The Maya developed a sophisticated writing system and used an elaborate calendar system known as the Long Count to provide dates. The origin of the script is complex and far from clear. Maya writing has been found on monumental sculpture, public buildings, murals, pottery, portable objects (made of shell, obsidian, bone, wood, jade and other stones) and screenfold books, called codices. The inscriptions deal mainly with astronomical information and calendars. Some writing samples describe historical events such as alliances, wars, lineages and marriages. 

The text was inscribed in blocks placed in horizontal and vertical rows. The reading order within each block is generally from left to right and top to bottom. Two columns were read together following the same order. 

Maya hieroglyphs were first identified as a writing system during the nineteenth century, when the bar-and-dot numerical system was deciphered. In the 1950s it was discovered that the script combined signs representing whole words with signs representing syllables. Certain glyphs were recognized as naming specific people and cities. There were major breakthroughs in deciphering the text in the second half of the twentieth century and approximately 85% of the glyphs can now be read.