Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T02:21:25.441Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Early Olmec Writing: Reading Format and Reading Order

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David F. Mora-Marín
David F. Mora-Marín*
Affiliation:
Linguistics Department, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper analyzes the reading format and reading order of the recently described Cascajal Block, an artifact with an Olmec-style inscription. The analysis, based not on the iconicity of the signs and their orientation, but solely on the formal and organizational characteristics of the text as a whole, and the patterns of repeated sign sequences, suggests that the text was written from left-to-right, bottom-to-top—if one assumes the orientation assigned to the block by Rodríguez Martínez et al. (2006). However, a simple 90-degree rotation of the block would render the text in left-to-right, top-to-bottom reading format and order—the same as that of later Mesoamerican scripts. It is suggested that the San Andres roller stamp and the La Venta obsidian core, both of which exhibit a pictorial image and an accompanying text, allow for a determination of the relative orientation of text and image with respect to each other, and support the hypothesis for the reading format proposed here. Also, preliminary structural analysis of the text reveals several patterns that are possibly indicative of linguistic structuring, and steps for future work on decipherment are outlined. Finally, the findings are placed within a broader context of previous studies of Olmec writing.

El presente artículo constituye un análisis del formato y dirección de lectura del recién descubierto Bloque de Cascajal, un artefacto con una inscripción de estilo olmeca. El análisis se basa exclusivamente en los rasgos formales y composicionales del texto en sí, además de los patrones de repetición de secuencias de signos, y no en la presunta orientación e iconicidad de los signos, rasgos utilizados por Rodríguez Martínez et al. (2006). El análisis sugiere que el texto fue escrito en columnas—y no en hileras horizontales—de izquierda a derecha, de arriba hacia abajo, una vez que el texto es reorientado noventa grados a la derecha con respecto a la orientación propuesta por dichos autores. Los resultados concuerdan con las características de los sistemas de escritura más antiguos de Mesoamérica ya conocidos—zapoteca, epi-olmeca, maya. También se sugiere que el sello cilindrico de San Andrés y el taladro de obsidiana de La Venta, ambos caracterizados por una imagen pictórica acompoñada por un posible texto, permiten la tarea de determinar la orientación relativa de texto e imagen, apoyando los resultados basados en el Bloque de Cascajal. Además, un análisis estructural preliminar del texto provee varios patrones que podrían ser indicativos de una organización lingüística, y varios pasos para una futura labor de desciframiento son esbozados. Finalmente, los resultados de este artículo son contextualizados dentro de un marco analitico de estudios previos sobre la escritura olmeca.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , September 2009 , pp. 395 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 by the Society for American Archaeology.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Anderson, Lloyd 1993 The Writing System of La Mojarra and Associated Monuments. Ecological Linguistics, Washington, DC. Google Scholar
Angulo, Jorge 1987 The Chalcatzingo Reliefs: An Iconographic Analysis. In Ancient Chalcatzingo, edited by David C. Grove, pp. 132–158. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Benson, Elizabeth P. 1996 Collections of Olmec Objects Outside Mexico. In Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico, edited by Elizabeth P. Benson and Beatriz de la Fuente, pp. 133–138. Harry N. Abrams, New York.Google Scholar
Blomster, Jeffrey P. 2002 What and Where Is Olmec Style? Ancient Mesoamerica 13:171–195.Google Scholar
Blomster, Jeffrey P., Neff, Hector, and Glascock, Michael D. 2005 Olmec Pottery Production and Export in Ancient Mexico Determined through Elemental Analysis. Science 307:1068–1072.Google Scholar
Boone, Elizabeth H. 1994 Introduction: Writing and Recording Knowledge. In Writing Without Words. Alternative Literacies in Mesoamerica and the Andes, edited by Elizabeth Hill Boone and Walter D. Mignolo. Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina.Google Scholar
Campbell, Lyle, and Terrence Kaufman 1976 A Linguistic Look at the Olmecs. American Antiquity 41:80–89.Google Scholar
Clark, John E. 1990 Olmecas, Olmequismo y Olmequización en Mesoamérica. Arqueología 3:49–56.Google Scholar
Covarrubias, Miguel 1942 Origen y Desarrollo del Estilo Artístico “Olmeca.” In Mayas y Olmecas: Segunda Reunión de Mesa Redonda Sobre Problemas Antropológicos de México y Centrao América, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, pp. 46–49. Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología, Mexico.Google Scholar
Covarrubias, Miguel 1957 Indian Art of Mexico and Central America. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.Google Scholar
Diehl, Richard A., and Coe, Michael D. 1995 Olmec archaeology. In The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership, edited by J. Guthrie and Elizabeth P. Benson, pp. 11–25. The Art Museum, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey.Google Scholar
Flannery, Kent V, and Marcus, Joyce 2000 Formative Mexican Chiefdoms and the Myth of the “Mother Culture.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 19:1–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gay, Carlo 1973 Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing. Archaeology 26:278–288.Google Scholar
