Maya writing: Did you mean...?

Maya Nobleman, Jaina, Maya culture, Late Classic Period, c. 600-900 CE. Campeche, Mexico. Fired clay with remnants of paint. Exhibited at Museum Rietberg, Zurich, Switzerland.

A belief in an afterlife was central to every major civilization of the ancient world and this encouraged the recognition of the reality of ghosts as the spirits of the departed who, for one reason or another, either returned from the realm...

The ruins of San Gervasio — located on the island of Cozumel in Mexico — were once an important site of pilgrimage to Maya people who lived from c. 1000-1650 CE. A sanctuary of the Maya goddess Ix Chel used to be located at this location...

This table is made of clay and was found in Southern Iraq (3100-3000 BCE). Early writing was used as a way to keep track of the administration and it was only in later years its uses evolved. Early writing in Mesopotamia was made by pressing...

Copy of funerary stela with inscription, Vira-Gambarogno, Ticino. 5th century BC. The name of the deceased reads from bottom to top: teromui kalui. Find our more: The Oldest Writing in Switzerland.

This spouted vessel is one of the most elegantly sculpted stone containers in the corpus of Maya art. Its form with the vertical spout parallel to the central axis of the main chamber is known from the late 1st millennium B.C. and is especially...

Kapilavastu (“Place of Kapila”) is the name of the city where Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha, l. c. 563-483 BCE) grew up and lived for the first 29 years of his life before leaving to pursue the spiritual path which led to his enlightenment...

Artist's impression of a Maya priest performing a temple ritual. Created by Amplitude Studios for the video game Humankind.

Maya vessel depicting several mythological scenes. This part of the vessel depicts a god with a spotted tail and ears. The dog is a companion of death, and like his own has a dark nature. Found in Guatemala, attributed to the "Metropolitan...

A Maya vessel decorated with warrior figures. They are wearing animal headdresses and have trophy heads hanging from their belts. From Mexico or Guatemala, c. 600-800 CE. (Brooklyn Museum, New York)