Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T19:33:57.755Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE CASCAJAL BLOCK: NEW LINE DRAWING, DISTRIBUTIONAL ANALYSIS, AND ORTHOGRAPHIC PATTERNS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2020

David F. Mora-Marín Open the ORCID record for David F. Mora-Marín [Opens in a new window]
David F. Mora-Marín*
Affiliation:
Linguistics Department, University of North Carolina, 307 Smith Building, CB #3155, Chapel Hill, North Carolina27599
*
E-mail correspondence to: davidmm@unc.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper studies the Cascajal Block, a serpentinite artifact with an Olmec text dating to ca. 1000–900 b.c. (Rodríguez Martínez et al. 2006a). It introduces a new line drawing made possible by the detailed documentation carried out by Carrasco and Englehardt, presents a distributional analysis of the inscription in order to assess the sign inventory proposed by Rodríguez Martínez et al. (2006a) and revised by Mora-Marín (2009), and, most significantly, suggests that certain irregularities in the patterns of sign co-occurrence raised by previous authors (Justeson 2012; Macri 2006) are consistent with spelling practices in logosyllabic scripts, showing that the script is linguistically motivated. The work by Carrasco and Englehardt (2015) on the identification and analysis of sign pairings as likely diphrastic kennings is highlighted as crucial to establishing semantic controls needed for any attempt at decipherment; a new, repeated pairing is proposed, consisting of the PELT-PAW signs. Finally, this paper assesses how the various models for the reading formatting and direction of the text could impact the proposed hypotheses.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , Fall 2020 , pp. 210 - 229
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, Lloyd 2007 Cascajal: An Old System of Writing in Mesoamerica. Unpublished manuscript in the possession of the author.Google Scholar
Anderson, Lloyd 2012 Understanding Discourse: Beyond Couplets and Calendrics First. In Parallel Worlds: Genre, Discourse, and Poetics in Contemporary, Colonial, and Classic Period Maya Literature, edited by Hull, Kerry M. and Carrasco, Michael D., pp. 161–179. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Carrasco, Michael, and Englehardt, Joshua 2015 Diphrastic Kennings on the Cascajal Block and the Emergence of Mesoamerican Writing. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 22:1–22.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael, and Taube, Karl (editors) 1995 The Olmec World, Ritual and Rulership. The Art Museum, Princeton University, Princeton.Google Scholar
Cultural Heritage Imaging 2011 RTI Highlight Capture Guide. Electronic document, http://culturalheritageimaging.org/What_We_Offer/Downloads/rtibuilder/RTI_hlt_Processing_Guide_v14_beta.pdf, accessed November 22, 2019.Google Scholar
Cultural Heritage Imaging 2013 RTI Highlight Capture Guide. Electronic document, http://culturalheritageimaging.org/What_We_Offer/Downloads/RTI_Hlt_Capture_Guide_v2_0.pdf, accessed November 22, 2019.Google Scholar
Englehardt, Joshua D., Insaurralde Caballero, Mirta A., Melgar Tísoc, Emiliano R., Velázquez Maldonado, Luis R., Torres, Viridiana Guzmán, Bernard, Henri Noel, and Carrasco, Michael D. 2019 Digital Imaging and Archaeometric Analysis of the Cascajal Block: Establishing Context and Authenticity for the Earliest Known Olmec Text. Ancient Mesoamerica. doi: 10.1017/S0956536119000257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freidel, David A., and Reilly, F. Kent III 2010 The Flesh of God: Cosmology, Food, and the Origins of Political Power in Ancient Southeastern Mesoamerica. In Pre-Columbian Foodways: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Food, Culture, and Markets in Ancient Mesoamerica, edited by Staller, John and Carrasco, Michael D., pp. 635–680. Springer, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopkins, Nicholas A. 2006 Concordance of the Glyph Strings on the Cascajal Block. Unpublished manuscript in the possession of the author.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen 2010 Dead Bugs and Olmec Writing. Electronic document, https://mayadecipherment.com/2010/04/20/dead-bugs-and-olmec-writing, accessed August 6, 2019.Google Scholar
Houston, Stephen D., and Stuart, David 1989 The Way Glyph: Evidence for “Co-essences” among the Classic Maya. Research Reports on Ancient Maya Writing, No. 30. Center for Maya Research, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Hull, Kerry Michael 2003 Verbal Art and Performance in Ch'orti’ and Maya Hieroglyphic Writing. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, Austin.Google Scholar
