Since more people are learning about the Ancient Maya App it seems like a good time for posts about our history. This first post highlights features added to the Ancient Maya App over its three year history. Future history posts will be more personal.
The Ancient Maya App first appeared in the app stores in July 2021. This version included the syllabary based on Professor Nickolas Carter’s glyphs, the date conversion feature and the “Introduction”. The “Introduction” uses Professor Linda Schele’s drawing of Yaxchilan Stela 11 with audio explanations in English (by Steve) and in Spanish (by Deb). In Oct 2021 we added reading of Stela 11 by Jose in K’iche. In Dec 2022 we released the “Read” feature built on Professor Alexander Tokovinine’s glyphs. This feature helps the user break down a glyph block and incorporates Tokovinine’s visual categorization of the glyphs. The Feb 2023 release included Stela 11 audio by our friend Maria in Yucatec. The release in Aug 2023 added the Maya/English dictionary from Kettunen and Helmke. It supported both a scrollable dictionary and enhanced the Read feature with auto lookup of phonemes as they are decoded. In Nov 2023 Karla connected us and Tommy. In Feb 2024 we released the “Write” feature, it is based on Tokovinine’s glyphs and transliteration rules from Kettunen and Helmke.
Thanks to the creators/copyright holders of the glyphs, drawings, dictionary entries and audio recordings for permission to use their wonderful material. Without their kindness the app would not be possible. With their kindness we created a free app that integrated material from the highly regarded academic publications and leading researchers.
The website LetsAppGoBoldly and our YouTube Channel appeared Dec 2021 just before Deb and Steve headed to Mérdia.