author

Paul Schellhas

1854–1945

A pioneering German scholar of Maya studies, he helped shape early efforts to understand the gods and writing of the ancient Maya. His work became especially known for organizing the deities in the Maya codices with the letter labels still associated with them.

1 Audiobook

Representation of Deities of the Maya Manuscripts

Representation of Deities of the Maya Manuscripts

by Paul Schellhas

About the author

Born in 1854 and dying in 1945, he was a German scholar remembered for important early research on Maya manuscripts and religion. His name is closely linked to the study of the Dresden Codex and to a system for identifying Maya deities that influenced later generations of researchers.

He wrote on subjects including the representation of gods in Maya manuscripts and the problem of deciphering Maya hieroglyphs. Even where some of his conclusions were later revised, his work helped establish Maya studies as a serious field of research and gave later scholars a foundation to build on.

Reliable portrait information was not clearly available from the pages I could confirm, so no author photo is included here.