Qu'est-ce qui se passerait si on retrouvait d'autres codex mayas intacts dans les prochaines années ?
History

It was until recently thought that the Maya may have adopted writing from the Olmec or Epi-Olmec culture, who used the Isthmian script. However, murals excavated in 2005 have pushed back the origin of Maya writing by several centuries, and it now seems possible that the Maya were the ones who invented writing in Mesoamerica. Scholarly consensus is that the Maya developed the only complete writing system in Mesoamerica.

Before the arrival of Spanish conquistadors, the Aztecs destroyed many Mayan works and sought to depict themselves as the true rulers through a fake history and newly written texts. Knowledge of the Maya writing system continued into the early colonial era and reportedly a few of the early Spanish priests who went to Yucatán learned it. However, as part of his campaign to eradicate pagan rites, Bishop Diego de Landa ordered the collection and destruction of written Maya works, and a sizable number of Maya codices were destroyed. Later, seeking to use their native language to convert the Maya to Christianity, he derived what he believed to be a Maya "alphabet" (the so-called de Landa alphabet). Although the Maya did not actually write alphabetically, nevertheless he recorded a glossary of Maya sounds and related symbols, which was long dismissed as nonsense (for instance, by leading Mayanist J. E. S. Thompson in his 1950 book Maya Hieroglyphic Writing) but eventually became a key resource in deciphering the Maya script. The difficulty was that there was no simple correspondence between the two systems, and the names of the letters of the Spanish alphabet meant nothing to Landa's Maya scribe, so Landa ended up asking things like write "ha": "hache–a", and glossed a part of the result as "H," which, in reality, was written as a-che-a in Maya glyphs.

Landa was also involved in creating an orthography, or a system of writing, for the Yucatec Maya language using the Latin alphabet. This was the first Latin orthography for any of the Mayan languages, which number around thirty.

For many years, only three Maya codices were known to have survived the conquistadors; this was expanded with the 2015 authentication of the Grolier Codex as the fourth. Most surviving texts are found on pottery recovered from Maya tombs, or from monuments and stelae erected in sites which were abandoned or buried before the arrival of the Spanish.

Knowledge of the writing system was lost, probably by the end of the 16th century. Renewed interest in it was sparked by published accounts of ruined Maya sites in the 19th century.
Écriture et alphabétisation

L'Église catholique et les fonctionnaires coloniaux, notamment l'évêque Diego de Landa, ont détruit les textes mayas partout où ils les trouvaient, et avec eux, la connaissance de l'écriture maya. Par chance, quatre livres précolombiens incontestés datant de la période postclassique ont été préservés. Ils sont connus sous les noms de Codex de Madrid, Codex de Dresde, Codex de Paris et Codex maya du Mexique (anciennement connu sous le nom de Codex Grolier, dont l'authenticité était contestée jusqu'en 2018). Les fouilles archéologiques menées sur les sites mayas révèlent souvent d'autres fragments, des masses de plâtre rectangulaires et des éclats de peinture qui étaient des codex ; ces restes alléchants sont cependant trop sévèrement endommagés pour qu'aucune inscription ait survécu, la plupart du matériel organique s'étant décomposé. À propos des rares textes mayas existants, Michael D. Coe a déclaré :

### Query ###
Qu'est-ce qui se passerait si on retrouvait d'autres codex mayas intacts dans les prochaines années ?

### Main Text ###
History

It was until recently thought that the Maya may have adopted writing from the Olmec or Epi-Olmec culture, who used the Isthmian script. However, murals excavated in 2005 have pushed back the origin of Maya writing by several centuries, and it now seems possible that the Maya were the ones who invented writing in Mesoamerica. Scholarly consensus is that the Maya developed the only complete writing system in Mesoamerica.

Before the arrival of Spanish conquistadors, the Aztecs destroyed many Mayan works and sought to depict themselves as the true rulers through a fake history and newly written texts. Knowledge of the Maya writing system continued into the early colonial era and reportedly a few of the early Spanish priests who went to Yucatán learned it. However, as part of his campaign to eradicate pagan rites, Bishop Diego de Landa ordered the collection and destruction of written Maya works, and a sizable number of Maya codices were destroyed. Later, seeking to use their native language to convert the Maya to Christianity, he derived what he believed to be a Maya "alphabet" (the so-called de Landa alphabet). Although the Maya did not actually write alphabetically, nevertheless he recorded a glossary of Maya sounds and related symbols, which was long dismissed as nonsense (for instance, by leading Mayanist J. E. S. Thompson in his 1950 book Maya Hieroglyphic Writing) but eventually became a key resource in deciphering the Maya script. The difficulty was that there was no simple correspondence between the two systems, and the names of the letters of the Spanish alphabet meant nothing to Landa's Maya scribe, so Landa ended up asking things like write "ha": "hache–a", and glossed a part of the result as "H," which, in reality, was written as a-che-a in Maya glyphs.

Landa was also involved in creating an orthography, or a system of writing, for the Yucatec Maya language using the Latin alphabet. This was the first Latin orthography for any of the Mayan languages, which number around thirty.

For many years, only three Maya codices were known to have survived the conquistadors; this was expanded with the 2015 authentication of the Grolier Codex as the fourth. Most surviving texts are found on pottery recovered from Maya tombs, or from monuments and stelae erected in sites which were abandoned or buried before the arrival of the Spanish.

