Writing and Literature
The Maya had a fully developed written language which was a combination of phonetic symbols and logosyllabic signs, meaning syllabic signs played a significant role. More significantly, the Maya had the only writing system that fully represented their spoken language in the Pre-Columbian New World. The earliest identified Maya script is dated between 200-400 B.C. When it can be properly dated, the Maya writing system could become the oldest Mesoamerican writing system (Wikipedia). Even though the Maya texts had been recovered centuries earlier, it was not until the 1970s that their writing system was fully able to be deciphered.
It is estimated that a little over 10,000 Maya texts survived time and the Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica. The Maya were a prolific people using monuments, lintels, stelae (erect carved stone monument), and ceramic pottery as writing forums. Many such books were burned by Spanish missionaries in the 16th century, but there are three notable Maya texts that have survived intact. They are the Madrid, Dresden, and Paris codices. They were probably painted long after the Maya collapse, but within a century or two of the Spanish invasion. Codices are books manufactured from tree bark that has been flattened and softened with lime paste. The books are folded accordion style.
Just as the Madrid, Dresden, and Paris codices were probably copied from earlier works, so too was the Popol Vuh. Around 1702, a Spanish priest, Father Francisco Ximenez, discovered a Quiche text of the Popol Vuh. Schooled in the language, he copied the text and added a Spanish translation. Over a hundred and fifty years later, Father Ximenez's work was found in a Guatemalan college library and published (Tedlock 27). The work has stayed in continuous publication since that time (Wikipedia).
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