What material did the Maya use to make their codices?

The Maya made their codices from bark paper. This specialized writing material was produced from the inner bark of wild fig trees, especially Ficus cotinifolia, and was known in Maya languages as huun.

Maya scribes coated the prepared sheets with a thin layer of lime plaster, creating a smooth, pale surface for painting hieroglyphs, numbers, calendars, astronomical tables, rituals, and images of gods. The sheets were folded accordion-style into screenfold books rather than bound like modern books.

Bark paper is easy to confuse with papyrus because both were used for ancient books, but they are different materials and traditions. Papyrus was made from the pith of a wetland plant in Egypt; Maya paper came from tree bark and was considered a durable writing surface in Mesoamerica. Parchment, made from animal skin, was also not the Maya material.

Spanish colonial authorities destroyed many Maya books, including a large number burned during Bishop Diego de Landa's campaign at Maní in 1562. Only a handful of pre-Columbian Maya codices survive, including the Dresden, Madrid, Paris, and Maya Codex of Mexico.