Dr. Mark Van Stone - How Maya Hieroglyphs are written - Demonstration
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- Mark Van Stone explains how Maya hieroglyphs are constructed, by writing a modern name in phonetic glyphs. Dr. Van Stone is an expert decipherer and calligrapher; author of "2012 - Science and Prophecy of the Ancient Maya" and co-author of "Reading the Maya Glyphs" with archaeologist Michael Coe.
You can find his books on Amazon, or you can get a cheap digital version or an autographed edition of his 2012 book from his website markvanstone.com
I'm Mayan, I speak Mayan and my last name is Mayan. I like ur video.
What type of Mayan do you speak
¿Vives en Guatemala?
Same I'm Qʼeqchiʼ except I can only say a few words what tribe are you from
silver wind the maya don't live in tribes lol
Pelana’!
I'm fascinated by the variations that the same glyph can have!
So different from our way of printing letters that are all equal
We have capital and lowercase letters which, while usually similar (V and v), can also be very different (G and g). Some letters also look different in different typefaces, like lowercase a.
But you're right, it doesn't compare to the incredible amount of variation in Maya glyphs.
Funny how archaeologist say no one knew how to read Maya before they started to decipher it themselves, but not true, in many Maya villages in Guatemala many elder folks know how to read Maya glyphs. Archaeologist did not wanted to accept that the local Maya descendants of Guatemala knew more than they did.
Could you please name the region where they still read this beautiful writing? If you happen to know. thank you so much.
No way.
@@razojacqueline You really don't know how archaeologists relied on modern Maya culture, beliefs, language, and traditions to understand the Classic Maya culture, do you? Far from ignoring it, they engaged with it, learned about it. Sorry to upset your bigotry, but the idea that modern archaeologists are a bunch of "white people" ignoring Maya culture is untrue. Furthermore, many Maya scholars aren't white. You're ignoring reality in favour of a straw man that is more in mine with you anger and bigotry.
@@razojacqueline You think literacy in Maya glyphs was preserved into modern times? Right. No point in continuing this.
@@razojacqueline people tend to confuse the maya people with the maya civilization. And btw white europeans did discover something from their point if view. They didnt know something was there then they realized it was, hence they discovered something for themselves. Bigots like you take these simple things waaay too far and posit them all in a very condescending way. Like you think the mayas and the like are helpless children, or like the INAH doesn't exist.
Beautiful demonstration, will have to get your book.
Fascinatingly beautiful.
Whilst watching this it struck me that the walls themselves could be heiroglyphics. Or sentences or words making sentences. A wild but different approach to walls& why they were so shaped and kept in place with granite dust and gold. To ensure long term legibility. Sure they protected from earth quacks but words sentences meaning. Adds some sense. And a different angle for stele etc. worth a glance what?
They need to simplify it, if we want to make it practical for normal people to write.
Was it only used for nobilities and upper classes when the Mayans we're still around?
but Mayan languages do not have aspirated sounds, right?
I wish ppl still wrote like this
There are some constructed languages such as Toki Pona that use glyphs. In all honesty it would take a long time to write. I think our caligraphy would be more visually pleasing.
Honesty NC what you're referring to is called 'sitelen sitelen'.
Had there been any attempt to simplify the glyphs further? Only the Inuit and the Cherokee have unique writing systems and itd be a shame to not use it for the language.
Oe = like the gorilla chest ( the gorilla banging on it's chest)
Can somebody explain to me the advantages of this writing system vs others (to be specific, let's take the latin alphabet as our comparison)? Don't get me wrong, the symbols look pretty and all, but it seems horribly inefficient (especially considering nowadays with computers and the internet being such an important mode of communications). I mean, it took you almost 7 minutes just to write the names of two people (Though this is not taking into account the amount of time spent explaining the symbols themselves, so probably it took you closer to 2-3 minutes to write it out). But still, considering that it would probably take about less than 20 seconds to write those two names out in the latin alphabet, it seems mind boggling that people would want to use that system. It seems even crazier that the mayans could not come up with a writing system that was easier to do. I'm not trying to bash this system by any means. I'm sure there is some insight that can be obtained from looking at this system, so if anybody has an argument for why this system is better than say the latin alphabet, then I would like to hear it.
