Mayan could be possible. But the Maya wrote numbers differently; turned 90°. Also there is never a dot below a bar.
Edit:
Nevermind, there is.... -|- (turned 90°) could mean 121
Resisting the urge for numerology, 26 obviously is another Important number for us, if we're talking about the latin alphabet.
This idea also offers a potential explanation for why the top symbols use '- |' and the bottom symbols use '. |'.
I don't know - it's not a definite by any stretch, and I'm still leaning more towards the binary interpretation but, perhaps, with some dual-meaning; but it might be interesting to see qhere this leads. Perhaps rotating the image when reading that part to make them work as mayan might work.
Seriously - I want to say 'pfft!' but I've been caught out before, as have we all! :0