How to read Maya glyphs 4018-KON230-CLASS-OG

1. Writing as an invention and its spread worldwide. An overview of different writing systems and how they work. An overview of the Maya civilization.
2. An introduction to the logographic writing. Logographs and syllables. Vowel synharmony and disharmony. Rules of transliteration and transcription.
3. The language of classic Maya inscriptions. An overview of available sources (dictionaries, syllabaries).
4. How the vigesimal (base 20) numeral system works. Maya numerals. Maya calendars: Long Count, Tzolkin, Haab. Distance Numbers.
5. Other calendrical information in classic Maya inscriptions. The correlation of Maya and Gregorian calendars. Available calendar programmes.
6. Predication. The Verb-Object-Subject word order. The verb system of the classic Maya language.
7. Nominal phrases. The names and titles of Maya rulers. Men and women, rulers and subjects in inscriptions. Prepositions and complementizers.
8. History written in glyphs. What the Maya tell us about themselves. The concept of royal divinity. Myths and religion.

Type of course

general courses

Learning outcomes

- knowing the basic terminology of the humanities and social sciences
- knowing and understanding the main methods of analysing and interpreting products of culture in conjunction with tradition
- basic knowledge on the latest achievements of interdisciplinary research methods in the humanities and the social, exact and natural sciences
- knowing the main mechanisms of how language and speech functions in an anthropological, sociological and natural-science context
- knowing the main methods of interpreting literary and philosophical texts and textual historical sources
- selecting and interpreting information from different textual, iconographic and electronic sources
- analysing artistic, philosophical and sociological texts using the appropriate research tools, and presenting the results of such work
- presenting the results of one’s own analysis of research problems in oral, written and multimedia form
- understanding the principles, rules and necessity of group work
- the capacity to organize and work with a group and assume different social roles within it

Assessment criteria

Portfolio of assigned glyphic texts with transliteration, transcription and translation. Presenting one of assigned glyphic texts.

Bibliography

Boot, Erik. 2009. The updated preliminary Classic Maya-English, English-Classic Maya vocabulary of hieroglyphic readings. Mesoweb Resources. .
Coe, Michael D., and Mark Van Stone. 2005. Reading the Maya glyphs. London: Thames & Hudson.
Diccionario Maya Cordemex. 1980. Ediciones Cordemex, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.
Houston, Stephen. 2004. Writing in early Mesoamerica. In: Stephen Houston (ed.). The first writing. Script invention as history and process. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Houston, Stephen, John Robertson, and David Stuart. 2000. “The Language of classic Maya inscriptions”. Current Anthropology.
Kaufman, Terrence. 2003. A preliminary Mayan etymological dictionary. FAMSI. http://www.famsi.org/reports/01051/pmed.pdf.
Kettunen, Harri, and Christophe Helmke. 2011. Introduction to Maya hieroglyphs. 12th edition. XVI European Maya Conference Copenhagen 2011.
Macri, Martha J. 1991. “Prepositions and complementizers in the classic period inscriptions”. In: Sixth Palenque Round Table. Pp. 266-272. Norman University of Oklahoma Press.
Macri, Martha J., and Matthew G. Looper. 2003. The new catalog of Maya hieroglyphs. Volume one. The classic period inscriptions. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman.
Martin, Simon and Nikolai Grube. 2008. Chronicle of the Maya kings and queens. Deciphering the dynasties of the ancient Maya. London: Thames & Hudson.
Miller, Mary and Karl Taube. 2011 [1993]. An illustrated dictionary of the gods and symbols of ancient Mexico and the Maya. London: Thames & Hudson.
Stone, Andrea, and Marc Zender. 2011. Reading Maya art. A hieroglyphic guide to ancient Maya painting and sculpture. London: Thames & Hudson.
Stuart, David. 2011. The order of days. The Maya world and the truth about 2012. New York: Harmony Books.
Tedlock, Dennis. 2010. 2000 years of Mayan literature. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press.

Additional information

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Description of 4018-KON230-CLASS-OG in USOSweb