Most Maya hieroglyphs on ceramics (bowls, vases and plates) are the Primary Standard Sequence (PSS) dedicatory formula. Hundreds of PSSequences are published by epigraphers, linguists and iconographers.
But there are also hundreds of Maya bowls, vases, and plates that have hieroglyphs that are not the PSS whatsoever. Instead, these other glyphs are:
- simplified—with not as many details inside the main sign
- simplified—with not as many affixes (so usually only main sign and prefix or postfix)
- simplified so much that they are as much decoration as they are a simplified text
- messy renderings, with details but splitter-splatter
- and some vases have spaces for glyphs around the upper part but these spaces are literally empty
Most of these hieroglyphs have been called Pseudo-Glyphs and Inga Calvin’s year 2006 PhD dissertation provides 656 pages of information and illustrations on Pseudo-Glyphs. She (2006: iii) credits Longyear 1944 and 1952 with giving the name pseudo-glyph. I do not include styles of Central America that are borrowing Maya concepts but since they are outside the Maya heartland their glyphs are often totally different. I study only glyphs from Peten and the Maya Highlands (and adjacent styles).
 |
|
Chapter 1: Pseudo-Glyphs on Gouged-and-Incised Late Classic Lowland Maya Vases |
 |
|
Chapter 2: Pseudo-Glyphs on Chama & Related Styles of Late Classic Highland Maya Vases |
 |
|
Chapter 3: Pseudo-Glyphs on Catfish Red Style & Related Styles of Late Classic Lowland Maya Vases |
 |
|
Chapter 4: Maya Pseudo-Glyphs and Rare PSSequence Dedicatory Formula on Red Band Tepeu 1 Style Round-Bottom-Edge Vases. |
 |
|
Chapter 5: Maya Pseudo-Glyphs and “Pseudo-Sky-Bands”, Another “Regional Dialect” ? Atypical Hieroglyphs on Tepeu 3 (Terminal Classic) Mold-Impressed Bowls and Vases |
 |
|
Final Chapter, Chapter 6: Pseudo-Glyphs on Vases, Bowls, and Plates from the Maya Lowlands |
So yes, “inscriptions” on ceramics of Copador style and Ulua-Yojoa pottery from Copan and El Salvador are often “illegible”. But, I estimate that between 50% and 80% of the Pseudo- Glyphs on Maya pottery from the Maya Highlands, Peten and Belize and related areas are legible—if epigraphers and linguists have a large enough corpus, and if a student devotes multiple years to study Pseudo-Glyphs for a PhD dissertation. For this research they need:
- the corpus of Inga Calvin
- the corpus of Nicholas Hellmuth in his six chapters
- and need to find-and-study Pseudo-Glyphs in museums and publications that are not yet in these first to corpuses.
In other words, the term used by Longyear for atypical regional styles of Central America is not always appropriate for inscriptions on Chama, Nebaj, Chipoc, Peten, Belize and vases, bowls and plates from Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo. Most of the photos in the Hellmuth chapters are from Guatemala; most of the photos and illustrations in the dissertation of Calvin are also from Guatemala. So, a PhD dissertation needs to find-and-include more scenes from Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, and Belize.
Recommended Reading in addition to the six chapters by Hellmuth
- 2006
- Between Text and Image: An Analysis of Pseudo-Glyphs on Late Classic Maya Pottery from Guatemala. PhD dissertation, University of Colorado. 656 pages.
- 1944
- Archaeological Investigations in El Salvador. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 9, No. 2. Harvard University.
- 1952
- Copan Ceramics: A Study of Southeastern Maya Pottery. Publication No. 597. Carnegie Institution of Washington.
First posted 3 March, 2026.
