A SLAB inscribed with the oldest writing yet discovered in the New World nearly wound up as landfill in a Mexican road. The archaeologists that salvaged it say the writing dates back nearly 3000 years to the height of the Olmec period, Meso-America鈥檚 first civilisation.
The slab is the first solid evidence of a true written Olmec language, says Stephen Houston of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, who helped analyse it. Distinct from the writing of later cultures, the hieroglyphic script is also the first new writing system to be discovered in decades. 鈥淲e鈥檙e talking about something that happens once in a lifetime,鈥� Houston told 快猫短视频.
鈥淭he hieroglyphic script is the first new writing system to be discovered in decades. This happens once in a lifetime鈥�
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Carmen Rodriguez and Ponciano Ortiz of the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History in Veracruz found the so-called Cascajal slab and other artefacts in a quarry in 1999. Houston and others later helped them study the inscription.
Weighing about 12 kilograms, the slab is about the size of a thick laptop computer (36 by 21 by 12 centimetres). One side is ground smooth and inscribed with 62 symbols of a hieroglyphic script. The symbols, which resemble objects such as an insect, an ear of corn and a throne, are arranged in rows and some are repeated, as with other written languages.
Direct dating was impossible because the slab was not discovered in its original location. However, about three-quarters of the other artefacts found with the slab come from a phase of the Olmecs dated at between 1200 and 900 BC.
Repeated pairing of symbols suggests the lines could be poetic couplets, the researchers say (Science, vol 313, p 1610). Such couplets were used by later cultures in the region. Nothing is known of this particular language, though. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a great challenge to figure out what they鈥檙e saying,鈥� says Houston.
He doubts the script is something like a list of accounts, because it includes nothing resembling the dots later Meso-Americans used for numbers. Otherwise its meaning remains a mystery. A few other Olmec artefacts bear similar, isolated symbols, suggesting the script was used widely. Most of it may not have been written on stone, Houston says. He speculates the Olmec used wood or paper, which would have decayed long ago.
The link to the Olmec culture is convincing, says Mary Pohl of Florida State University, who earlier excavated an inscribed stamp firmly dated to 650 BC (快猫短视频, 14 December 2002, p 21). Recently another stamp has been dated to 1150 BC, pushing back the origin of the Olmec symbols. 鈥淭hings are really beginning to come together,鈥� Pohl says, 鈥渢his is an exciting time.鈥�
