Oldest Writing in the New World

doi:10.1126/science.1131492

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Oldest Writing in the New World

Ma. del Carmen Rodríguez Martínez,¹ Ponciano Ortíz Ceballos,² Michael D. Coe,³ Richard A. Diehl,⁴ Stephen D. Houston,⁵^* Karl A. Taube,⁶ Alfredo Delgado Calderón¹

A block with a hitherto unknown system of writing has been foundin the Olmec heartland of Veracruz, Mexico. Stylistic and otherdating of the block places it in the early first millenniumbefore the common era, the oldest writing in the New World,with features that firmly assign this pivotal development tothe Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica.

¹ Centro del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Benito Juárez Número 425-431, Veracruz, Mexico.
² Instituto de Antropología de La Universidad Veracruzana, Juárez Número 70, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.
³ 376 St. Ronan Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
⁴ Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama, 24E ten Hoor Hall, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA.
⁵ Department of Anthropology, Brown University, 128 Hope Street, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
⁶ Department of Anthropology, University of California Riverside, 334 Watkins Hall, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Stephen_Houston{at}brown.edu

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LETTERS Did the Olmec Know How to Write?: Karen O. Bruhns, Nancy L. Kelker;, Ma. del Carmen Rodríguez Martínez, Ponciano Ortíz Ceballos, Michael D. Coe, Richard A. Diehl, Stephen D. Houston, Karl A. Taube, and Alfredo Delgado Calderón (9 March 2007)
Science 315 (5817), 1365b. [DOI: 10.1126/science.315.5817.1365b]
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NEWS OF THE WEEK ARCHAEOLOGY: Claim of Oldest New World Writing Excites Archaeologists: Andrew Lawler (15 September 2006)
Science 313 (5793), 1551. [DOI: 10.1126/science.313.5793.1551]
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