Discover, Archaeology Magazines Rank Discovery by UA Researcher Among Top Findings of 2006

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Determining a 2,900-year-old artifact contained the oldest writing ever known in the Americas is one of the top science findings of 2006, according to two prominent science publications which cite the earlier discovery by a group of archaeologists, including a University of Alabama researcher, in their current issues.

In its January/February 2007 issue, Archaeology magazine ranks the discovery 3rd in its Top 10 list of archaeology discoveries of 2006. Discover magazine ranked the finding 46th in its Top 100 ranking of all science stories from 2006.

Details of the archaeological finding were first published in the Sept. 15, 2006 issue of the journal Science, via a paper co-authored by Dr. Richard A. “Dick” Diehl, professor of anthropology at UA.

The journal article outlined the scientists’ determination that the symbols carved across the 26-pound stone block represent writings from the Olmec civilization, a people believed to be the first civilization in Mesoamerica (which includes much of Mexico and Central America) and who Diehl has studied for some 40 years.

The block is dated somewhere near 900 to 800 BC. “This makes it, by far, the oldest writing in the Americas,” Diehl said just prior to the paper’s publishing. “It’s the first time in a long time that a new writing system has been discovered. There may not be a lot more undiscovered writing systems around.”

A variety of mainstream media outlets originally publicized the story, highlighting Diehl’s role. In addition to news outlets across Alabama, these included The New York Times, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Washingtonpost.com and Public Radio International’s “The World.”

The slab, known by researchers as the “Cascajal Block,” was unearthed from a gravel pit by road builders in the late 1990s. Diehl and his colleagues, including the paper’s lead American author, Dr. Stephen D. Houston of Brown University, traveled to Mexico in March 2006 expressly to examine the findings along with the two Mexican archaeologists, Carmen Rodriguez and Ponciano Ortiz, the paper’s lead authors.

Carved from the mineral serpentine, the 36cm x 21cm x 13cm block exhibits 62 distinct symbols, some of which are repeated. The symbols are dated some 400 years earlier than writing was previously believed to have appeared in the Western hemisphere.

“People have been doing Olmec archaeology since 1940, and nobody has ever found anything like this before,” said Diehl, a faculty member in UA’s College of Arts and Sciences. “It indicates the Olmecs did, in fact, use writing.”

While some of the stone’s glyphs have been seen previously in pieces of Olmec art, others have not.

“In most cases, they are not animate things,” Diehl said of the symbols. Recognizable are, however, an insect, as well as maize, or corn plants, a table top altar, and a cross, known, from previously discovered Olmec art pieces, to be important to the people and likely representing the four compass directions, Diehl says.

“It seems to be in rows from left to right,” Diehl said of the text. “In most ancient Mexican writing systems, the glyphs start at the top and go to the bottom, so you have columns rather than rows. These seem to be in rows, and you have spaces between the rows.”

Diehl said scientists may never be able to decipher the writings

For more information on the magazine’s recent rankings see, http://www.archaeology.org/0701/trenches/topten.html and http://www.discover.com/issues/jan-07/cover/.