Chapter II. THE MAYA HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING 



The inscriptions herein described are found throughout the region 

 formerly occupied by the Maya people (pi. 1), though by far the 

 greater number have been discovered at the southern, or older, sites. 

 This is due in part, at least, to the minor r61e played by sculpture 

 as an independent art among the northern Maya, for in the north 

 architecture gradually absorbed in its decoration the sculptural 

 activity of the people which in the south had been applied in the 

 ^-^ makmg of the hieroglyphic monuments. 



C-^ The materials upon which the Maya glyphs are presented 



a are stone, wood, stucco, bone, shell, metal, plaster, pottery, 



r~-) and fiber-paper; the first-mentioned, however, occurs more 



l__/ frequently than aU of the others combmed. Texts have been 



I) found carved on the wooden Imtels of Tikal, molded in the 



stucco reliefs of Palenque, scratched on shells from Copan and 



a Belize, etched on a bone from Wild Cane Key, British Hon- 

 duras, engraved on metal from Cliichen Itza, drawn on the 

 Fig 9 plaster-covered walls of Kabah, Chichen Itza, and Uxmal, and 

 Outlines painted in fiber-paper books. All of these, however, with the 

 glyphs^ exception of the first and the last (the inscriptions on stone 

 a, b, lu and the fiber-paper books or codices) just mentioned, occur so 

 dices;T rarely that tliey may be dismissed from present consideration, 

 in the Tho stoucs bcaruig inscriptions are found m a variety of 

 uons"^ shapes, the commonest being the monolithic shafts or slabs 

 known as stelse. Some of the shaft-stolse attain a height of 

 twenty-six feet (above ground) ; these are not unlike roughly squared 

 obeUsks, with human figures carved on the obverse and the reverse, 

 and glyphs on the other faces. Slab-stelse, on the other hand, are 

 shorter and most of them bear inscriptions only on the reverse. Fre- 

 quently associated with these stelse are smaller monoHths known as 

 " altars," which vary greatly in size, sliape, and decoration, some bear- 

 ing glyphs and others being without them. 



The foregomg monuments, however, by no means exhaust the list 

 of stone objects that bear hieroglyphs. As an adjunct to architecture 

 inscriptions occur on waU-slabs at Palenque, on lintels at Yaxchilan 

 and Piedras Negras, on steps and stau'ways at Copan, and on piers 

 and architraves at Holactun; and these do not mclude the great 

 number of smaller pieces, as inscribed jad(»s and the like. Most of 

 the glyphs ui the mscriptions are square in outline^ except for lounded 

 corners (fig. 9, c). Those in the codices, on the other hand, approx- 

 imate more nearly in form rhomboids or even ovals (fig. 9, a, h). 

 This difference in outline, however, is only superficial in significance 

 and uivolves no correspoiidmg difference in meaning between other- 

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