My guess would be its not about communication as much as preservation? Similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics, that the language of kings and religion needed a complex writing system to convey its importance?
to be honest, it is all about beauty and preservation like mr Martinez said. I counter your point by saying the same thing in different context. Why would people like da vinci paint incredibly detailed portraits when he could just as easily draw a stick figure. It's all about the beauty.
TatCentral The difference between a writing system and a painting is that writing needs to convey its meaning in an efficient way. That means you want some level of complexity to the system to convey more precise and specific meanings (E.g. Having a word for stuff like stomach, intestines, belly, etc, rather than just drawing a stick figure with an arrow pointing to the middle). A painting is allowed to be vague in its meaning, which is the beauty of it. Again, I'm still surprised that the mayans would not have come up with a better system, considering the same meaning in those symbols can be conveyed using a few squiggles in another script.
Yes i see what you are saying but this also can be seen in the chinese script. The chinese script has ideograms, pictograms and phonograms and is near impossible to learn for an outsider and it is still classed as an artform. it could've gone the way of the korean script and use only phonorams with a few ideograms and pictograms sprinkled in for ease of understanding but it stays true to it's roots. The english script as calligraphy also could be conveyed with just the alphabet that you read now or it can be turned into an amazing piece of work that can take hours to write, whats the point? It has beauty. yes a painting can be vague in it's meaning but so can a language. Look at the conlang toki pona for example. A language with only 120 words. This is a language that challanges a person's understanding of the world. 'Coffee' for example could be 'powerful dark liquid' or to another person 'very bad liquid' it is al relative therefore it can be hard to understand. that is not to say that it isnt a viable language. Also, why would you loose all of the history and beauty of a written script just because it may be faster. the latin alphabet is one of structure and sameness. the letters never change. 't' will always be 't' but by it's self, 't' means nothing whereas in the mayan or chinese scripts, you could write one symbol and have it mean fire or person. in these scripts you can look at it and know that it means jaguar or person because it looks like that. if a mayan or chinese person looks at an english or french or italian word, how do they know what it means? it just looks like 'a few squiggles'.
As you can see, i am an avid advocate for art in language but i am also a believer in preserving ancient art forms known to our ancestors as language.
sorry for the long reply, i tend to ramble about a subject im passionate about.
im a linguistics major at university
Imagine students back then have to write their name for ten minutes
Answering the first question alone is going to take up most of the day
Writing and reading were specialized skills before the printing press in china and europe, from the more complex writing systems (egyptian hieroglyphs, chinese logograms, maya logo-syllabic writing) to the more simple (hangul, greek and roman alphabets) copying a book collection could take years of your life
@@zaraiwzara Yes that's the thing. Only in Japan were literacy rates always extremely high. Most of the world really dwelled in obscurity when it came to writing and reading.
@@ThomasRonnbergi didn't knew about japan, very good information, but i knew that in tamil kingdoms, most of the population knew how to read and write as well.
China was the first place in the world where writing became synonimous of culture and knowledge, so it is not very surprising that countries within the sinosphere always placed value on writing and education.
@@zaraiwzara Very interesting thank you. Yes, the Japanese for centuries have had highly educated upper classes and middle classes. For example, roughly 95% or more of the sword making artisans in Japan knew how to read and right. Since many centuries, also common to know many dialects of japanese writing. Which strongly explains why the Katana sword was so well developed over the centuries and attained such a high standard of quality so early on in history. European swords in comparison were not often even hardened, and the makers didn't even mark their names on the blades. You see many variations. Jewelers would buy up swords and make them pretty to sell afterwards with their names on it. Jewelers made more money selling swords than sword makers did making swords. Showing that in Europe people have always been very consumer oriented and generally poor at creating quality goods unless the artisans of the product were also monks from monastaries who also knew how to read and right. The Church has always had a lot of power over the people in the west, preventing many technological developments. Where as in Japan the Swordmakers were basically seen as angels or divine intellectual beings placed here by the gods as a gift to the people.
Fascinating video. The combination of his voice plus watching him draw those beautiful glyphs is very relaxing. I feel like I am watching Bob Ross.
Scott Aguirre tru
Imagine if this writing system had continued to be developed into modern times.
It's called emojii. ;p
Ian I wonder about that same thought frequently
I also wonder how modern Mayan or Aztec architecture would look like today.
My Chinese language can use some fellow meaning based writing systems, so that we can say:吾道不孤.
