Unknown Writing System Uncovered On Ancient Olmec Tablet

scienceagogo ^ | 15 September 2006 | by Kate Melville

[Fred Nerks]

Science magazine this week details the discovery of a stone block in Veracruz, Mexico, that contains a previously unknown system of writing; believed by archeologists to be the earliest in the Americas.

The slab - named the Cascajal block - dates to the early first millennium BCE and has features that indicate it comes from the Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica. One of the archaeologists behind the discovery, Brown University's Stephen D. Houston, said that 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," explained Houston. "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."

Construction workers discovered the Cascajal block in a pile of debris in the community of Lomas de Tacamichapa in the late 1990s. Surrounding the piece were ceramic shards, clay figurine fragments, and broken artifacts of ground stone, which have helped the team date the block and its text to the San Lorenzo phase, ending about 900 BCE; 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 x 21 cm x 13 cm. The text itself consists of 62 signs, some of which are repeated up to four times. There is no doubt that the piece is a written work, say the archaeologists. "As products of a writing system, the sequences would, by definition, reflect patterns of language, with the probable presence of syntax and language-dependent word order," they explain.

Interestingly, the surface containing the text appears to be concave and the team believes the block has been carved repeatedly and erased - an unprecedented discovery according to Houston, who added that several paired sequences of signs could even indicate poetic couplets.

Source: Brown University Pics courtesy Science

[Parley Baer]

I bet Al Gore invented that style of writing. That was right before he invented the Internet.

[Grizzled Bear]

That looks like the standard Air Force UXO Identification Card!

[FFranco]

It’s probably a catalog of taxes paid or owed. That is how writing was invented, to record taxes. Tax collecting is likely the second oldest profession.

I blieve most of the Linear B (Greek) sources are lists of commodities owed/collected as taxes, plus lists of officer assignments, eg, coast watchers, governors, etc. I do not believe any literary texts have been discovered on Linear B tablets.

[TruthConquers]

Wasn’t it linear B that hasn’t been deciphered yet? Could be wrong, but one of the early Greek scripts to my knowledge (which is very amateur grade) has never been decoded.

[FFranco]

Linear B was deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the early 1950s. It is apparently an archaic Greek language written in Minoan (Linear A) syllabic script. As far as I know, Linear A has not yet been deciphered.

[PUGACHEV]

The Olmecs are a mysterious culture, to say the least. We know so little about them. Where they came from is a mystery; where they went is a mystery. We don't even know their name, Olmec is just a name we assigned to them.

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks Fred Nerks. Wow, thanks. Nothing previously on FR that turned up in a search. Here's a link to an omnibus post on the Olmec-Shang stuff. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are Blam, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
· Google · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology magazine · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Mirabilis · Texas AM Anthropology News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · · History or Science & Nature Podcasts · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Re “We are having a helluva kegger, but we need more beer and pizza.”

You forgot the most important thing in Olmec/Mayan/Aztec culture - virgins!

Not a good party without virgins to party with or sacrifice!

[Army Air Corps]

You are correct! The Perfet Party Triad is food, hooch, and women.

[dljordan]

Looks like and advertisement for hand tools to me. Sort of an early Ace Hardware ad.

[SunkenCiv]

Cascajal block

Google

images

Google

[SunkenCiv]

Okay... this got me thinking about the recent claim that the Phaistos Disk is a fake... and I could have sworn there was a topic about it... couldn’t find it... any leads?

[SunkenCiv]

ah...

Phaistos Disc declared as fake by scholar
The Times of London | July 12, 2008 | Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent
Posted on 07/30/2008 10:56:36 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2054126/posts

[Fred Nerks]

PHAISTOS DISC.

Jerome M. Eisenberg, writing in the July/August issue of the magazine Minerva, provides a compilation of the scholarly (and non-scholarly) ideas about and attempted translations of the disk, and concludes that the disk is a forgery...

...The translation compilation alone contains such entertainments, from the mystic ("Helmsman's-rhythm-beating-call of the blossoming radiant heaven's tree dweller"), to the romantic ("Blissful lady of the labyrinth, blissful Isonoia, lady of the coffins") to the political ("Hear ye Cretans! Quick, quick") to the instructional ("Enter the grove of Elaia: Ignite smoothened wood all around"), ...

Proving the Phaistos disk a fake is going to be difficult. Eisenberg points out that the purposely stamped and deliberately fired disk is unlike any other Minoan script. Those found at Knossos were drawn into soft clay and accidentally fired.

No they were not accidentally fired! They were burnt as was the custom - as gifts to the dead.

The Secrets of Crete. Knossos wasn't a palace, it was a Temple of the Dead.

[SunkenCiv]

Crete: isle of the dead?
Frontier magazine | January-February 2000 | Philip Coppens
Posted on 08/03/2006 10:11:02 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1677518/posts

[SunkenCiv]

boy, sometimes *nothing* helps...

Oldest writing in the New World discovered
NewScientist.com | 14 September 2006 | Jeff Hecht
Posted on 09/14/2006 4:09:26 PM EDT by flevit
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1701572/posts

‘Oldest’ New World writing found
BBC | September 15, 2006 | Helen Briggs
Posted on 09/14/2006 9:39:19 PM PDT by Jedi Master Pikachu
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1701838/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/olmec/index
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/olmecs/index
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/shang/index

[SunkenCiv]

Roots of Mesoamerican Writing
Science Magazine | December 5, 2002 | Erik Stokstad
Posted on 12/07/2002 4:54:13 AM PST by jimtorr
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/802484/posts

Secrets of old mask still hidden, duo say
Deseret Morning News | Monday, January 26, 2004 | Diane Urbani
Posted on 01/26/2004 12:55:39 PM PST by nickcarraway
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1065675/posts

Secrets of old mask still hidden, duo say
Deseret Morning News | Monday, January 26, 2004 | By Joe Bauman
Posted on 01/30/2004 6:44:11 AM PST by vannrox
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1068269/posts

Script Delivery: New World writing takes disputed turn [ from 2002 ]
Science News; Vol. 162, No. 23 , p. 355 | Dec. 7, 2002 | Bruce Bower
Posted on 09/17/2006 12:51:29 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1703162/posts

[Cementjungle]

Probably CP/M or Fortran.

It looks more like APL.

[SunkenCiv]

The Olmec and the Shang
by Claire Liu
tr. by Robert Taylor

Last year, in a book entitled Origin of the Olmec Civilization, Professor Mike Xu, a Chinese who teaches in the foreign languages department at the University of Central Oklahoma, proposed a hypothesis which aroused a storm of controversy in archeological circles. In Xu's view, the first complex culture in Mesoamerica may have come into existence with the help of a group of Chinese who fled across the seas as refugees at the end of the Shang dynasty. The Olmec civilization arose around 1200 BC, which coincides with the time when King Wu of Zhou attacked and defeated King Zhou, the last Shang ruler, bringing his dynasty to a close.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Yes, looks like an inventory of some sort. Too many of the items look like they could be held in one’s hand.