Customer Reviews

How to Read Maya Hieroglyphs

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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Excellent book. I have a degree in cultural anthropology and started studying the Maya thirty years ago. Finally, we have a clear, precise explanation of how to approach and gain understanding of the glyphs with excellent background history and perspective. Although I am now an attorney, I still study Mayan culture and archaeology and find the book extremely interesting, approachable and a great pleasure to read. The facts that are added to give background do indeed, provide a well-rounded understanding of the evolution of the cracking of the code. I can't praise it enough. I waited a long time for a book like this!

The main two books I read when studying the Maya script were this one and Michael Coe's "Reading the Maya Glyphs." Ultimately, I preferred this one because it is more in-depth and scholarly, but I did miss the exercises and easy-to-look-up tables that the Coe has. The Coe is also slightly better illustrated (or, at least, more flashily illustrated, which is admittedly not the same thing). Either book can add greatly to your appreciation of monuments at sites such as Palenque and their museums, and ideally I would recommend purchasing both books.

I'm somewhat conflicted about this next issue. The Coe book delves further into some more cutting-edge grammatical theories such as morphosyllables and syllabic disharmony (don't worry, both are explained well). These theories are fascinating, and are barely discussed by Montgomery in the book on this page. HOWEVER, there is far less scholarly support behind these controversial ideas, and in many ways I think Coe makes them seem more accepted than they are. Montgomery's conservatism is probably more academically honest.

It's very difficult to recommend one over the other because they both have their strengths and weaknesses. It may be overly general, but if you're looking for a more sophisticated and deep understanding of Maya script, the book on this page is probably better. If you want a more practical study (including exercises to test your comprehension), go with the Coe--just remember that scholars are less certain about some of his claims than it may seem.

This will become known as one of the standards. It is a masterpiece in its format and its presentation. Mr. Montgomery did a fine job in methodically (a compliment) going through the material and explaining the nuances of "hieroglyphs." I highly recommend the book.

In short, it is a book for those interested on learning how to read Mayan Hieroglyphs. It gives you a step by step approache and good examples, taking you to some final exercises that will help to start by yourself.

This is a review of the Kindle version. I picked up a copy while it was free.

The Kindle version is wonderful - I was concerned that the glyphs wouldn't have been transferred properly, but they were. So no worries there.

This book does a great job of showing how complicated they were. If you have any interest in history at all, I highly suggest picking up a copy. How they were ever deciphered is amazing. And again, we can stagger at how much knowledge has been lost to ignorance and superstition.

I am an artist who wanted to take on a 20 year hobby of learning how to draw and read at least basic Maya glyphs. The book is easy to understand and read while still being intellectual (you are learning maya glyphs after all).

The slow part is learning the glyphs! The illustrations are great to reference in drawing, but I don't think they are as good as the illustrations printed in "Reading the Maya Glyphs".