When Martha Macri was growing up in Vinita, Okla., her father liked to teach her words in Cherokee. On Sundays they would visit a full-blood uncle who had a copy of the famous syllabary invented by ...

This project, run by Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, has a lofty goal: record and disseminate information about all known ancient Maya inscriptions and their associative art. On ...

The ancient Maya civilization of Central America left behind an intricate and mysterious hieroglyphic script, carved on monuments, painted on pottery, and drawn in handmade bark-paper books. For ...

History of decipherment -- The basics -- Introduction to the calendars : numbers, initial series, and long count -- The calendar round -- The supplementary and other series -- Period endings and ...