Question

Passage:
For decades in the mid-twentieth century, Maya epigraphy was dominated by J. Eric S. Thompson’s paradigm, which held that Maya hieroglyphs were non-phonetic ideograms primarily recording calendrical calculations, astronomical observations, and esoteric religious symbolism. Thompson contended that the glyphs lacked any phonetic syntax capable of transcribing spoken Maya languages. This view was decisively challenged in the 1950s by linguist Yuri Knorozov, who argued that Maya writing operated as a logo-syllabic system in which signs represented both full morphemes and phonetic syllables. Knorozov demonstrated that glyphic combinations functioned analogously to ancient Egyptian scripts, relying on phonetic complementation to clarify readings. Despite empirical demonstrations of readable syllabic pairings, Knorozov’s findings were initially dismissed by Western scholars, largely owing to geopolitical tensions of the Cold War era and Thompson’s institutional dominance. Only when subsequent epigraphers independently validated Knorozov’s phonetic readings against excavated inscriptions did the discipline shift, acknowledging that Maya writing constituted a fully functional historical script recording dynastic narratives.

Which of the following statements accurately describe a primary purpose or central thesis of the passage? (Select all that apply.)