Writing May Be Oldest in Western Hemisphere

Writing May Be Oldest in Western Hemisphere
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Published: September 15, 2006


Sixty-two distinct signs are inscribed on the stone slab, which was discovered in the state of Veracruz in Mexico.
A stone slab bearing 3,000-year-old writing previously unknown to scholars has been found in the Mexican state of Veracruz, and archaeologists say it is an example of the oldest script ever discovered in the Western Hemisphere.



Sixty-two distinct signs are inscribed on the stone slab, which was discovered in the state of Veracruz in Mexico.

The Mexican discoverers and their colleagues from the United States reported yesterday that the order and pattern of carved symbols appeared to be that of a true writing system and that it had characteristics strikingly similar to imagery of the Olmec civilization, considered the earliest in the Americas.

Finding a heretofore unknown writing system is rare. One of the last major ones to come to light, scholars say, was the Indus Valley script, recognized from excavations in 1924.

Now, scholars are tantalized by a message in stone in a script unlike any other and a text they cannot read. They are excited by the prospect of finding more of this writing, and eventually deciphering it, to crack open a window on one of the most enigmatic ancient civilizations.

The inscription on the Mexican stone, with 28 distinct signs, some of which are repeated, for a total of 62, has been tentatively dated from at least 900 B.C., possibly earlier. That is 400 or more years before writing was known to have existed in Mesoamerica, the region from central Mexico through much of Central America, and by extension, anywhere in the hemisphere.

Previously, no script had been associated unambiguously with the Olmec culture, which flourished along the Gulf of Mexico in Veracruz and Tabasco well before the Zapotec and Maya people rose to prominence elsewhere in the region. Until now, the Olmec were known mainly for the colossal stone heads they sculptured and displayed at monumental buildings in their ruling cities.

The stone was discovered by María del Carmen Rodríguez of the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico and Ponciano Ortíz of Veracruz University. The archaeologists, a married couple, are the lead authors of the report of the discovery, which is being published today in the journal Science.

The signs incised on the 26-pound stone, the researchers said in the report, “link the Olmec to literacy, document an unsuspected writing system and reveal a new complexity to this civilization.”

Noting that the text “conforms to all expectations of writing,” the researchers wrote that the sequences of signs reflected “patterns of language, with the probable presence of syntax and language-dependent word orders.”

Several paired sequences of signs, scholars said, have even prompted speculation that the text contained poetic couplets.

Experts who have examined the Olmec symbols said they would need many more examples before they could hope to read what is written on the stone. They said it appeared that the symbols in the inscription were unrelated to later Mesoamerican scripts, suggesting that this Olmec writing might have been practiced for only a few generations and never spread to surrounding cultures.

Stephen D. Houston of Brown University, a co-author of the report and an authority on ancient writings, acknowledged that the apparent singularity of the script was a puzzle and would probably be emphasized by some scholars who question the influence of the Olmec on the course of later Mesoamerican cultures.

But Dr. Houston said the discovery “could be the beginning of a new era of focus on the Olmec civilization.”

Other participants in the research include Michael D. Coe of Yale; Richard A. Diehl of the University of Alabama; Karl A. Taube of the University of California, Riverside; and Alfredo Delgado Calderón, also of the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

Mesoamerican researchers not involved in the discovery agreed that the signs appeared to represent a true script and that their appearance could be expected to inspire more intensive exploration of the Olmec past. The civilization emerged about 1200 B.C. and virtually disappeared around 400 B.C.

In an accompanying article in Science, Mary Pohl, an anthropologist at Florida State University who has excavated Olmec ruins, was quoted as saying, “This is an exciting discovery of great significance.”

A few other researchers were skeptical of the inscription’s date because the stone was uncovered in a gravel quarry where it and other artifacts were jumbled and possibly out of their original context.

The discovery team said that ceramic shards, clay figurines and other broken artifacts accompanying the stone appeared to be from a phase of Olmec culture ending about 900 B.C. They conceded, though, that the disarray at the site made it impossible to determine if the stone was in a place relating to the governing elite or a religious ceremony.

Dr. Diehl, a specialist in Olmec research, said, “My colleagues and I are absolutely convinced the stone is authentic.”

Road builders digging gravel came across the stone in debris from an ancient mound at Cascajal, a place the discoverers said was in the “Olmec heartland.” The village is on an island in southern Veracruz and about a mile from the ruins of San Lorenzo, the site of the dominant Olmec city from 1200 B.C. to 900 B.C.

That was in 1999, and Dr. Rodríguez and Dr. Ortíz were called in, and they quickly recognized the potential importance of the find.

Only after years of further excavations, in which they hoped to find more writing specimens, and comparative analysis with Olmec iconography did the two invite other Mesoamerican scholars to join the study. After a few reports in recent years of Olmec “writing” that failed to hold up, the team decided earlier this year that the Cascajal stone, as it is being called, was the real thing.

The tiny, delicate signs are incised on a block of soft serpentine stone 14 inches long, 8 inches wide and 5 inches thick. The inscription is on the stone’s concave top surface.

Dr. Houston, who was a leader in the decipherment of Maya writing, examined the stone with an eye to clues that this was true writing and not just iconography unrelated to a language. He said in an interview that he had detected regular patterns and order suggesting “a text segmented into what almost look like sentences, with clear beginnings and clear endings.”

Some pictographic signs were frequently repeated, Dr. Houston said, particularly ones that looked like an insect or a lizard. He suspected that these were signs alerting the reader to the use of words that sound alike but have different meanings — as in the difference in English of “I” and “eye.”

