6.03.2008

How in the World?

Nova has a special on deciphering ancient Mayan pictoglyphs. There is an interactive glyph here where you can see individual marks, see their translation, and hear them read aloud.

1. Mayans used a base-20 number system. Fingers and toes people. Fingers and toes.
2. The glyphs are big!...and complicated!
3. How did anyone ever decipher the meaning of these things? They look like complete gobbledegook!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I guess they went barefoot. Now, what would we think of a culture that used a base 21.

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