Chapter IV: In What Order Are the Hieroglyphs Read?

Before any advance can be made in the deciphering of the hieroglyphic inscriptions, it is necessary to know in what directions, along what lines or columns, the verbal sense proceeds.

All the inscriptions that I know of are in rectangular figures. At Copan they are usually in squares. At Palenque the longest inscriptions are in rectangles. At Palenque again, there are some cases where there is a single horizontal line of hieroglyphs over a pictorial tablet. Here clearly the only question is, do the characters proceed from left to right, or from right to left? In other cases as in the tablet of the cross, there are vertical columns. The question here is, shall we read up or down?

Now, the hieroglyphs must be phonetic or pictorial, or a mixture of the two. If they are phonetic, it will take more than one symbol to make a word, and we shall have groups of like characters when the same word is written in two places. If the signs are pictorial, the same thing will follow; that is, we shall have groups recurring when the same idea recurs. Further, we know that the subjects treated of in these tablets must be comparatively simple, and that _names_, as of gods, kings, etc., must necessarily recur.

The _names_, then, will be the first words deciphered. At present no single name is known. These considerations, together with our system of nomenclature, will enable us to take some steps.

Take, for example, the right-hand side of the Palenque cross tablet as given by RAU. _See_ our figure 48, which is Plate LVI of STEPHENS (vol. ii, p. 345), with the addition of the part now in the National Museum at Washington.

Our system of numbering is here

2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
2030 2031 2032 2033 2034 2035
* * * * * *
* * * * * *
* * * * * *
3080 3081 3082 3083 3084 3085

Now pick out the duplicate hieroglyphs in this; that is, run through the tablet, and wherever 2020 occurs erase the number which fills the place and write in 2020. Do the same for 2021, 2022, etc., down to 3084. The result will be as follows:

RIGHT-HAND SIDE OF PALENQUE CROSS TABLET (RAU).

2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
^-----------^ ^-----------^

2030 2031 2032 2033 2034 2035
^-----------^

2040 2041 2042 { 2025 2020 2021
{ ^-----------^
{
2050 2051 2034 { 2053 2054 2055
^-----------^

2053 2061 2062 2063 2064 2065

2070 2071 2020 2021 2022? 2024? }
^-----------^ } ?
}
2053 2020 2082 2083 2025 2053 }

2021 2091 2092 { 2025 2094 2095
{
3000 2023 2034 { 2053 2033 3005
^-----------^
^-----------^

3010 2083 3012 2024 3014 2091

2053 3021 2023 2020 3024 2024

{ 2024 2025 2021 3033 { 2025 2034*
? { ^-----------^ { ^----
{ {
{ 2053* 3021 3042 3043 { 2035 3045
----^

3050 2083 { 2025 2034 3054 3055
_See_ 2082 {
^-----------^ {
{
2024 2020 { 2035 3063 2024 2025
^-----------^

2021 2031 2020 2021 2035 3045
^-----------^

3080 3081 2091 2093 2020 2021
^-----------^

14 cases of horizontal pairs; 4 cases of vertical pairs; 102 characters
in all, of which 51 appear more than once, so that there are but 51
independent hieroglyphs.

Here the first two lines are unchanged. In the third line we find that 2043 is the same as 2025, 2044=2020, 2045=2021, and so on, and we write the smallest number in each case.

After this is done, connect like pairs by braces whenever they are consecutive, either vertical or horizontal. Take the pair 2020 and 2021 for example; 2020 occurs eight times in the tablet, viz, as 2020, 2044, 2072, 2081, 3023, 3061, 3072, 3084. In five out of the eight cases, it is followed by 2021, viz, as 2021, 2045, 2073, 3073, 3085.

It is clear this is not the result of accident. The pair 2020 and 2021 means something, and when the two characters occur together they must be read together. There is no point of punctuation between them. We also learn that they are not inseparable. 2020 will make sense with 2082, 3024 and 3062. Here it looks as if the writing must be read in _lines_ horizontally. We do not know yet in which direction.

We must examine other cases. This is to be noticed: If the reading is in horizontal lines from left to right, then the progress is from top to bottom in columns, as the case of 3035 and 3040 shows. This occurs at the end of a line, and the corresponding _chiffre_ required to make the pair is at the other end of the next line. I have marked this case with asterisks. If we must read in the lines from right to left we must necessarily read in columns from bottom to top. Thus the _lines_ are connected.

A similar process with all the other tablets in STEPHENS leads to the conclusion that the reading is in lines horizontally and in columns vertically. The cases 1835-'45, 1885-'95, 1914-'24, and 1936-'46 should, however, be examined. We have now to decide at which end of the lines to begin. The reasons given by Mr. BANCROFT (_Native Races_, vol. ii, p. 782) appeared to me sufficient to decide the question before I was acquainted with his statement of them.

Therefore, the sum total of our present data, examined by a rational method, leads to the conclusion, so far as we can know from these data, that the verbal sense proceeded in _lines_ from left to right, in _columns_ from top to bottom; just as the present page is written, in fact.

For the present, the introduction of the method here indicated is the important step. It has, as yet, been applied only to the plates of STEPHENS' work. The definite conclusion should be made to rest on _all possible_ data, some of which is not at my disposition at present. Tablets exist in great numbers at other points besides Palenque, and for the final conclusion these must also be consulted. If each one is examined in the way I have indicated, it will yield a certain answer. The direction of reading for that plate can be thus determined. At Palenque the progress is in the order I have indicated.