WE CAN DO IT!!!!
Mayan is beautiful. Each symbol is a work of art itself cx
+Rohan Zener spaniards and latinos arent mayan,well latinos are the descendants of the mix of spaniard and native americans
+Rohan Zener my bad,i thought wrong.
Isn't that the same for Han writing?
@@jasonng04 There's only so much you can do with a Han character, a Maya glyph is a whole picture, a statue, detail can continue to be added.
@@CeoLogJM Yeah true
Such a beautiful language. I one day hope that these glyphs can be implemented into unicode, allowing the speakers of Maya languages to write and communicate in their native script.
I would love to see these in unicode, I'm not Mayan but I absolutely love the writing system and the language (specifically Classic Mayan.)
@@Captain-Waffles uP
Native script* as they do use their native language.
@@Rolando_Cueva Oh yeah durr, how did I not realise what I wrote?! Cheers.
Wow, it's so cool to see the Mayan characters written out by a human hand after centuries of lying dormant and misunderstood. Makes you wonder how the writing would have changed over time had history not played out the way it did. Would there be a modern Maya script that was less ornate, but suited to everyday writing? Can we develop one now? :)
+Spiff Jr., THERE IS ONE THAT WAS DEVELOPED BY A GERMAN ARCHEOLOGIST, HE TOOK IN COUNT THE INITIAL OF EACH CHARACTER.
Laa'in Aj Q'eqchi' GIVE LINK PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I would also like to knwo
The writing in the Codex Dresden Is a simplified versión of this
Maybe, but not all scripts become simpler with age. Hieroglyphics only became more and more convoluted, and by the Ptolemaic period you had to understand a lot of metaphors and substitutions to be able to read them.
I taught myself the basics of the grammar of classic Maya as well as how the writing system worked during college (long story short I way over-studied for an archaeology essay). Every time I revisit it I’m reminded just how ingenious it is and how beautiful it is. In my opinion no other language is as beautiful when written, not Mongolian, not Manchu, not Georgian, nor even something like Tamil or Tibetan.
well what about french latin greek english spanish
@@craigmason9893 None of those languages are as beautiful as Mayan. I think he made that very clear and I agree 100%. Also, french is not beautiful not ingenious. Latin and Greek, yes.
my ancestros are The Mayan from Guatemala my mother taught me about how beutiful and genious we are for being Guatemalan Im American but mom never let me forget where i come from
have you heard of Sitelen Sitelen glyphs?
@@lamasbelladelmundomaybe mayan is beautiful written, Nahuatl sure sounds more satisfying
Outstanding introduction to Maya hieroglyphs by Dr. Mark van Stone (even though it is already nine years old).
There seem to be a lot of questions in the comments about this writing system. To answer some of them:
Q: Is the script written top to bottom like Japanese?
A: The basic reading order is from left to right and top to bottom, in a zigzag pattern. For example, if you have four columns of three glyphs, the reading order would go as follows, staring with 1:
1 - 2 7 - 8
3 - 4 9 - 10
5 - 6 11 - 12
However, the reading order can also be a vertical line, as Dr. Van Stone wrote here. It can also be written in a horizontal line. In most cases it is read left to right, but there are exceptions where it is written right to left. As someone has already mentioned, you usually can tell the reading order by way of the direction the glyphs are pointing (best done with glyphs that represent e.g. heads of humans and animals).
Q: Are the outlines alone enough for reading and figuring out the meaning?
A: In most cases, no. Some glyphs are definitely recognizable by their outlinesalone, but many glyphs are very similar in their shape and only with the differences in details - sometimes very small details - can you tell them apart.
Q: Did the Maya have a simplified script for daily use?
A: To some extent, yes, probably. While it is very difficult (if not impossible) to know how the Maya wrote on a daily basis, we might get an impression if we look at painted glyphs instead of carved ones. Glyphs found on stone monuments such as stelae tend to be the full-blown, highly detailed versions because those were meant to be seen by e.g. visiting elites from other/rival cities. Painted glyphs on the other hand, such as on murals and ceramics and in codices, tend to be less detailed and somewhat cruder in design; likely due to the fact that they were often a lot smaller than those on stone monuments. However, do note that it not only depends on the medium the glyphs were written on, but also on the artist’s hand.
