Earliest Writing in Mesoamerica Takes a Leap Further Back in Time

Archeologists digging near Mexico’s Gulf Coast have discovered the earliest-known example of writing in Mesoamerica, pushing the date for the appearance of this cultural breakthrough back by at least 450 years, to about 650 BC.

More important, the discovery of an inscribed seal and fragments from a plaque suggests that writing was developed by the Olmec civilization and not by the Zapotec -- source of the earliest previously known Mesoamerican writing -- or the Maya, who brought it to its greatest level of sophistication.

The discovery, which is being published today in the journal Science, is triggering a sharp debate among Mesoamerican researchers about the origins of civilization in the region. The most commonly accepted idea now is that writing, kingship, the development of a calendar and other marks of civilization arose independently among various cultures in the area, a concept variously known as “equal partners” or “sister” cultures.

The new find provides support for the controversial idea of a “mother” culture -- that the Olmec developed most of the concepts and passed them on to succeeding civilizations in much the same way that the Greeks formed the foundations of European culture.

“The Olmec were the first to have large urban centers,” according to archeologist Mary E.D. Pohl of Florida State University, who led the team making the new discovery. “There is tangible evidence of the emergence of kings [in their culture], people who had much more centralized control.... Since the Olmec were the first to put together a political state, and writing is closely connected with rulers in terms of publicizing their power, it makes sense that they would be the first to use a system of writing.”

Experts praised the new find because of the precise dating of the objects, but many seemed less inclined to accept Pohl’s interpretation of their significance.

Archeologist Michael Love of Cal State Northridge noted that researchers have discovered many other artifacts containing writing that, stylistically, seem to be as old as or older than the new finds. Many of these were found on the Pacific coast of Mexico and Guatemala. But because most were obtained from looters or were inscribed on the walls of caves, “they can’t be dated as accurately,” he said.

“I would agree that the Olmec and related people developed writing,” he added, “but I would disagree that it was developed [on the Gulf Coast], as Pohl and her colleagues claim in the paper.”

Love and others also argue that it is not clear that the symbols found on the objects are definitely writing. “All we have are a few symbols,” said linguist Martha Macri of UC Davis, “but it is not obvious what they represent. This suggests that the significance has yet to be learned.”

However, the fact that they are abstract symbols rather than drawings of animal faces or hands makes them clearly more interesting than they otherwise would be, she added.

The symbols fit “a loose definition of writing,” said Yale archeologist Michael D. Coe, but a stricter definition would require that they be linked to specific words in a spoken language. That is not yet possible because almost nothing is known about the Olmec language.

The Olmec people -- who called themselves Xi (pronounced shee ) -- were the largest group in Mesoamerica from about 1200 BC to about 600 BC, but they had largely disappeared by 400 BC, when the Maya emerged into prominence. The Olmec civilization was centered on the Gulf Coast in what is now the Mexican state of Tabasco.

The largest city was La Venta, which sits on a salt dome that rises from the coastal plain. The Olmec built a large pyramid atop the dome that can be seen for long distances. “It’s a very imposing site,” Pohl said.

Pohl and her colleagues, Kevin O. Pope of Geo Eco Arc Research in Aquasco, Md., and Christopher L. von Nagy of Tulane University, were working at the residential suburb of San Andres about three miles northeast of La Venta. The site was originally located on the banks of a river, which has since disappeared. The area is very swampy and presents difficult working conditions, which is one reason the Olmec have not been heavily studied, Pohl said.

The new items were found in what appears to be the refuse dump from a large celebration of some sort, Pohl said. The pit contained human and animal bones, oversize serving dishes and beverage containers, hollow figurines and pottery shards.

The prize object was a small seal, a 3-inch-high cylindrical object with images inscribed on its surface in bas-relief. When inked, the seal could be used to transfer the images to cloth or even to the skin of its owners.

The seal depicts two speech scrolls emanating from the beak of a bird, indicating that the signs they point to are meant to be spoken, like a cartoon speech balloon. Pohl, Pope and von Nagy interpret the symbols to say “King 3 Ajaw” (pronounced “ah-how”). The words “3 Ajaw” represent the name of a day in the 260-day Mesoamerican calendar. People in that region often used the name of the day they were born as their own personal name.

Pohl said the sign provides evidence for the early appearance of the sacred calendar and points to “its association with the institution of rulership.”

The same symbols are found on a greenstone statuette, called the Young Lord, that is thought to have come from La Blanca, on the Pacific coast of Guatemala. That figurine has not been accurately dated, however.

The team also found fragments of a greenstone plaque with what appear to be symbols on them, but the researchers have not interpreted their meaning. They believe the items may have been parts of jewelry of the elite.

What makes the find important, Macri said, is that the team was able to perform radiocarbon dating on layers above and below the objects, allowing the researchers to date the objects accurately. “We have Mesoamerican monuments with secure dates on them from AD 156 and some other dated monuments from 200 BC, but nothing that even comes close to this [650 BC],” she said.

This find “basically says that the Olmec invented writing along with everything else,” said archeologist John Clark of Brigham Young University. “I expect it to cause some heartburn here and there” among researchers who support the sister cultures idea.