Justeson, John S. 2012 Early Mesoamerican Writing Systems. In The Oxford Handbook of Mesoamerican Archaeology, edited by Nichols, Deborah L. and Pool, Christopher A., pp. 830–844. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Justeson, John, and Kaufman, Terrence 1993 A Decipherment of Epi-Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing. Science 259:1703–1710.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Justeson, John, and Kaufman, Terrence 1997 A Newly Discovered Column in the Hieroglyphic Text on La Mojarra Stela 1: A Test of the Epi-Olmec Decipherment. Science 277:207–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, Terrence, and Justeson, John 2001 Epi-Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing and Texts. Texas Workshop Foundation, Austin.Google Scholar
Kaufman, Terrence, and Justeson, John 2004 Epi-Olmec. In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages, edited by Woodard, Robert D., pp. 1071–1108. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Knowlton, Timothy 2002 Diphrasitic Kennings in Mayan Hieroglyphic Literature. Mexicon 24:9–14.Google Scholar
Macri, Martha J. 2006 The Cascajal Block: Sign Ordering. Glyph Dwellers 22:1–4.Google Scholar
Macri, Martha J., and Stark, Laura M. 1993 A Sign Catalog of the La Mojarra Script. Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, Monograph 5. Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Magni, Caterina 2008 Olmec Writing. The Cascajal Block: New Perspectives. Arts and Cultures 9:64–81. Electronic document, http://research.famsi.org/aztlan/uploads/papers/OlmecCascajalBlockNewPerspectives.pdf, accessed August 6, 2019.Google Scholar
Mora-Marín, David F. 2008 Full Phonetic Complementation, Semantic Classifiers, and Semantic Determinatives in Ancient Mayan Hieroglyphic Writing. Ancient Mesoamerica 19:195–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mora-Marín, David F. 2009 Early Olmec Writing: Reading Format and Reading Order. Latin American Antiquity 20:395–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mora-Marín, David F. 2010 Further Analysis of Olmec Writing on the Cascajal Block: Sign Inventory, Paleography, Script Affiliations. Unpublished manuscript in the possession of the author.Google Scholar
Mora-Marín, David F. 2016 Orígenes de la escritura en Mesoamérica: Una revaluación de los rasgos formales, conexiones interregionales y filiaciones lingüísticas entre 1200–400 a.C. Paper presented at the XXXVIII Coloquio de antropología e historia regionales, Colegio de Michoacán, Zamora.Google Scholar
Ortiz Ceballos, Ponciano, Rodríguez Martínez, María del Carmen, H., Ricardo Sánchez, and C., Jasinto Robles 2007 El bloque labrado con inscripciones olmecas. Arqueología Mexicana 83:15–18.Google Scholar
Pool, Christopher 2007 Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodríguez Martínez, María del Carmen, and Ceballos, Ponciano Ortiz 1999 Informe de inspección en la zona de El Cascajal, mpio. de Jaltipan, Veracruz. Archivo Técnico del Centro INAH Veracruz, Veracruz.Google Scholar
Rodríguez Martínez, María del Carmen, and Ceballos, Ponciano Ortiz 2007 El bloque labrado con símbolos olmecas encontrado en El Cascajal, municipio de Jaltipan, Veracruz. Arqueología 36:24–51.Google Scholar
Rodríguez Martínez, María del Carmen, Ceballos, Ponciano Ortiz, Coe, Michael D., Diehl, Richard A., Houston, Stephen D., Taube, Karly A., and Calderón, Alfredo Delgado 2006a Oldest Writing in the New World. Science 313:1610–1614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodríguez Martínez, María del Carmen, Ceballos, Ponciano Ortiz, Coe, Michael D., Diehl, Richard A., Houston, Stephen D., Taube, Karly A., and Calderón, Alfredo Delgado 2006b Supporting Online Material. Electronic document, http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/313/5793/1610/DC1, accessed on August 6, 2019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skidmore, Joel 2006 The Cascajal Block: The Earliest Precolumbian Writing. Mesoweb Reports. Mesoweb. Electronic document, www.mesoweb.com/reports/Cascajal.pdf.Google Scholar
Wichmann, Søren 1995 The Relationship among the Mixe-Zoquean Languages of Mexico. University of Utah Press, Provo.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Mora-Marín Supplementary Materials

Mora-Marín Supplementary Materials 1

Download Mora-Marín Supplementary Materials(File)
File 2.9 MB
Supplementary material: File

Mora-Marín Supplementary Materials

Mora-Marín Supplementary Materials 2

Download Mora-Marín Supplementary Materials(File)
File 3.6 MB