Isthmian script
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| Isthmian script | ||
|---|---|---|
| Type: | Undeciphered (Hypothesized to be logographic) | |
| Languages: | Unknown | |
| Time period: | Relatively unknown, perhaps 500 BCE to 500 CE | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
The Isthmian script is one of the Mesoamerican writing systems in use in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec from perhaps 500 BCE to 500 CE, although there is disagreement on these dates. It is also called the La Mojarra script or the Epi-Olmec script ("post-Olmec script").
Contents |
[edit] Discovered Text
The four most extensive Isthmian texts are:
-
- La Mojarra Stela 1
- The Tuxtla Statuette
- Tres Zapotes Stela C
- A Teotihuacan-style mask (shown at right).
Other texts include:
-
- A few Isthmian glyphs on four badly weathered stelae -- 5, 6, 8, and probably 15 -- at Cerro de las Mesas.
- Approximately 23 glyphs on the O'Boyle "mask", a clay artifact in a private collection of unknown provenance.
- On a pottery sherd from the Chiapa de Corzo.
[edit] Decipherment
In their 1997 paper, John Justeson and Terrence Kaufman put forward a decipherment of Isthmian, placing it within the Mixe-Zoquean language family, and leading, in 2003, to a Guggenheim Fellowship for this work.
The following year, however, their interpretation was disputed by Stephen Houston and Michael D. Coe, who unsuccessfully applied Justeson and Kaufman's decipherment system against Isthmian script from the back of the hitherto unknown Teotihuacan-style mask. The mask is of unknown provenance, and is now in a private collection. The matter is still under discussion.
[edit] References
- Diehl, Richard A. (2004) The Olmecs: America's First Civilization, Thames & Hudson, London.
- Justeson, John S., 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, 07/11/97, Vol. 277 Issue 5323, p. 207.
- Justeson, John S., and Kaufman, Terrence (2001) Epi-Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing and Texts.
- Pérez de Lara, Jorge; Justeson, John, "Photographic Documentation of Monuments with Epi-Olmec Script/Imagery", Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies (FAMSI).
- Brigham Young University press release on behalf of Brigham Young University archaeologist Stephen Houston and Yale University professor emeritus Michael Coe disputing Justeson/Kaufman findings.
- Houston, Stephen, and Coe, Michael. 2004. "Has Isthmian Writing Been Deciphered?", in Mexicon XXV:151-161.
