Decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing has progressed to the point where most Maya written texts'”whether inscribed on monuments, written in the codices, or painted or incised on ceramics'”can now be read with confidence. In this practical guide, first published in 2001, Michael D. Coe, the noted Mayanist, and Mark Van Stone, an accomplished calligrapher, have made the difficult, often mysterious script accessible to the nonspecialist. They decipher real Maya texts, and the transcriptions include a picture of the glyph, the pronunciation, the Maya words in Roman type, and the translation into English. For the second edition, the authors have taken the latest research and breakthroughs into account, adding glyphs, updating captions, and reinterpreting or expanding upon earlier decipherments. After an introductory discussion of Maya culture and history and the nature of the Maya script, the authors introduce the glyphs in a series of chapters that elaborate on topics such as the intricate calendar, warfare, royal lives and rituals, politics, dynastic names, ceramics, relationships, and the supernatural world. The book includes illustrations of historic texts, a syllabary, a lexicon, and translation exercises.

Michael D. Coe is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Curator Emeritus in the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University. In 1986 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and in 1989 received the Tatiana Proskouriakoff Award from Harvard University for distinction in Mesoamerican research Mark Van Stone trained as a type designer, stone carver, and art historian. For over two decades he has studied the development of written forms from the perspective of a working calligrapher. Now completing his doctoral dissertation on Maya scribal workshop practice, he is the leading interpreter of Maya calligraphic art