Knowledge of the writing system was lost, probably by the end of the 16th century. Renewed interest in it was sparked by published accounts of ruined Maya sites in the 19th century.

### Supplementary Text ###
Écriture et alphabétisation

L'Église catholique et les fonctionnaires coloniaux, notamment l'évêque Diego de Landa, ont détruit les textes mayas partout où ils les trouvaient, et avec eux, la connaissance de l'écriture maya. Par chance, quatre livres précolombiens incontestés datant de la période postclassique ont été préservés. Ils sont connus sous les noms de Codex de Madrid, Codex de Dresde, Codex de Paris et Codex maya du Mexique (anciennement connu sous le nom de Codex Grolier, dont l'authenticité était contestée jusqu'en 2018). Les fouilles archéologiques menées sur les sites mayas révèlent souvent d'autres fragments, des masses de plâtre rectangulaires et des éclats de peinture qui étaient des codex ; ces restes alléchants sont cependant trop sévèrement endommagés pour qu'aucune inscription ait survécu, la plupart du matériel organique s'étant décomposé. À propos des rares textes mayas existants, Michael D. Coe a déclaré :


### Draft ###

### 1. Query Disambiguation

"Qu'est-ce qui se passerait si..." → conditional speculation about hypothetical archaeological discovery.

Key terms:
- "autres codex" = additional Maya codices ●
- "intacts" = complete/well-preserved ●  
- "prochaines années" = near-future timeframe ◐

? Translation challenge: "intacts" implies preservation quality, not mere survival fragments.

### 2. Contextual Framework

Current state assessment:
- Only 4 confirmed pre-Columbian Maya codices survive ●
- Codex de Madrid, Dresde, Paris, Grolier (authenticated 2018) ●
- Archaeological fragments exist but severely damaged ●
- Writing system partially deciphered (≈60-70%) but incomplete ◐

Historical destruction context:
- Bishop Diego de Landa's 1562 book burnings ●
- Systematic eradication of Maya texts ●
- Only 3-4 examples survived from potentially hundreds ○

### 3. Speculative Impact Analysis

**Immediate effects** →
- Decipherment acceleration! ● More texts = statistical leverage for cryptanalysis
- Cross-referencing opportunities ◐ Multiple manuscripts enable comparative studies
- Archaeological context ◐ Intact codices likely found with inscriptions/artefacts

**Knowledge expansion** →
- Writing system completion ◐ Fill gaps in grammatical structures, vocabulary
- Historical chronology ● More dated manuscripts = better timelines  
- Religious practices ● Ceremonial texts, ritual sequences
- Mathematical/astronomical knowledge ◐ Codex evidence suggests sophisticated math

**Methodological implications** →
- Decipherment team expansion ● More material = more specialist demand
- International collaboration ● Shared access to primary sources
- Digital preservation ● High-resolution imaging, 3D documentation

### 4. Constraint Analysis

Physical realism check:
- Maya sites extensively excavated since 19th century ●
- Most major sites already investigated ◐
- Limestone environment = poor organic preservation ○
- Codices made from bark paper + pigment = fragile materials

Probability assessment:
P(major codex discovery | next decade) ≈ 0.1-0.3 ◐
- Based on archaeological survey completion rates
- Environmental degradation factors
- Looting vs. controlled excavation

### 5. Synthesis

Discovery of intact Maya codices would revolutionize Maya studies.

**Certain impacts** ●:
- Accelerated decipherment progress
- Enhanced understanding of writing system
- Better chronological frameworks

**Probable impacts** ◐:
- New insights into Maya worldview
- Additional astronomical/mathematical knowledge  
- Expanded vocabulary/grammar

**Uncertain impacts** ○:
- Complete writing system understanding
- Major historical revelations
- Unknown unknowns in preserved texts

∴ Speculation bounded by:
1. Physical preservation constraints
2. Archaeological survey completion
3. Current decipherment progress
4. International research capacity

NB: Most significant value not in quantity but in contextual completeness. Single intact codex > dozen fragments for scholarly understanding.

### Answer###
La découverte d'autres codex mayas intacts serait un événement révolutionnaire pour l'étude de cette civilisation précolombienne. Actuellement, seuls quatre codex mayas authentiques sont connus : le Codex de Madrid, le Codex de Dresde, le Codex de Paris, et le Codex maya du Mexique (anciennement Codex Grolier, authentifié en 2018).

Une telle découverte permettrait d'enrichir considérablement notre compréhension de l'écriture maya, qui était le seul système d'écriture complet développé en Mésoamérique. Les textes mayas écrits sur des supports variés comme la poterie, les monuments et les stèles, ainsi que les rares fragments retrouvés lors de fouilles archéologiques, montrent déjà l'importance de ces documents pour comprendre la civilisation maya.

L'impact serait considérable : de nouveaux codex intacts fourniraient des sources primaires supplémentaires pour décrypter davantage le système d'écriture maya, actuellement en cours de déchiffrement grâce aux travaux pionniers de spécialistes comme Yuri Knorosov et les autres décrypteurs mayas. Ces documents pourraient révéler des aspects inconnus de la culture maya, de ses pratiques religieuses à son organisation sociale, en passant par ses connaissances astronomiques et mathématiques.

Cependant, cette spéculation reste limitée par le fait que la plupart des sites mayas ont été largement fouillés depuis le XIXe siècle, et que l'environnement climatique et les conditions archéologiques rendent la préservation de tels manuscrits exceptionnellement rare.