Presumably no scholar today believes that there is not a considerable phonetic aspect to the script perhaps it is fair to say that disagreement largely revolves around the kinds and degrees of phoneticism. The general thrust of the book, however, is concerned with the phonetic reading of glyphs, as merits its basic importance and the author’s long concern with the subject. Some readers will be disappointed in the absence of attention to a few special areas, as Uniformity, but they will find much new in the discussion of astronomy and basic glyph etymology, particularly in the study of glyphs derived from animals and plants, artifacts, and body-parts. Although his great interest has been the phonetic interpretation of Maya writing, he has ranged the full scholarly spectrum, and readers will find much of interest and many new ideas in all of his chapters. Kelley sets himself to the very commendable task of treating the whole of Maya writing, from calendrics and astronomy to newer interests in dynastic history. The last attempt was Eric Thompson’s in 1950, frequently reprinted with “up-dating” prefaces, and the time is ripe for the appearance of David Kelley’s work, a study which has been eagerly anticipated by his colleagues. Most have tended to favor a particular branch of study, such as calendrics with Sylvanus Morley’s being an especially acclaimed example (despite its pendantic, laborious style and its profound intellectual debt to Charles Bowditch’s far superior work). Since the publication of Daniel Brinton’s A Primer of Maya Hieroglyphics (1895), several introductions to Maya writing have appeared.
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