Ecriture maya

While the Incas had no writing, the Mayas did. The deciphering of these hieroglyphic signs has been one of the great epigraphic adventures of the XXth century, with very original personalities, from Youri Knorosov, who initiated himself to the glyphs at the library of Dresden, while a soldier of the Red Army and who never travelled to Mexico, to David Stuart, who took the research leaps forward with his brilliant intuition at the age of 16, in 1981. This manual does not pretend to be a historic summary of this non-finished quest, but rather an initiation to the most frequent glyphs: how can one recognize them, what are their meaning and their symbolism, how can we associate them to the greater moments of life in the Maya city?

• Ecriture maya, by Maria Longhena, Flammarion, 2011, 180 p., 24,90 €