Post by Okwes on Jan 18, 2006 12:16:42 GMT -5
Symbols on the Wall Push Maya Writing Back by Years
New York Times - January 10, 2006
Symbols on the Wall Push Maya Writing Back by Years
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
A vertical column of 10 glyphic words, uncovered last year in ruins in Guatemala, is unreadable even by the most expert scholars, but they know what it means - that Maya writing is older than they once thought.
Archaeologists reported last week that the script sample, discovered at San Bartolo, in northeastern Guatemala, is clear evidence that the Maya were writing more than 2,300 years ago. This is a few centuries earlier than previous well-dated Maya writing and 600 years before the civilization's classic period, when a decipherable writing system became widespread.
Scholars of Maya culture and other pre-Columbian societies said the discovery deepened the chronology of literacy's origins in the Americas. But they were not sure whether it brought them any closer to learning exactly when, where and how early American cultures first put words into graphic form.
"This early Maya writing," the discovery team concluded in the current issue of the journal Science, "implies that a developed Maya writing system was in use centuries earlier than previously thought, approximating a time when we see the earliest scripts elsewhere in Mesoamerica."
William A. Saturno, the team leader who is a Maya archaeologist at the University of New Hampshire and Harvard, said the study of the origins of writing in Mesoamerica, the ancient region of Mexico and parts of Central America, was now "likely to get more complicated in the near future as more early texts come to light."
Joyce Marcus, a professor at the University of Michigan and an authority on Mesoamerican cultures, said the Maya discovery "is terrific and does constitute some of the earliest Maya writing."
"Every piece of early writing enriches our knowledge of the ancient Maya," Dr. Marcus said.
As matters stand, the Zapotec, who lived around Oaxaca, Mexico, appear to have led the way to literacy, at least by 400 B.C., perhaps as early as 600 B.C. Clear evidence for Maya writing has been more recent.
A few scholars contend that the Olmec, living along the Gulf of Mexico near Veracruz, developed a script even earlier.
Some of the confusion stems from differing definitions of writing, whether a few symbols strung together suffice or fuller texts are required.
But it is generally agreed that the primal writing by contemporary groups in Mesoamerica was one of just four scripts - Sumerian, Egyptian and Chinese are the others - to be invented independent of outside influences.
What may be the earliest Maya words turned up in the same ruins where the same archaeologists reported last month finding a richly colored mural depicting the culture's mythology of creation and kingship. The mural is one of the earliest examples of Maya art, dated about 100 B.C.
Boris Beltrán, an archaeologist at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala, was exploring deeper in the ruins of a pyramid, down several layers of debris and time below the mural chamber. There he came on the Maya glyphs painted in black on white plaster.
A scribe apparently drew the characters along a subtle pinkish-orange stripe as a guideline.
Radiocarbon analysis of charcoal associated with the inscription dated the written words to as early as 300 B.C. The column, Dr. Saturno said, was presumably part of a text associated with a nearby work of art that included a painted image of the maize god.
The style of the painting was distinct from later Maya art, and the glyphs were more archaic and abstract than later Maya writing.
This has been frustrating for David Stuart, a professor of Mesoamerican art and writing at the University of Texas, a member of the discovery team.
Dr. Stuart said the glyphs had distinctive Maya characteristics and were "the earliest firmly dated Maya writing." But he and others were able to decipher just one symbol, the one meaning "ruler" or "lord" or possibly anyone of noble status.
"It's the same script," Dr. Stuart said. "But it was written several centuries before the full Maya script that we can read. It makes it tough. I don't think we will be able to read this anytime soon."
The exact meaning of the other nine glyphs will probably remain obscure, he said, until additional and longer texts are found from the same time in Maya history. Then there may be enough specimens, he continued, to compare with later decipherable glyphs and "make some tentative connections with things we are familiar with."
The discovery at San Bartolo is expected to inspire archaeologists to search for other examples of Mesoamerican writing from this period or earlier. Previous ideas about the relationships of Olmec, Zapotec and Maya writing are giving way to new thinking.
"Now it is looking like a lot of Mesoamerican cultures came up with writing at about the same period," Dr. Stuart said. "They all were in contact with each other, building cities, trading, telling their history and ideology through script and art."
Dr. Marcus cited recent excavations that produced monuments with Zapotec writing as early as 600 B.C., and even though the Mesoamerican cultures were in frequent contact with one another, she pointed out the individuality of their writing systems.
"What is of great interest," she said, "is that Zapotec writing is distinctive and Maya writing is distinctive, and each has its own genesis."
New York Times - January 10, 2006
Symbols on the Wall Push Maya Writing Back by Years
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
A vertical column of 10 glyphic words, uncovered last year in ruins in Guatemala, is unreadable even by the most expert scholars, but they know what it means - that Maya writing is older than they once thought.
Archaeologists reported last week that the script sample, discovered at San Bartolo, in northeastern Guatemala, is clear evidence that the Maya were writing more than 2,300 years ago. This is a few centuries earlier than previous well-dated Maya writing and 600 years before the civilization's classic period, when a decipherable writing system became widespread.
Scholars of Maya culture and other pre-Columbian societies said the discovery deepened the chronology of literacy's origins in the Americas. But they were not sure whether it brought them any closer to learning exactly when, where and how early American cultures first put words into graphic form.
"This early Maya writing," the discovery team concluded in the current issue of the journal Science, "implies that a developed Maya writing system was in use centuries earlier than previously thought, approximating a time when we see the earliest scripts elsewhere in Mesoamerica."
William A. Saturno, the team leader who is a Maya archaeologist at the University of New Hampshire and Harvard, said the study of the origins of writing in Mesoamerica, the ancient region of Mexico and parts of Central America, was now "likely to get more complicated in the near future as more early texts come to light."
Joyce Marcus, a professor at the University of Michigan and an authority on Mesoamerican cultures, said the Maya discovery "is terrific and does constitute some of the earliest Maya writing."
"Every piece of early writing enriches our knowledge of the ancient Maya," Dr. Marcus said.
As matters stand, the Zapotec, who lived around Oaxaca, Mexico, appear to have led the way to literacy, at least by 400 B.C., perhaps as early as 600 B.C. Clear evidence for Maya writing has been more recent.
A few scholars contend that the Olmec, living along the Gulf of Mexico near Veracruz, developed a script even earlier.
Some of the confusion stems from differing definitions of writing, whether a few symbols strung together suffice or fuller texts are required.
But it is generally agreed that the primal writing by contemporary groups in Mesoamerica was one of just four scripts - Sumerian, Egyptian and Chinese are the others - to be invented independent of outside influences.
What may be the earliest Maya words turned up in the same ruins where the same archaeologists reported last month finding a richly colored mural depicting the culture's mythology of creation and kingship. The mural is one of the earliest examples of Maya art, dated about 100 B.C.
Boris Beltrán, an archaeologist at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala, was exploring deeper in the ruins of a pyramid, down several layers of debris and time below the mural chamber. There he came on the Maya glyphs painted in black on white plaster.
A scribe apparently drew the characters along a subtle pinkish-orange stripe as a guideline.
Radiocarbon analysis of charcoal associated with the inscription dated the written words to as early as 300 B.C. The column, Dr. Saturno said, was presumably part of a text associated with a nearby work of art that included a painted image of the maize god.
The style of the painting was distinct from later Maya art, and the glyphs were more archaic and abstract than later Maya writing.
This has been frustrating for David Stuart, a professor of Mesoamerican art and writing at the University of Texas, a member of the discovery team.
Dr. Stuart said the glyphs had distinctive Maya characteristics and were "the earliest firmly dated Maya writing." But he and others were able to decipher just one symbol, the one meaning "ruler" or "lord" or possibly anyone of noble status.
"It's the same script," Dr. Stuart said. "But it was written several centuries before the full Maya script that we can read. It makes it tough. I don't think we will be able to read this anytime soon."
The exact meaning of the other nine glyphs will probably remain obscure, he said, until additional and longer texts are found from the same time in Maya history. Then there may be enough specimens, he continued, to compare with later decipherable glyphs and "make some tentative connections with things we are familiar with."
The discovery at San Bartolo is expected to inspire archaeologists to search for other examples of Mesoamerican writing from this period or earlier. Previous ideas about the relationships of Olmec, Zapotec and Maya writing are giving way to new thinking.
"Now it is looking like a lot of Mesoamerican cultures came up with writing at about the same period," Dr. Stuart said. "They all were in contact with each other, building cities, trading, telling their history and ideology through script and art."
Dr. Marcus cited recent excavations that produced monuments with Zapotec writing as early as 600 B.C., and even though the Mesoamerican cultures were in frequent contact with one another, she pointed out the individuality of their writing systems.
"What is of great interest," she said, "is that Zapotec writing is distinctive and Maya writing is distinctive, and each has its own genesis."