author
Paul Schellhas
1854–1945
Best known as one of the early pioneers of Maya studies, this German scholar helped lay the groundwork for interpreting the gods and symbols found in the Maya codices. Trained as a jurist and working in the courts, he pursued ancient scripts with remarkable dedication alongside his legal career.
1 Audiobook
Representation of Deities of the Maya Manuscripts
by Paul Schellhas
About the author
Born in Berlin in 1859, Paul Schellhas studied law and cameral sciences, earned a doctorate in Jena in 1884, and worked first as a lawyer and later as a judge in Charlottenburg. Alongside that professional life, he devoted himself to the study of ancient languages and writing systems.
His lasting reputation comes from his work on Mesoamerican studies, especially Maya manuscripts and hieroglyphs. Sources describe how his interest turned from Egyptian hieroglyphs to the Maya codices, and his book Representation of Deities of the Maya Manuscripts became an important early effort to identify and classify Maya gods.
Schellhas died in Berlin in 1945 during the fighting at the end of World War II. Although some references about him differ on the birth year, the sources consulted here consistently point to a German jurist and self-taught Mayanist whose careful scholarship made him an important figure in early Maya research.