All in all, Dr. Houston concluded, “the linear sequencing, the regularity of signs, the clear patterns of ordering, they tell me this is writing, but we don’t know what it says.”

[footfootfoot]

That is very cool. Allow me one tiny rant, as a former professional photographer who specialized in photographing artwork and antiquities I am astounded at how an object of such importance could be left n the hands of a chimpanzee to be photographed. You'd think, oh never mind.

Very cool none the less. Maybe some day they'll get a pro to photograph it.

sigh.

That was also my first thought.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Maybe that was taken by and not released to, a reporter?

Damn it Honey, you know I was saving those stones for holiday gifts. Why on earth did you let the kids scratch them all to hell?

[Tonchi]

It does not photograph well because this item was INCISED, not carved in relief as are the majority of Maya writings. If you have visited the area where this stone comes from, as I have, the water table is about 6 inches above the ground. Cleaning up an inscription as well as they did would have been a major undertaking. I think the photo is not half bad, but reading it would work better from a rubbing.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Tonchi

It does not photograph well because this item was INCISED, not carved in relief as are the majority of Maya writings. If you have visited the area where this stone comes from, as I have, the water table is about 6 inches above the ground. Cleaning up an inscription as well as they did would have been a major undertaking. I think the photo is not half bad, but reading it would work better from a rubbing.

Tonchi, just because something does not photograph well doesn't mean you can't make a good photo of it. Actually it does mean you can't take a good photo of it, but I can. It is just more difficult and so that is why god created professional photographers.

If time allows in the next millenium I'll put up a few of my more challenging assignments, in the meantime you can take my word that a better image can be made of that stone.

[Tonchi]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

Tonchi, just because something does not photograph well doesn't mean you can't make a good photo of it. Actually it does mean you can't take a good photo of it, but I can. It is just more difficult and so that is why god created professional photographers.

Eeeeek! You confessed! PHOTOSHOP

[footfootfoot]

Nahh. I have mad old school skilz. Photoshop and digitality is the reason I left the profession. I'm a process oriented guy, it's about the journey etcetc. I'm not really jazzed about digital bells and whistles. Photoshop has it's moments though.

Shooting that stone is all about lighting. Then it's lenses, film, and processing running neck and neck.

I miss the good old days sometimes, sniff.

First problem with that picture is the light source is too close, you've got a massive hot spot with severe fall off at the corners. The next problem is that you want to pick up the texture of the writing without picking up the texture of the stone, it's a dance of give and take. You might use filters on the camera to enhance to writing and flatten out the stone's texture. I'd say a good shot of that stone could take all day to set up. Some things I've shot have taken longer to set up.

Then again there is always the dome...

[bluecuracao]

I bet there are more of tablets--maybe they were used in a mail system.

From another story:

At 5 inches thick and 26 pounds, the tablet is far more hefty, but still portable.

The face is smooth and slightly concave, which suggests it may have been worn down in antiquity as it was inscribed and erased multiple times, Houston said.

There is little hope of deciphering the meaning of the text. The small size of the block and the faintness of the inscription imply the text was not a public document, but instead was meant for intimate reading, Houston said.

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/49240.html

[Elspode]

I've taken the liberty of translating that text. It wasn't hard:

50 chickens
12 pigs
15 cows
50# maize
one preist's head

Hey, even ancient peoples had to shop, right?

[Tonchi]

Originally Posted by bluecuracao

I bet there are more of tablets--maybe they were used in a mail system.

"Writing" from that part of the world was not correspondence. There was no such thing as "literacy", there were just rulers-artisans-workers. Very few people could even understand what was on the monuments, hence the elaborate portrayals of the ruler who errected it. Like the Egyptians, their writing was phonetic-based heiroglyphics, no script. Calendar dates were an obsession because they believed that any given day was an oracle, they counted and calculated everything. Until the time of the Aztecs, I don't believe the Maya made up any portable writings (codexes), and nothing in that form survives from Olmec and other earlier costal civilizations. The monuments they left are in stone which weighs tons or are frescoed onto plaster, in praise of certain events and the rulers who pulled them off. It was like "I did this" writing. The Maya also might put long inscriptions on some of their pottery masterpieces, but do not seem to have made the connection with painting and baking clay into a tablet record, as was developed very early in the Mesopotamian civilizations. Until a reasonable knowledge in reading the glyphs was reached by researchers, barely a decade ago, we did not know even the names of the cities where these monuments had been erected, the collapse of Maya knowledge and the disappearance of the physical evidence of it had been so complete. I'm not all that sure these archaeologists have really discovered "a whole new form of writing", and will not be surprised if ultimately they decide it is "sketch" of an inscription that an early Olmec ruler in the area wanted to erect somewhere.

[footfootfoot]

So, it's basically a cocktail napkin sketch.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Elspode

I've taken the liberty of translating that text. It wasn't hard:

50 chickens
12 pigs
15 cows
50# maize
one preist's head

Hey, even ancient peoples had to shop, right?

Must have been written by a man, since there are no boxes for the check marks to indicate completion, right?

[Tonchi]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

So, it's basically a cocktail napkin sketch.

Y'know, as funny as that sounds, it might not be far from the truth. Somebody sitting around with his supervisor discussing the latest project of the ruler, saying "Hey, but how about like this?" Didn't one of the articles suggest that the stone appeared to have be erased several times by scraping it down?

[barefoot serpent]

There is little hope of deciphering the meaning of the text. The small size of the block and the faintness of the inscription imply the text was not a public document, but instead was meant for intimate reading, Houston said.

Olmec pr0n.