The Maya developed an extremely sophisticated writing system, which was used to record important events, beliefs, and the lineages of their rulers on stone monuments and temples. There also remain four codices written on plaster-coated bark paper explaining Maya concepts of astronomy, mathematics and divination.

Many of the Maya hieroglyphs ("glyphs") have been interpreted, and we now know that the glyphs could be iconographic (in which the glyph was like a picture or symbol of the thing depicted, such as the glyph for jaguar, balam, which pictures a jaguar's face) or phonetic, in which different syllable sounds are put together to form a word.

Name glyphs can be constructed from the phonetic glyphs for almost all names. In addition, we can identify the glyphs for important events, relationships, animals, and certain locations. Below are shown some of the more popular Maya glyphs, but many more are available. In addition, any date can be converted to Maya glyphs using the Calendar round symbols. If you don't see the glyph you want, call or e-mail to discuss the glyphs you would like to use.