyphs-edit1.jpg
| caption     = Maya glyphs were highly complex and often carved into stone.
| type        = [[Logosyllabic]]
| time        = 3rd century BCE to 16th century CE
| languages   = [[Mayan languages]]
| iso15924    = Maya
| unicode     = [https://www.unicode.org/roadmaps/smp/ None<br />(tentative range U+15500–U+159FF)]
| direction   = mixed
}}
{{Maya civilization}}

'''Maya script''', also known as '''Maya glyphs''', is historically the native [[writing system]] of the [[Maya civilization]] of [[Mesoamerica]] and is the only [[Mesoamerican writing system]] that has been substantially deciphered. The earliest inscriptions found which are identifiably Maya date to the 3rd century BCE in [[San Bartolo (Maya site)|San Bartolo]], [[Guatemala]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.sanbartolo.org/science.pdf |title=Early Maya Writing at San Bartolo, Guatemala. |author=Saturno, William A., David Stuart, and Boris Beltrán. |date=2006 |journal=Science|volume=311 |issue=5765 |pages=1281–1283 |doi=10.1126/science.1121745 |pmid=16400112 |bibcode=2006Sci...311.1281S |s2cid=46351994 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/science/10maya.html | work=The New York Times | title=Symbols on the Wall Push Maya Writing Back by Years | date=2006-01-10 | access-date=2010-05-12}}</ref> Maya writing was in continuous use throughout Mesoamerica until the [[Spanish conquest of the Maya]] in the 16th and 17th centuries. Though modern [[Mayan languages]] are almost entirely written using the [[Latin alphabet]] rather than Maya script,{{sfn|Breaking the Maya Code|2008}} there have been recent developments encouraging a revival of the Maya glyph system.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

Maya writing used [[logogram]]s complemented with a set of [[syllabary|syllabic]] [[glyph]]s, somewhat similar in function to modern [[Japanese writing]]. Maya writing was called "hieroglyphics" or [[hieroglyph]]s by early European explorers of the 18th and 19th centuries who found its general appearance reminiscent of [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]], although the two systems are unrelated.