This site is too large! How do I get to what I want to find? This page is here to help. The main content pages of the site are:
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This help applies to CMGG entries linked from the Home page grids and from the CMGG Entry column of the Concordance table. With the exception of 3, 6, and 7, they also apply to the PDF version of CMGG.
For referenced works publicly available on the internet, a link to the work is provided. Clicking on it will either display the work immediately, or display the page of a repository, where one further click will enable the download of the work. In some cases, both possibilities are available. Some repositories may require the user to register, or may require registration and subscription (i.e. are behind a "paywall"). Finally, some referenced works may only be available via actual purchase of the said work.
In line with convention, logograms and rebuses are written in uppercase and syllabograms in lowercase. However, neither is bolded, as it's quite clear from context that this is a transliteration.
While most epigraphers use only a hyphen for a joiner between glyphs, CMGG uses the entire panoply of available symbols for joiners, so that the learner can see exactly which glyph occurs where in a glyph-block. The CMGG joiner conventions are:
"." — horizontally joined.
":" — vertically joined.
"[]" — infixed (X[Y] = X with Y inside it).
"+" — conflated (X+Y = characteristics of both X and Y).
"{}" — underspelled ({X} = X is not present in the example, but inferred).
"*" — reconstructed from context, when the glyph is too eroded.
"?" — unknown/unreadable.
None of these is new — each one of the conventions above is used by some professional epigrapher (though some are very obscure and not often used). What is new in CMGG is the use of angle brackets for grouping elements which belong together (square brackets are no longer available because they represent infixing, and curly brackets are no longer available because they represent underspelling). The examples below illustrate the usage:
In these examples, A, B, and C could themselves consist of more than a single glyph. That is where nested angle brackets come into play. For example, <X:<Y.Z>>.<B:C> would be if A in the first example was replaced by the last example, with X,Y,Z in place of A,B,C in the last example.
Thompson's original 1962 publication is available online (need to log in and borrow). It includes, for most glyphs, lists Thompson collected of where the glyphs were known to occur. Some points regarding the Thompson glyphs:
The table below summarizes possible ways to search for glyphs. More detail on some aspects is given following the table.
# | What I Know | What I'm Looking For | Solution |
---|---|---|---|
S1 | (a) MHD code or (b) Thompson number or Bonn number | What the canonical glyph(s) with that code/number look like | On the Concordance page,
use Ctrl-F to search for the code or number, using the "T" form such as T42 for Thompson numbers
and four digits, such as 0042, for Bonn numbers (do not include any suffix such as "bh"). Then for: (a) If the MHD Catalog has only one example, you will see it. If the MHD Catalog has more than one example, use the "more" link under the given example to see the others. You can also go to the MHD Catalog and search (click the Select pull-down) with "catcode Contains XXX" where XXX is the MHD code (press the Add button then the Select button, then click the first row of the results table and use the forward or back arrows at the top of the embedded window to view the other examples). (b) You should arrive at a cell in the first column (for Thompson numbers) or second column (for Bonn numbers) that contains a canonical form of the glyph. Some Bonn numbers have two or more forms: click "more" under the displayed form to see the others in this case. |
S2 | MHD code or Thompson or Bonn number | What the typical forms/variations of it look like | On the Home page,
use Ctrl-F to search for T680 (for example).
Click on the word(s) or syllable(s) in the grid square(s) found in this way to
bring up their CMGG entry(ies). These will have categorized rows of
examples of the different forms and their variations, followed by helpful notes
about them.
To see a large proportion of the real-world examples of an MHD code, see row S4. |
S3 | MHD code, Thompson or Bonn number, or Maya word | Examples of its use on monuments, ceramics, etc. | (i) The CMGG entry examples (see previous row) are often directly or indirectly
from real-world sources and some have those sources given explicitly under the example.
