This means that a single idea can be written in many different ways. Some glyphs represent more than one phonetic sound, while also representing an idea. Numbers, for example, can be written with Maya numerical symbols or with the picture of a god associated with that number, or a combination of the two. In addition, many Maya glyphs can have more than one meaning, and many Maya concepts can be written in more than one way. First, glyphs do not represent just sounds or ideas, they can represent both, making it difficult to know how each glyph or cartouche should be read. Maya writing is difficult to interpret for a number of reasons. Each cartouche contained various glyphs, as well as prefixes and suffixes. Maya cartouches included at least three or four glyphs and as many as fifty. The unit of the Maya writing system is the glyphic cartouche, which is equivalent to the words and sentences of a modern language. The codices probably kept track of dynastic information as well. We can only speculate as to whether or not the Maya developed poetry or drama that was committed to paper. These codices probably contained much of the information used by priests or the noble class to determine dates of importance or seasonal interest. The fourth codex is called the Grolier and was authenticated as late as 1983. Another major example of Maya almanacs are present in the Madrid Codex. There is a codex in Paris that seems to contain some kind of Maya Zodiac, but if it is and how it must have worked are still unknown. We have examples of a Venus table, eclipse tables in a codex in Dresden. The contents of the codices must have varied, but some of them were evidently similar to astronomic almanacs. Because of their perishable nature and zealous Spanish book burning, only four codices remain today. They are called codices, codex is singular. These "books" were screen-folded and bound with wood and deer hide. The Maya carved these symbols into stone, but the most common place for writing was probably the highly perishable books they made from bark paper, coated with lime to make a fresh white surface. Glyphs representing, from left to right, the sky, an ahau (king), a house, a child, and the city of Palenque. Hieroglyphic inscriptions were either carved in stone and wood on Maya monuments and architecture, or painted on paper, plaster walls and pottery. Maya glyphs represented words or syllables that could be combined to form any word or concept in the Mayan language, including numbers, time periods, royal names, titles, dynastic events, and the names of gods, scribes, sculptors, objects, buildings, places, and food. The Maya wrote using 800 individual signs or glyphs, paired in columns that read together from left to right and top to bottom. Their writing was highly sophisticated, probably only members of the higher classes were able to read their symbols. The Maya developed a highly complex system of writing, using pictographs and phonetic or syllabic elements. The earliest known writing in the Mayan script dates from about 250 BC, but the script is thought to have developed at an earlier date. The Mayan civilisation lasted from 500 BC to 1200 AD, with a classical period from 300-900 AD.
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