Grove, David C. 1970 The Olmec Paintings of Oxtotitlan Cave. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC. Google Scholar
Grove, David C. 1989 Olmec: What’s in a Name? In Regional Perspectives on the Olmec, edited by Robert J. Sharer and David C. Grove, pp. 8–14. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Grove, David C. 1993 “Olmec” Horizons in Formative Period Mesoamerica: Diffusion or Social Evolution? In Latin American Horizons, edited by Don S. Rice, pp. 83–111. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections, Washington, DC. Google Scholar
Grove, David C. 1997 Olmec Archaeology: A Half Century of Research and its Accomplishments. Journal of World Prehistory 11:51–101.Google Scholar
Guernsey Kappelman, Julia 1997 Of Macaws and Men: Late Preclassic Cosmology and Political Ideology in Izapan-Style Monuments. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Texas, Austin, Texas.Google Scholar
Haas, William 1976 Writing: The Basic Options. In Writing Without Letters, edited by William Haas, pp. 131–208. Manchester University Press, Manchester.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen D., and Coe, Michael D. 2003 Has Isthmian Writing Been Deciphered? Mexicon XXV:151–161.Google Scholar
Joralemon, Peter D. 1971 A Study of Olmec Iconography. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections, Washington, DC. Google Scholar
Justeson, John S. 1986 The Origin of Writing Systems: Preclassic Mesoamerica. World Archaeology 17:437–458.Google Scholar
Justeson, John S., and Kaufman, Terrence 1993 A Decipherment of Epi-Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing. Science 259:1703–1711.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Justeson, John S., and Kaufman, Terrence 1997 A Newly Discovered Column in the Hieroglyphic Text on La Mojarra Stela 1: A Test of the Epi-Olmec Decipherment. Science 277:207–210.Google Scholar
Kaufman, Terrence, and Justeson, John 2001 Epi-Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing and Texts. Texas Workshop Foundation, Austin.Google Scholar
Kaufman, Terrence, and Justeson, John 2004 Epi-Olmec. In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World’s Ancient Languages, edited by Robert D. Woodard, pp. 1071–1108. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Kelley, David H. 1966 A Cylinder Seal from Tlatilco. American Antiquity 31:744–746.Google Scholar
Kelley, David H. 1993 Epigraphy: The Decipherment of the Epi-Olmec Script as Zoquean by Justeson and Kaufman. The Review of Anthropology 14:29–32.Google Scholar
Kirchhoff, Paul 1952 Mesoamerica: Its Geographic Limits, Ethnic Composition, and Cultural Characteristics. In Heritage of Conquest, edited by Sol Tax, pp. 1–12. The Free Press, New York.Google Scholar
Lawler, Andrew 2006 Claim of Oldest New World Writing Excites Archaeologists. Science 313:1551.Google Scholar
Macri, Martha J., and Stark, Laura M. 1993 A Sign Catalog of the La Mojarra Script. Monograph 5. Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, San Francisco Google Scholar
Méluzin, Sylvia 1987 The Tuxtla Statuette: An Internal Analysis of Its Writing System. In The Periphery of the Southeastern Classic Maya Realm, edited by Garrett W. Pahl, pp. 67–113. UCLA Latin American Center. Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Méluzin, Sylvia 1995 Further Investigations of the Tuxtla Script: An Inscribed Mask and La Mojarra Stela 1. New World Archaeological Foundation, Provo, Utah.Google Scholar
Mora-Marín, David F. 2001 The Grammar, Orthography, Content, and Social Con text of Late Preclassic Mayan Portable Texts. Ph.D. dissertation. State University of New York, Albany.Google Scholar
Mora-Marín, David F. 2005 A Review of Recent Work on the Decipherment of Epi-Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing. Manuscript to appear in Mexicon. Department of Linguistics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Neff, Hector, Blomster, Jeffrey, Glascock, Michael D., Bishop, Ronald L., James Blackman, M., Coe, Michael D., Cowgill, Goerge L., Diehl, Richard A., Houston, Stephen, Joyce, Arthur A., Lipo, Carl P., Stark, Barbara L., and Winter, Marcus 2006 Methodological Issues in the Provenance Investigation of Early Formative Mesoamerican Ceramics. Latin American Antiquity 17(1):54–76.Google Scholar
Pohl, Mary E. D., Pope, Kevin O., von Nagy, Christopher 2002 Olmec Origins of Mesoamerican Writing. Science 298:1984–1987.Google Scholar
Martínez, Rodríguez, del Carmen, María, Ortiz Ceballos, Ponciano, Coe, Michael D., Diehl, Richard A., Houston, Stephen D., Taube, Karl A., and Delgado Calderón, Alfredo 2006 Oldest Writing in the New World. Science 313:1610–1614.Google Scholar
Skidmore, Joel 2006 The Cascajal Block: The Earliest Precolumbian Writing. Electronic document, www.mesoweb.com/reports/Cascajal.pdf.Google Scholar
Stirling, Matthew W. 1940 Great Stone Faces of the Mexican Jungle. The National Geographic Magazine 78(3):309–334.Google Scholar
Stirling, Matthew W. 1943 Stone Monuments of Southern Mexico. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 138. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Stockstad, Erik 2002 Oldest New World Writing Suggests Olmec Innovation. Science 298:1872–1874.Google Scholar
Wichmann, Søren 1994 Mixe-Zoquean Linguistics: a status report. In Panaroma de estudios de las lenguas indígenas de Mexico, edited by Leonardo Manrique, Yolanda Lastra, and Doris A. Bartholomew, pp. 193–267. Colección Biblioteca Abya-Yala, 16. Ediciones Abya-Yala, Quito.Google Scholar
Winfield Capitaine, Ferdinand 1988 Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing 16:1–36.Google Scholar