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Scott A. J. Johnson
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Translating Maya Hieroglyphs Paperback – July 17, 2014

by Scott A. J. Johnson (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 64 ratings
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Maya hieroglyphic writing may seem impossibly opaque to beginning students, but scholar Scott A. J. Johnson presents it as a regular and comprehensible system in this engaging, easy-to-follow textbook. The only comprehensive introduction designed specifically for those new to the study, Translating Maya Hieroglyphs uses a hands-on approach to teach learners the current state of Maya epigraphy.

Johnson shows readers step by step how to translate ancient Maya glyphs. He begins by describing how to break down a Mayan text into individual glyphs in the correct reading order, and then explains the different types of glyphs and how they function in the script. Finally, he shows how to systematically convert a Mayan inscription into modern English.

Not simply a reference volume, Translating Maya Hieroglyphs is pedagogically arranged so that it functions as an introductory foreign-language textbook. Chapters cover key topics, including spelling, dates and numbers, basic grammar, and verbs. Formal linguistic information is accessibly explained, while worksheets and exercises complement and reinforce the material covered in the text. Glyph blocks and phrases drawn from actual monuments illustrate the variety and scribal virtuosity of Maya writing.

The Maya writing system has not been fully deciphered. Throughout the text, Johnson outlines and explains the outstanding disputes among Mayanists. At the end of each chapter, he offers sources for further reading. Helpful appendices provide quick reference to vocabulary, glyph meanings, and calendrical data for students undertaking a translation.

The study of Maya glyphs has long been an arcane subject known only to a few specialists. This book will change that. Taking advantage of the great strides scholars have made in deciphering hieroglyphs in the past four decades, Translating Maya Hieroglyphs brings this knowledge to a broader audience, including archaeologists and budding epigraphers.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    408 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of Oklahoma Press
  4. Publication date
    July 17, 2014
  5. Dimensions
    8.5 x 0.84 x 11 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0806151218
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0806151212
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“This long-overdue, richly illustrated introduction to the beauty and complexity of Maya script will be a welcome resource to students and scholars alike. Scott A. J. Johnson provides not only a valuable teaching tool but a way to bring archaeologists, linguists, and historians of the Maya up to date on the many advances made in understanding Maya texts over recent decades.”Martha Macri, coeditor of The New Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphs: The Codical Texts

About the Author

Scott A. Johnson is Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of several articles and book chapters on Maya archaeology and epigraphy.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Oklahoma Press; First Edition (July 17, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 408 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0806151218
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0806151212
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.54 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 0.84 x 11 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 64 ratings

About the author

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Scott A. J. Johnson

Scott A. J. Johnson

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Scott A. J. Johnson was born in Bemidji, Minnesota. He earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Tulane University in 2012. Aside from archaeological pursuits, Scott enjoys a good cup of tea, reading, bicycling, hiking, aikido, and spending time with his wife and dog.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
64 global ratings
Bad misprint
2 Stars
Bad misprint
I was very confused with my order I dont know what happened with this book. I must have gotten a really bad misprint as the contents of the book was a children's story and nothing to do with Maya culture at all. The text in the back of the book was also off the page.I've already requested a refund but probably won't be ordering again.
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Top reviews from the United States

Shon R. Edwards
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book! Long overdue and one of a kind
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2015
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Very long overdue work. In fact, I believe it's the first of its kind. It's laid out like a language text. I'm a linguist and have used hundreds of language texts and this one is looks to be quite a good one, in spite of the fact that you "get your feet wet" extremely quickly. By exercise 1.6, you are already matching up the approximately 175 logograms, their bi-syllabic "alphabet" from a table to examples in the exercise. (They are not necessarily identical to what's in the table either; additionally, each town or even scribe had his own style.) There are technically only 100 slots for the logograms (20 consonants x 5 vowels), but in one case, the ['u] logogram manifests itself 11 different ways, depending on context from a number of factors. A glyph may consist of one or many parts (the most "meaning"-full one is indeed full, consisting of 13 parts, or individual words, prefixes, suffixes, superfixes, or other affixes, etc.). Each part of the glyph is read in a strict order (yes, there are also exceptions). pp. 26 and 31 show pictorially in which order parts of a glyph are read, and the 8 steps to reading a glyph and in which order, respectively. There is a diagrammed representation in the form of a square divided into 12 boxes of various sizes and shapes. It shows in which order you read the pieces of the glyph. In this case, you divide the main square into four pieces, and beginning with the upper left hand corner and you treat each quarter of the main square sort of as its own individual logogram, then go to the upper right hand corner set of glyphs, lower left, and lower right. The set of steps is no less challenging, e.g., 1. if x, go to step 2, otherwise step 6; if x, go back to 3, otherwise go to step 8, etc. until the entire glyph is read. Well, I just wanted to give a small idea of what this is like in the beginning of the book. There is also a rather lengthy chapter on numbers and dates, a chapter on grammar, incorporating the glyphs, etc. One thing I've long been plagued with is the difference between the transcription and transliteration systems. The book explains also about this. It makes Japanese look like a piece of cake, but I'm the type that loves challenges. I am very grateful for this work; I've been waiting a long time for it. As a side note, I'm also excited for another long overdue work: Martha J. Macri's The New Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphs: The Classic Period Inscriptions and The New Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphs, Volume Two: Codical Texts. Only just over a year old, it gives an exhaustive inventory of the Maya glyphs known up to that point. Check Amazon for these two works. Well, I've been going on enough. Just very happy about the possibility of finally learning the language I've been limping through on and off for over 20 years.
13 people found this helpful
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Robert
5.0 out of 5 stars Review and Amazon service
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2023
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I liked the book I have bought two months ago and it is very informational.
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XxD0BxX
5.0 out of 5 stars A much needed book, now made available.
Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2013
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As an undergraduate student I have personally begun to study Mayan hieroglyphic writing in complete isolation and working from a variety of sources that ranged from databases containing peer reviewed academic articles, to hard to find books. Alas, all of the material I went through in times now gone by, has been compiled into an incredibly beneficial package. This is to say that although the material I found on my own was quite satisfyingly engaging, I realized how much time was needed to search for these materials. This process may have once deterred people whose interest was piqued but found this obstacle too bothersome to pursue further.
However, this book gathers up all of the basic concepts and organizes each chapter in a way that makes sense and that helps to make the process less overwhelming. All in all, if you're a student like myself and have been told that this line of study is meant for a graduate student but could care less, buy this book. You shall not regret it.
9 people found this helpful
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Becky
5.0 out of 5 stars What do you get for the man who loves hieroglyphs but has read almost everything? This book.
Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2016
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I got my brother this book as a Secret Santa gift last Christmas. He has been studying Egyptian hieroglyphs since he was 4, and has long since mastered all of the Egyptian languages through demotic. He has also taught himself cuneiform and the Assyrian and Babylonian languages. So what other language should he study next?

