LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL 



Smithsonian Institution, 

 Bureau of American Ethnology, 



Washington, D. C, January 7, 1914- 



Sir: I have the honor to submit the accompanying manuscript of 

 a memoir ])earing the title ''An Introduction to the Study of the 

 Maya Hieroglyphs," by Sylvanus Griswold Morley, and to recom- 

 mend its publication as a bulletin of the Bureau of American Eth- 

 nology. 



The hieroglyphic writing developed by the Maya of Central America 

 and southern Mexico was probably the foremost intellectual achieve- 

 ment of pre-Columbian times in the New World, and as such it de- 

 serves equal attention with other graphic systems of antiquity. 



The earliest inscriptions now extant probably date from about 

 the beginning of the Christian era, but such is the complexity of the 

 glyphs and subject matter even at this early period, that in order to 

 estimate the age of the system it is necessary to postulate a far greater 

 antiquity for its origin. Indeed all that can be accepted safely in 

 this direction is that many centuries must have elapsed before the 

 Maya hieroglyphic writing could have been developed to the higlily 

 complex stage where we first encounter it. 



The first student to make any progress in deciphering the Maya 

 inscriptions was Prof. Ernst Forstemann, of the Royal Library at 

 Dresden. About 1880 Professor Forstemann published a facsimile 

 reproduction of the Dresden codex, and for the next twenty years 

 devoted the greater part of his time to the elucidation of this manu- 

 script. He it was who first discovered and worked out the ingenious 

 vigesimal system of numeration used by the Maya, and who first 

 pointed out how this system was utilized to record astronomical and 

 chronological facts. In short, his pioneer work made possible all 

 subsequent progress in deciphering Maya texts. 



Curiously enough, about the same time, or a little later (in 1891), 

 another student of the same subject, Mr. J. T. 'Goodman, of Alameda, 

 California, working independently and without knowledge of Pro- 

 fessor Forstemann's researches, also succeeded in deciphering the 

 chronological parts of the Maya texts, and in determining tlie values 

 of the head-variant numerals. Mr. Goodman also perfected some 



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