Decoding Maya Hieroglyphs

The Mayan Empire of Central America was an advanced and historic civilization. Included in the list of achievements is the Maya Hieroglyphic Writing system which includes pictorial representations for phonetic sounds as well as using logograms.

This video is an interesting account of the historical background and how attempts to decode the unused writing system has changed historical knowledge of the Maya.

 An interesting side not is that not only is Rapa Nui the closest Polynesian population to Central and South meric, but is the only Polynesian culture credited with a hieroglyphic writing system, the Rongorongo.