Well, since he was enthralled by our childhood trip to the Yucatan to see the Maya temples back in the early 1990s when much less was understood about Maya glyphs, a book on this subject seemed like the best way to go. This was the most current and comprehensive resource I could find, and he is absolutely thrilled with it. For over half an hour during Christmas, he was completely absorbed by it, and lost track of who was opening what. 10/10 would recommend.
3 people found this helpful
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CJ
4.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly fun for the language enthusiast
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2023
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This book is mostly awesome. I am so excited to be learning Maya hieroglyphs. For the most part, this book is well explained and simple to follow, even if you only know one language. Don't expect it to be quick. It's not like learning Spanish on duolingo. It requires concentration and effort.
One thing that frustrates me is in some of the first exercises, where it asks you to write the syllables you see represented. There are indexes in the back of the book, but I don't understand if I'm seeing a syllable or a whole word. It needs more explanation in the beginning. The answer key would be much better if there were visuals. I couldn't find all the syllables in the picture that the answer key said were there. I also didn't realize for several hours that I was supposed to look in the index. I thought the syllables I was looking for would be in the pages prior to the exercise. Also, the pages seem to be ordered strangely, because you get to the exercise before it's been explained in the text. It took me a bit to figure out I was just ahead of myself.
So I'm not sure I'm doing the exercises properly and will probably reach out to the author for more explanation. I would also really, really like to know how to pronounce what I'm reading. There is no explanation of how to pronounce the Mayan words. I had to ask my brother who speaks Qeq'chi. It's kind of like taking a class but needing a lot of help from the professor.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Pablo Gómez
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book
Reviewed in Mexico on January 30, 2024
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Great reference book to learn.
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Loukianos
5.0 out of 5 stars ) are glyphs that all look like television sets with something on the screen
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 16, 2014
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If you want to read the glyphs this is the one to get. Actually reading ancient languages is not so hard as it is made out to be. You have to remember that the number of texts is limited so if someone asks "can you read this?" you are quite likely to recognise the text in question. With Mayan at least you can spot the numerals and recognise that you are dealing with a date and most texts start with the date ... Then the months (?) are glyphs that all look like television sets with something on the screen .... Great fun.
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R. L. Arrillaga
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesante, pero no completo
Reviewed in Spain on December 11, 2013
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Como aficionado a la epigrafía desde hace ya muchos años me resistía a comprar un libro, llamémoslo, de base. Sobre todo si ciertas áreas de interés que uno pueda tener (escritura tipo códice en cerámicas o Gramática/Lingüística) suelen estar un poco relegadas a segundo plano en este tipo de libros. Afortunadamente, los progresos y tendencias en epigrafía hacen que los autores dediquen un poco más de espacio a estos temas. Este dedica aproximadamente 100 páginas a la gramática, entre el apartado de lingüística, gramática y apéndices relacionados. Pero en ningún lugar del libro hace mención a la escritura tipo códice (códices y/o cerámicas) y a la PSS (Secuencia Standard Primaria)y glifos/expresiones relacionadas. Lo que me parece una carencia excesivamente grave en un libro recién editado. En general el libro es ameno y sus 150 páginas de apéndices están realmente magníficas. Me sigue gustando Coe 2001 (Reading the maya glyphs) con su impresión de tinta a colores y su especial interés en la escritura sobre cerámica, sin desmerecer los publicados por Harris 1997 o Montgomery 2003 o el libro en castellano de Rolando Alainz Serrano 1997 (Inscripciones en monumentos mayas) y, por supuesto, las actualizaciones anuales del libro para el taller de las conferencias mayas europeas (descargables en su página web), para todos aquellos que no puedan leer en ingles. Luego toca leerse detenidamente las bibliografías (la de este libro, por cierto, muy escasa, apenas 4 páginas) y ampliar biblioteca como cada cual prefiera.
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D. Gilles
5.0 out of 5 stars Pour bien commencer et aller très loin....
Reviewed in France on July 4, 2013
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Pour entrer pleinement dans l'apprentissage des hiéroglpyhes Maya, livre incontournable et très bien fait, attention le livre est en anglais si vous ne connaissez pas la langue de Shakespeare vous n'aurez que les glyphes à contempler !!
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Abdul Mumin
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 7, 2015
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Excellent!
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