This background is Mayan hieroglyphics. The lowland Maya developed a writing system that eclipsed any other writing system in Latin America. Using glyphs the nature of Maya written language is both logographic and phonetic. Logographics give a clue to the pronunciation, but not the precise meaning of the glyph. Phonetics is a system of spelling that represents sounds. The Maya had manipulated logographic pictures and phonetics to create a writing system that is both beautiful and packed with information about Mayan religion, politics, and history. The deciphering of Mayan script is only beginning to be understood, and much of the writing has yet to be translated.

Part of this background is bar and dot symbols. These are Mayan dates, or numbers, known as long count. The bar and dot symbols represent numerical numbers in multiples of twenties. There was two calendar systems; one was the Sacred Almanac of 260 days called the Tzolkin, the other is in multiples of 18 rather than 20, and represents the 365 day astronomical calendar.

If you would like to know more about the Mayan writting system see Linda Schele's book "Maya Glyphs: The Verbs" (1982) or Linda Schele and Mary Miller's book "The Blood of Kings" (1986).