How to Read Mayan

This is pretty cool: an interactive Flash website by NOVA at pbs.org about reading ancient Mayan writings. This is the Stela 3 from the pyramid at the Maya site of Piedras Negras in Guatemala.

A series of Maya hieroglyphs may look like just so many pretty pictures or symbols to you. But they actually say something, of course, as Mayanists have known for some time (see Time Line of Decipherment). In this feature, you can actually "read" a passage of glyphs carved into an ancient Maya stela, or dedicatory stone monument. You can both read the ancient Maya (transcribed using the Roman alphabet) and hear it spoken (by Mayanist Barbara MacLeod) as well as read the English translation.

Link – via Scribal Terror