Compare for example Egyptian hieroglyphs on stone monuments and those in the Book of the Dead papyruses. With the latter, the glyphs are a bit more simplified than those on stone monuments, but are still recognisable, contrary to the highly abstracted
Hieratic script.
I remember this from my Mayan hieroglyphs course, you're more skilled at the script than any of us were.
vh2k theres a course for that?!
Takes forever to write anything! Imagine what timed essay exams were like for Mayan freshmen! Haha 😂
"The Spanish are coming! Take down this message to Montezuma!" "k one sec."
Moctezuma was Mexica, not Mayan.
Brian OConnell hahahaha
Brian OConnell Montezuma was Aztec and gave up his buttcheeks to the Spanish. The Maya on the other hand killed conquistadors by the thousands!
Brian OConnell dumbass montezuma😂😂😂😂
That's because they didn't fight a single pitched battle, but utilized many small sorties against the Spanish.
@KillMrFist Funny, the Maya have words for these, but rarely use the word by themselves the way that we do. They say "I love you" or "Don't you love chile con carne?" but the word "love" by itself has little meaning. Xibalba, the Maya underworld, means "Place of Fear", but "Xi", "fear", is not something with much meaning out of context. Did you want to design a tattoo or something?
I thought Sajk meant fear
Mu'z ra' tz'ib'anik...bonita forma de escribir(dibujar)...i like the way your hieroglyphics.
thats not yucatec is it?
Imagine being hungry and beginning to write a grocery list...then expiring before finishing.
They must have had prodigious memories for orations.
My mind says there had to be a formula for a Mayan shorthand script...though I accept if there wasn't.
Mayan is beautiful. I wish I knew how to read it.
It’s cool but it’s weird to me that it’s always European people teaching this stuff..
Beautiful. It's amazing how you can keep the glyph blocks going perfectly straight down like that. The book you did with Coe was excellent, I must have read it fourteen times.
Imagine it still used nowadays , wow AWESOME
In the Video, Mr Stone drew the outlines, pronounced the names and then filled out the details. Are the outlines alone enough for reading and figuring out the meaning?
sometimes
I guess you simplify the details even more so the differences for those similar characters are apparent, these characters dont seem to be meant for everyday use, its like if english speakers wrote there words like chaligraphers with all the fancy stuff on the letters
It is, but the letters look less beautiful.
It's not enough to tell the difference, he just knew what he was writing, so he knew what the symbols were even with just the outlines, but the outlines are normally not enough to translate.
I believe it is wise to not limit our understandings of our Ancient ancestors communication techniques. Everytime I am convinced that I figured "it" out, along comes another possibility. It is exciting to see how far we have come reguarding Ancient text and the vast knowledge they learned.
We are very blessed to have what was saved from being erased from history. Unfortunately, we are all watching Tremendous efforts to rewrite OUR history. I wonder if we will be around in 500 years? We are 2/3 through the Bible prophecies that describe the end times. Personally, I think it's closer to the end than we know. God is paying attention. Sadly, we are in trouble.
Thanks again for the great videos.
Dr. Mark Van Stone (perfect name for your profession ) Love it!
the structure of this feels like korean with those syllable blocks.
i was thinking it would read like chinese.
I'm wondering how much of these glyphs was formalized and how much is up to the writer/artist. Like, does the centipede have the same number of legs across inscriptions or is the general shape of each part what really matters? I have some experience with chinese characters and there are a couple where a misplaced stroke can mean "misspelling" a word, are Maya glyphs like that in any cases?
Usually the Maya glyphs are pretty lenient with how you're supposed to draw things, as long as the image looks about the same and the important parts of the image are intact. Like he said in the video, there are a LOT of ways to write "u," as an example. Small variations typically don't turn a glyph into gibberish as long as that variation doesn't turn it into another glyph.
The video is quite interesting. The translation of Mayan glyphs is a fascinating story.
When scholars get writings from different sites is there a problem with spelling error?
(I have enough trouble in English).
Toki Pona is written in a very simplified glyph system based heavily on Mayan, called Sitelen.
The first time I saw the glyphs I was delighted. They were almost cartoonish being so rounded and pleasant to look at. Thanks for your video showing some of the meaning behind the shapes.
Interesting how the "ma" looks like two ovaries facing a uterus! They understood biology! Mama knows best!
