AGATE

The project “Textdatenbank und Wörterbuch des Klassischen Maya (TWKM)” is funded with 5,42 Million Euros and is set to run for 15 years. It is located at the institute for Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology of the University Bonn. The project manager is Professor Dr. Nikolai Grube, who is an internationally renowned expert in the field of Maya research and a member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Professor Grube has been part of the inner circle of experts for years, that enabled the breakthrough in deciphering the classical Maya scriptures. The object of research is the Hieroglyphic script of the pre-Hispanic Mayan culture, that were used in the time between 500 BC and 1500 AD in the territory of the current states of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. The aim of the research project is the indexing of the 10.000 script-carriers known so far in a machine-readable text corpus based on epigraphic and linguistic analyses. Based on this, a dictionary of the classical Maya will be created, which will display the entire vocabulary and its use in script in form of a database and in printed form. It is the first project, which incorporates all occurrences of the Maya-hieroglyphs with the indication of the original descriptions of the hieroglyphs, transcription and translation as well as background information by means of machine-readable recording of the starting material into a corpus-based database.