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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])
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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.

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