I also make demonstrations on Maya Script on my channel. My goal is simply to preserve it and continue its use, whether it be in personal texts, art and most importantly for the descendants of the Maya to have if they desire to do anything with it.
I like the Maya hiëroglyphs so much more then the Egyptian. The Maya's had a enormous variation in writing something down, from simple symbols to complete fullfigured presenttion
Beautiful characters when written precisely. Were the Maya close to developing a 'layman's alphabet' like Demotic was to Egyptian Hieroglyphics? These characters are elegant, but cumbersome when trying to communicate everyday information. Thanks in advance for any information you can share on my question.
By observing the way those ancient writings were drawn, it makes you wonder if they actually had fountain or felt tip pens in ancient south America.
Reminds me a bit of how Korean is written, but with pictographs
Throw away Spanish! Make Mayan languages official again!
FANTASTIC is the word to describe this video, Thank you very much for doing this Doctor!! you even translated your last name to the very precise "Tunich"!
A Mayan typewriter would be insanely cool to see working.
I love your explanations and the way you draw! I really enjoyed your book Reading the Maya Glyphs. I also have a question: was the book so short because of constraints from the publisher or was it your decision?
La escritura Maya es hermosa y muy compleja!
Thankk Dr. van Stone this video help me so much with mi class of mayan art. I´m Epigrapher to, but I dont know how to teach the technic, thanks.
நன்றி. நான். மாரிமுத்து..மாயன் காலண்டரில் எனக்கு ஒரு விஷயம் என் கண்ணுக்குத் தென்பட்டது. அந்தத் தேடலில் இன்னும் எனக்கு அதிகமாக தெரியும். Mayan calendar .(secret) Sal👍 my rashifal....,This me small pictures. Sal this me. Mayan secret.. this me sal இப்படிக்கு. Mari Muthu Indian tamilan.
okokokokokokokokokokokok
Mayan Culture is the most wonderful to have left such a record of their existence. In Mexico City the Archeological Museum is full of relics of their time in the sun. First time I spent time there I paused for the restroom. I stood in front of the mirror there and saw myself then a series of other images, male, female....it just kept going. There were faces unknown to me. I was NOT ON DRUGS, though I have taken ayahuasca maybe 12 times under the supervision of a medicine man. But I felt at the time it was the power inherent in the tools they used. Also..as an artist, my job is to be an observer where ever I am.
I like this becase i am a mayan
I spent weeks researching until I found this. Thank you so much.
i want the names of my kids tattooed
in maya....can you help me out?
+CHINO DIAZ HEY THERE I CAN HELP YOU. I'M A MAYA.
Kevin Sacbà how would i right my kids names
What are their names?
+Kevin Sacbà
Can i get ahold of you through facebook?
sure
Great quality for a nearly 10 year old video, a lot of videos from those olden times have really terrible quality.
Ahh! I owned his book, reading the Maya glyphs. My favorite illustration was of this iguana deity I think it was. From that book, i thought it said that the Maya scribes and writers were given a great deal of flexibility where they would be permitted to draw a glyphs basically from their memories. So maybe their teacher drew a Jaguar body while the student maybe drew only the head? But I know that many sites are yielding a seemingly unending stream of hints and suggestions of how it all works, so moving forward we will complete much more of the puzzle. This makes me want to work in this. I’m gonna buy his book again. Thanks for sharing!!
very illuminating. it makes so much more sense to look at mayan script now. each character is a word composed of an amalgam of sub characters
I bet they went through a lot of erasers.
This looks so complicated and different to what we are used to. It's beautiful.
The Mayans were an agrarian society, requiring long days working in fields to produce sufficient food for survival. When you consider the average life span was maybe 40 years, it is clear that only a very select few would have had the time to learn this complex script. Beyond that, an even smaller group would have the skills to carve these glyphs into stone. My guess is that the average Mayan guy probably had no more understanding of the writing than an average guy off the street today.
average life expectency of the Maya was closer to 55-60
@@Strauss- They had life expectancy glyphs- published every year for all to read? Did this statistic include all those sacrificed by ripping out their hearts at an early age?
It's like they chose children to draw these out as compared to Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs which seemed much neater.
Was there a shorthand version of this script? Being a scribe and taking notes must have been a crazy job.
The ancient Egyptians developed a shorthand script for scribes to jot down nots and dictations. I wonder if the Mayans had a similar system.
