Mayan Symbols

The earliest known writing discovered in the Mayan script dates from about 250 BC, but the script is thought to have developed at an earlier date then that. The Mayans were known for their sophisticated culture which included many hieroglyphics.

Mayan hieroglyphics were carved into stone or bone, or even painted on pottery or written on books. The two main topics of their texts were astronomy and religious views.

Here are the main logograms that the mayan civilization used to express words and ideas.

Maya numerals were a vigesimal (base-twenty) numeral system used by the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization.

The numerals are made up of three symbols; zero (shell shape), one (a dot) and five (a bar). For example, nineteen (19) is written as four dots in a horizontal row above three horizontal lines stacked upon each other.

Here is the chart of mayan numerals.

The Haab was the Maya solar calendar made up of eighteen months of twenty days each plus a period of five days ("nameless days") at the end of the year known as Wayeb' (or Uayeb in 16th C. orthography).

Each day in the Haab' calendar was identified by a day number in the month followed by the name of the month. Day numbers began with a glyph translated as the "seating of" a named month, which is usually regarded as day 0 of that month, although a minority treat it as day 20 of the month preceding the named month. In the latter case, the seating of Pop is day 5 of Wayeb'. For the majority, the first day of the year was 0 Pop (the seating of Pop). This was followed by 1 Pop, 2 Pop as far as 19 Pop then 0 Wo, 1 Wo and so on.

Neither the Tzolk'in nor the Haab' system numbered the years. The combination of a Tzolk'in date and a Haab' date was enough to identify a date to most people's satisfaction, as such a combination did not occur again for another 52 years, above general life expectancy.

Because the two calendars were based on 260 days and 365 days respectively, the whole cycle would repeat itself every 52 Haab' years exactly. This period was known as a Calendar Round. The end of the Calendar Round was a period of unrest and bad luck among the Maya, as they waited in expectation to see if the gods would grant them another cycle of 52 years.

Here is the Haab calendar (365 days)

Here is the mayan sacred almanac of 260 days.

The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar is a non-repeating, vigesimal (base-20) and base-18 calendar used by several Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya. For this reason, it is sometimes known as the Maya (or Mayan) Long Count calendar. Using a modified vigesimal tally, the Long Count calendar identifies a day by counting the number of days passed since a mythical creation date that corresponds to August 11, 3114 BCE in the Gregorian calendar.

The Long Count calendar was widely used on monuments.

Here is the Mayan Long Count Calendar and it`s symbols.

These are the main mayan symbols that we have discovered to this date. If more mayan symbols should be found and documented, we will include them in this section of ancient mayan symbols.

Resources:
Mayan Symbols - Ancient Symbols Website