There's so few surviving because guess what? European colonizers destroyed a bunch for religious reasons.
On the Mayan side the destruction rate is well north of 99%. To quote one of the bishops that did a book burning party:
"We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they contained nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction."
Yeah, because that was their literature, history, science, philosophy ...
I'm glad we aren't currently so dedicated to destroying stuff.
Hopefully some indigenous scholars managed to stash some in a cave or tomb somewhere 500 years ago and we simply haven't found them yet.
On the Mayan side the destruction rate is well north of 99%. To quote one of the bishops that did a book burning party:
"We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they contained nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction."
Yeah, because that was their literature, history, science, philosophy ...
I'm glad we aren't currently so dedicated to destroying stuff.
Hopefully some indigenous scholars managed to stash some in a cave or tomb somewhere 500 years ago and we simply haven't found them yet.