Anyone know where I can find out how to spell out “almost” or “jaguar paw” in Mayan script? Iykyk
I wonder if there was a Mayan cursive for quicker, more mundane usage?
an interesting approach, syllables, made into words in a manner like hangul puts letters together to form a syllable. Linear is but one option
Thanks for your kind comments....
Mark, this is the most relaxing yet educational video I’ve ever seen. You should up load another, have you explored asmr related videos?
Thanks for sharing this fascinating bit of lore, history, knowledge with us Doc. Much appreciated. Long live Mayan and their people.
Me: *looks through comments to see if anyone else has my name*
No srsly is there anybody else here named Maya?
HOW would you write the word WEYMOUTH???,
Everything on 5, but trick. Because you no colour code
you do understand that hieroglyphs of amercia is the first mahjong and it asian today
Wonderful.
Fascinating and beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
so it would seem that Charlie Browns head is a mayan glyph.
This is sooo satisfying
GORGEOUS.
This video went straight over my head, thankyou for sharing!
when you thought writing chinese characters is hard
Sorry but your are lying, the mayan glyphics don't have a phonetic translation,Read Knozorov works,you will learn what is the reality.
It's a syllabary
Outstanding.
Hello, I want to get a tattoo with my daughter's name that called MAYA, can you help me? Thanks.
+Jippa Costin I CAN HELP YOU!
It feels strange calling them hyroglyphs. it works very differntly.
Its a shame they r kinda stuck with that label when the writing was in use until like the 1550s when the spaniards killed alot of knowledge, hangul was JUST created right before that
TI-sa-ja-la-IL
In the subordinate lordship he is Q'uq'kumatz.
Hello there. I would like to know what type of pen do you recommend to write Maya Hieroglyphs ? Thanks :)
Cool hiroglyphs
Love your style, beautiful hieroglyphs, and also enjoyed your book very much.
I have exactly the same pen
What ?? I think it is painting not language
Yes. I also find it trippy when I'm stone sober.
It is no accident that they exalted the "water lily jaguar"...The lily in question is the hallucinogenic Blue Lotus, seen also in King Tut's tomb (a youthful head of the king emerges from it), and as the throne of the Buddha. They also esteemed toads, especially Bufo Marinis, aka "cane toad", now an invasive pest in Florida. This toad's skin squirts hallucinogenic poison, which, when taken in small doses, will send you flying...So they say!
@EruveoMac Start with "Reading the Maya Glyphs" by Michael Coe and myself. It's There are also two books by John Montgomery, a "Dictionary of Maya Hieroglyphs and "How to Read Maya Hieroglyphs". Finally there is "Understanding Maya Inscriptions: A Hieroglyph Handbook" by John F. Harris. The bibliographies in these books will lead you to more specific texts. Note these are all for *Reading*... As for *writing* glyphs, just start practicing. Send experts like me your efforts.
@xINDIANx Sorry, it failed to fill this year; It'll be offered again next spring. Hope to see you!
@sky44david Thanks SD! I try... Hope you get something from it. (If you REALLY like it, review it on Amazon!) If you have questions, check out my website at markvanstone (dot) com .
this is like radicals in chinese
Must have taken ages to complete but presumably they would have sorted that, given the chance. Did they write letters (as in Dear Sir, not ABC) or were glyphs used more sparingly?
Maya is beautiful! :)
Hey I would to know how to right my name, Oscar
+oscar villatoro
Find a Maya syllabary on line, and find these signs: O-so-ka-sa Bi-la-to-lo-o
Idk if anyone cares but I was looking at Mayan hieroglyphs the other day and noticed something like some of the hieroglyphs actually looked like the people near the heiroglyphs like as if it was a conversation and it declared who was talking by showing the dots or marks on the person's body in conjunction with the dialect, so you got a idea who was saying what while you were reading it gave you glimpses of patterns and or dots even a small piece of their face so that they were associated with that specific text like how I could say "blah blah blah" said nick. The heiroglyphs where there and it would somehow add my avatar to the phrase. Hopefully someone understood this. It was on the Dresden codex? With the different priests sitting down side profiles, I think it was a story.
They're drawn rhythmically, just like ancient Egyptian. You must check out Bridgman's guide to Drawing from Life.
Due my name U lises Ruiz