Magnificent discovery in a pile of debris

Sep 15, 2006 12:52 GMT  ·  By

A stone (serpentine) block in Southern Veracruz, Mexico, proved to contain a previously unknown system of writing, thought to be the earliest in the New World.

Archaeologists determined that the slab - named the "Cascajal block" - dates to the early first millennium BC and seems to be of Olmec origin. They say the block and its ancient script "link the Olmec civilization to literacy, document an unsuspected writing system, and reveal a new complexity to this civilization."

"It's a tantalizing discovery. I think it could be the beginning of a new era of focus on Olmec civilization," said Stephen D. Houston from Brown University, an expert on ancient writing systems. "It's telling us that these records probably exist and that many remain to be found. If we can decode their content, these earliest voices of Mesoamerican civilization will speak to us today."

Road builders first discovered the Cascajal block in a pile of debris heaped to the side of a destroyed area in the community of Lomas de Tacamichapa in the late 1990s. Mexican archaeologists Carmen Rodr?guez and Ponciano Ort?z were the first to recognize the importance of the find and to register it officially with the Government authority, the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia of Mexico.

Surrounding the piece were ceramic shreds, clay figurine fragments, and broken artifacts of ground stone, which - in addition to "internal clues" and "regional archeology," - have helped the team date the block and its text to the San Lorenzo phase, ending about 900 BCE. That's approximately 400 years before writing was thought to have first appeared in the Western hemisphere.

The block weighs about 26 pounds and measures 36 cm in length, 21 cm in width, and 13 cm in thickness. The incised text consists of 62 signs, some of which are repeated up to four times. Because of its distinct elements, patterns of sequencing, and consistent reading order, the team says the text "conforms to all expectations of writing". The block contains 62 hieroglyphic signs, 28 of them distinct elements.

"This is extremely important because we never recognized this writing system, until this discovery," said Taube. "This is a whole new ball game when looking at the Olmec. We've known they have very elaborate art, and iconography, but this is the first strong indication that they had visually recorded speech." said Karl Taube, a Riverside anthropologist.

Five sides on the block are convex, while the remaining surface containing the text appears concave; hence, the team believes the block has been carved repeatedly and erased - a discovery Houston calls "unprecedented." Several paired sequences of signs also lead the researchers to believe the text contains poetic couplets which would be the earliest known examples of this expression in Mesoamerica.

The Olmec were ancient pre-Columbian people of South Central Mexico from about 1200 BC to about 400 BC which deeply influenced later Mesoamerican societies like Maya and Aztec. They were the first Mesoamerican civilization to use a writing system.