Travis Simpkins: Breaking the Maya Code

Breaking the Maya Code

by Travis Simpkins

Containing more than 800 symbols and variations depicting animals, plants and body parts, Mayan hieroglyphs have been providing steady intellectual fuel and puzzlement for scholars over the past 200 years. Directed by David Lebrun, Breaking the Maya Code (2008) presents a thorough documentary look at the quest and valiant efforts made by those who have made decided advancements in deciphering the Mayan glyphs. By 900 A.D. the ancient Mayans were gone, having abandoned their grand cities in southern Mexico and Central America and moved north to the Yucatan. When the Spanish arrived, early efforts to transcribe the hieroglyphs were unsuccessful, because they were mis-drawn and hence misunderstood. In the 16th to 19th centuries: Bishop Diego de Landa had a Mayan convert write out a corresponding alphabet, Constantine Rafanesque started transcribing the Dresden Codex, Ernst Forstermann recognized the presence of mathematics and cycles within the long count , Joseph Goodman set the Maya calendar "creation date" (August 31, 3114 B.C.) and Alfred Maudsley took the first glass-plate photographs of Mayan ruins allowing for accurate study. It was in the 20th Century, however, that the most spurious advances in deciphering the Mayan code took place. Eric Thompson was considered to be the ultimate, yet flawed, authority on all things Mayan from the 1930's to the 1960's. He maintained that the glyphs were of a peaceful and celestial nature. Many of his ideas were proven wrong by Tatiana Proskouriakoff, a master surveyor and artist who established that the glyphs were indeed a recorded history of the Mayan civilization. Heinrich Berlin expanded the historical record theory by showing that the symbols included geographical elements… Time + Place = History. A major breakthrough on the language of the Maya came from an unlikely source in Russia, when Yuri Knorosov published a treatise after World War II. Knorosov's work was translated and spread by American Michael Coe. Successful collaborative efforts began in the 1970's, when Merle Greene Roberston set up shop at Palenque. She was soon joined by Linda Schele, whose enthusiasm led to a complete history of the ancient city, deciphering new elements and allowing scholars to share ideas in a more free format. The greatest and most innovative modern breakthroughs have come through the work of David Stuart, a former child savant that presented his first scholarly paper on the Mayan glyphs at the age of 12. Today, roughly 90% of the Mayan hieroglyphs can be read with certainty. Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the 200 year effort to decipher the symbols, long lost to human understanding, is that the descendants of the Maya now know their history and are passing it on to future generations.