Maya script

Maya script
Maya glyphs were highly complex and often carved into stone.
Script type	Logosyllabic
Time period	3rd century BCE to 16th century CE
Direction	Mixed
Languages	Mayan languages
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Maya (090), ​Mayan hieroglyphs
Unicode
Unicode range	None (tentative range U+15500–U+159FF)
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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Maya script, also known as Maya glyphs, is historically the native writing system of the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica and is the only Mesoamerican writing system that has been substantially deciphered. The earliest inscriptions found which are identifiably Maya date to the 3rd century BCE in San Bartolo, Guatemala.^[1][2] Maya writing was in continuous use throughout Mesoamerica until the Spanish conquest of the Maya in the 16th and 17th centuries. Though modern Mayan languages are almost entirely written using the Latin alphabet rather than Maya script,^[3] there have been recent developments encouraging a revival of the Maya glyph system.^{[citation needed]}

Maya writing used logograms complemented with a set of syllabic glyphs, somewhat similar in function to modern Japanese writing. Maya writing was called "hieroglyphics" or hieroglyphs by early European explorers of the 18th and 19th centuries who found its general appearance reminiscent of Egyptian hieroglyphs, although the two systems are unrelated.