The Hidden Maya: A New Understanding of Maya Glyphs

by Martin Brennan

Book Overview

Brennan uses Plains Indian handsigns and other communication symbols to decipher Maya inscriptions, revealing hidden messages that have not been understood for hundreds of years. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 187918124X
• ISBN13: 9781879181243
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Bear & Company
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Maya Gem

This book is a real gem, on a par with scholarly studies of Maya art and epigraphy, with an unexpected bonus in the interpretation of the hand gestures found so plentifully in Maya monuments, inscriptions and paintings. Brennan, who has studied Native American sign language, describes a remarkable correspondence in the hand gestures of the Maya, which came to me as a revelation, but not a surprise. Although Maya scribes clearly brought an accurate and detailed understanding of their world and culture to their art, the ubiquitous and painstakingly detailed deptictions of hands in both scenes and glyphs had always intrigued me. These could not possibly be an accident. The text carefully explains Brennan's thesis in a non-stop array of sparkling detail, although a full understanding of his thesis might require some prior knowledge of Maya epigraphy. As an amateur Mayanist who has participated in gatherings of Maya epigraphers and toured Maya country with the best of them, I can see that Brennan follows current epigraphical readings closely, unless he has good reason to differ. Relating scenes on Maya funerary vases to episodes in the Popul Vuh, Brennan shows how the hand gestures in the scenes supplement, complement and sometimes form part of the story, and how the hand signs in the verb glyphs are derived from and portray the gestures of a sign language that was once shared by Mesoamerican and Southwest cultures.In addition, Brennan approaches his subject from a refreshingly spiritual perspective, showing how the subject matter of Maya art depicts their deep spiritual understandings of life and death, and the mythological episodes that are the foundation for Maya art. Taken as a companion volume to Simon Martin and Nicholai Grube's acclaimed Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens, Brennan's book provides the reader with a balance between politics and religion in ancient Maya life. Although at times I became sceptical of the persistent application of his thesis to example after example, it was no more scepticism than I felt of Linda Schele and David Friedel's Maya Cosmos, a similarly spiritual interpretation by acknowledged scholars and art historians.I highly recommend Brennan's book to any serious Mayanist, amateur or professional, for a refreshing and careful analysis of Maya art and culture. Although published by a New Age house, this is mainstream Maya scholarship.