An Introduction to the Study of the Maya Hieroglyphs
Sylvanus Griswold Morley
Essays
Book language: English
404 pages
An Introduction to the Study of the Maya Hieroglyphs is a scholarly essay by Sylvanus Griswold Morley, published in 1915 as a Smithsonian bulletin. It explains the Maya writing system and the early efforts to decipher it, offering a clear overview of a major pre-Columbian achievement. It is valuable for anyone interested in ancient scripts and Mesoamerican archaeology.
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Cover of the original edition (Project Gutenberg, public domain).
Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 57
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE
STUDY
OF THE MAYA HIEROGLYPHS
BY
SYLVANUS GRISWOLD MORLEY
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1915
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
SƽƗǵƒǪLjƿƗĵƿ IƿǪǵƗǵǼǵƗLjƿ,
BǼǡŧĵǼ Ljż AƽŧǡƗŕĵƿ EǵƒƿLjƯLjƄΏ,
Washington, D. C., January 7, 1914.
Sir: I have the honor to submit the accompanying manuscript of a memoir bearing the title "An Introduction to the Study of the Maya
Hieroglyphs," by Sylvanus Griswold Morley, and to recommend its publication as a bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology.
The hieroglyphic writing developed by the Maya of Central America and southern Mexico was probably the foremost intellectual achievement of pre-Columbian times in the New World, and as such it deserves equal attention with other graphic systems of antiquity.
The earliest inscriptions now extant probably date from about the
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