MesoAmericas & Beyond

B. Beltrán / Science

This vertical column of ancient Mayan glyphs was painted on stone found in a Guatemalan pyramid complex dating back to between 200 B.C. and 300 B.C. and show the Maya were writing at a complex level 150 years earlier than previously thought, though simple glyphs are dated to as early as 600 B.C.

They were found on preserved painted walls and plaster fragments in the pyramidal structure known as Las Pinturas, in San Bartolo, Guatemala.

The writing is completely different than the Zapotec writing and indicates they are not simple derivatives of each other.

Though a lot is now known of Mayan writings it is not known what these glyphs say.

Full article is here is printed on MSNBC.

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A tablet with unknown writing was found in Veracruz has features indicating it comes from the Olmec civilization. The tablet weighs about 26 pounds and the text contains 62 symbols arranged in horizontal rows—unusual for Mesoamerican scripts, which typically use vertical rows. They date the tablet to about the San Lorenzo phase which ended about 900 BCE. This is approximately 400 years before writing was though to have first appeared in the Western hemisphere. Another interesting feature of this find is the surface containing the text appears to be concave and they believe the block has been carved repeatedly.

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