Investigate the Maya writing system by exploring the writing and hieroglyphs on vessels and artifacts.

 

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The Maya recorded dynastic lineage in varied ways, including architecture, ceramic vases and even wooden boxes. This wooden box, called the Tortuguero Box because its inscriptions are comparable to those found in Tortuguero, Mexico, is one such object. Its narrative begins with an image of the seventh-century lord who owned it. The subsequent hieroglyphs tell the dynasty of this ruler. An important class of ritual object, such wooden boxes were probably used to house bloodletting implements and other sacrificial paraphernalia.

From children’s stories to modern science, people across the ages have explained and ordered the universe in visual forms in order to better comprehend it.

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