To decode the Maya language

During the first years after the discovery of written language of Maya, there were still people who knew the written language of Maya. According to some data some Spanish priests even managed to learn it being in the Yucatan Island. But sooner the bishop Diego de Landa ordered to gather and to damage all texts written in this language with the aim to damage paganism.

Only four documents of Maya managed to survive the conquerors of Spain. The fullest texts were found in the dishes in the graves of Maya as well as in the monuments and tombs of the cities abandoned or destroyed after the coming of Spanish.

The knowledge of the language was lost finally by the end of 16th century. And the interest to it appeared only in the 19th century after the publication of message of the Maya cities. And investigators of 19th and the beginning of 20th centuries managed to decode the Maya numbers and parts of the texts connected with astronomy and calendar of Maya. But they didn't manage to understand the principles of writing and to decode it.

In the 20th century there were two theories that competed one with another. The one said that the Maya written language was based on phonetic principles and another theory claimed it was based on ideograms.

The great step forward was made in the middle of 20s of the past century. First the meaning of some ideograms was discovered and the sound meaning of symbols was found.