(ii) Find the MHD code corresponding to the number or word (see next row). Use it to search MHD (see row S5). |
S4 | Thompson or Bonn number, or Maya word | The MHD code(s) for it, to use in MHD searches | On the Concordance page, search for the T number or Bonn number (see row S1 above). On the row(s) where it occurs, find the MHD code(s) in the fourth column. For a word, use the Home page Use the MHD code(s) to search the Maya Hieroglyphic Database (see next row). |
S5 | MHD code | All MHD examples of the glyph with that code occurring in real-world inscriptions | Go to mayadatabase.org/main. Search (click the Select pull-down) with "blcodes Contains XXX" where XXX is the MHD code (press the Add button then the Select button, then click the first row of the results table and use the forward or back arrows at the top of the embedded window to view the other examples). For more help on using the Maya Hieroglyphic Database, see here. |
S6 | Maya word or phrase | Glyph(s) for it | On the Home page, search for the word, using Ctrl-F. Click the link to open the CMGG entry which typically has many examples of the glyphs for the word. If an MHD code(s) is given for the word, you can search the MHD database for it, as in S5 above. If the word is not found, try alternative spellings or try the Concordance page, which has some words not in the CMGG. |
S7 | What a glyph / word /phrase means | What the glyph is | (i) Use Ctrl-F to search the Home page
or Concordance
for the translation.
You may be lucky and think of exactly the same word as MHD or CMGG uses for the
translation, although this cannot guaranteed.
(ii) Search the CMGG PDFs (see next row). |
S8 | Some idea of a fact or phrase about a glyph or Maya word | What the glyph and/or word is | Go to the CMGG PDFs page, where you can use Ctrl-F to search across (almost) all the CMGG information at once in CMGG1.pdf (that has almost all logograms). If what you are looking for is calendrical and/or numerical, search CMGG2.pdf. If you are looking for something about syllables, then search CMGG0.pdf. |
S9 | Some idea of what the glyph looks like (maybe it had a snake?) | The glyph I'm thinking of | (i) Use the
MHD Classification System.
For example, glyphs involving snakes
have codes starting with "AC". So scan just those in the
MHD glyph list.
Except the one we were thinking of is classified as "BP" (parrot) because it's based
on the eye of a macaw (BP5a).
This is an unusual case and the MHD categories are generally very helpful, but do
just keep in mind that a glyph may in fact still
be around even if you don't find it in the category you thought.
(ii) Scan the full sets of Thompson glyphs, MHD glyphs, and Bonn glyphs. |
If you know the meaning / translation of the word, then you can search for that, although the translations given in the Home Page grid cells or last two columns of the Concordance may use different English words than you have thought of. In any case, use a case-insensitive search.
If searching the Home Page or Concordance is not yielding results, you can try searching the full CMGG PDFs: see D.7 just below.
Keep in mind, however, that, for example, something you regard as "snake-like" may be classified not as AC* but under something else, often in the groups starting with X or Z. In the case of the snake, there is a very distinctive glyph containing a snake that is classified under BP (birds - parrots) because the main form (BP5) involves a macaw, of which only the eye is given in this variant (there is a snake in its center). Also, a very few symbols given in this table have been retired, and a couple added (AAG, ZHN, maybe others), since publication.
To see all the photos at once, use the "All-in-One" link, which will show them in a scrollable list in a window on the left side of the screen, giving the URL for each photo just above it. If the URL begins with "mhd2", it means the image is in the Maya Hieroglyphic Database.
Left-clicking on a thumbnail will bring up a photo in a separate window. Each one, whether from the same or a different inscription, will by default replace the previous one. To bring up multiple photos at once, use the right mouse button to bring up the standard browser menu and open each in a new tab or window.
3D model manipulation. Clicking on a 3D Model box will bring up the model in its own browser window. 3D models are typically hosted on Sketchfab. To manipulate the 3D models, experiment with using your mouse buttons and scroll, often together with Shift, Ctrl, Alt and Win/Cmd keys. In general, move the mouse fairly slowly and there may be some lag in getting the response from the model.
For Sketchfab models, common manipulations can be achieved as follows:
Rotate: Drag left mouse button
Move: Shift + drag left mouse button
Zoom: Turn wheel on a scroll mouse; Ctrl + drag left mouse button
Change incident light angle: Alt + drag left mouse button (slowly)
Some notes on the HTML version of TTTs: