Maya writing: Did you mean...?

This sacred Maya cenote or ceremonial sinkhole is located at the ruins of San Gervasio, which is located on the island of Cozumel in Mexico.

Aptly named, this Maya structure contains fragmented murals that were painted with vivid colors of red, blue, ochre, and black. They were originally covered with geometric motifs, stepped lines, Grecians frets, and spirals. This structure...

A Maya diving figure from a lid of a ceramic vessel. Mexico, c. 1000-1100 CE. (St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri)

This structure located at the Maya archaeological site of San Gervasio on the Mexican island of Cozumel was so named as numerous human remains were found inside during archaeological excavation. The temple no longer exists, but it originally...

This Maya relief depicting a nobleman is made from chalkstone, and it comes from what is present-day Tabasco, Mexico. It dates from the Late Classic Period around the year 780 CE. (Museum Rietberg, Zürich).

Seated figure of Maya. He was the a governor and chief of the priests in the 10th District of Egypt, who was appointed by Thutmose III (the birth and throne cartouches of Thutmose III appear on the right shoulder). He wears the "gold of honor"...

This painted incense container is made from cut stone and dates from c. 600-900 CE. Maya artisans created it in what is present-day Guatemala during the Classical era. (Musée du Cinquantenaire, Brussels)

Your vowels were invented in Greece, giving birth to the first "true" alphabet. Watch as your new toga-clad friend turns your consonant abjad into a consonant-vowel alphabet. It's such a useful mapping of letters to sounds that neighbor...

Not a syllabary. Not quite an alphabet. Totally Indian. Watch Ashoka discuss his land's exotic script and tell you his plans for this unique alphasyllabary. This episode traces the invention of the Indic alphasyllabary, the parent of so...

Kapilavastu (“Place of Kapila”) is the name of the city where Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha, l. c. 563-483 BCE) grew up and lived for the first 29 years of his life before leaving to pursue the spiritual path which led to his enlightenment...