Secrets in Stone: All About Maya Hieroglyphs

John Walker is a professor of Spanish at Queen’s University.

Before the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese conquerors in the New
World, several advanced civilizations were already thriving, the best
known of whom were the Incas, the Aztecs, and the Mayas. Much recent
research has focused on the Mayas, whose empire stretched from Mexico
throughout Central Mexico. Unfortunately, in their zeal to convert the
Indians to Christianity, the Spaniards destroyed most of the written
material of the Mayas. As a result, we have had to rely on archeological
research to gain our knowledge of these fascinating peoples.

Secrets in Stone provides us with useful details found carved into
upright stone monuments (stelae). These mysterious symbols, called
glyphs, are the clues to this ancient people who survive into our own
time. Pyramids, temples, palaces, ballcourts, artifacts, pottery, and
the stelae, excavated in the 19th and 20th centuries, and depicted by
travel writers like the American John Lloyd Stephens and the English
artist Frank Catherwood, tell us much about the religion, astronomy,
agriculture, and domestic habits of the Mayas, especially the noble
rulers.

This beautifully illustrated book is also a kind of mystery-solver,
recording the evolution of the decoding of the hieroglyphs, and the
methods employed by the scholarly code-breakers, right up to our own
time. The authors, with the help of their expert advisers, have provided
games and puzzles for young readers, based on the Mayan calendar and
alphabet. Although the last Mayan kingdom fell in 1697, destroyed by the
Spaniards, family, and disease, six million descendants live today
throughout Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico, speaking the languages of
their forefathers. First-class photography, excellent color
illustrations, a glossary, and a selected bibliography round out this
entertaining and informative book on Mayan life and language.