|
|
ReportsEarly Maya Writing at San Bartolo, Guatemala
The ruins of San Bartolo, Guatemala, contain a sample of Maya hieroglyphic writing dating to the Late Preclassic period (400 B.C. to 200 A.D.). The writing appears on preserved painted walls and plaster fragments buried within the pyramidal structure known as "Las Pinturas," which was constructed in discrete phases over several centuries. Samples of carbonized wood that are closely associated with the writing have calibrated radiocarbon dates of 200 to 300 B.C. This early Maya writing implies that a developed Maya writing system was in use centuries earlier than previously thought, approximating a time when we see the earliest scripts elsewhere in Mesoamerica.
1 Department of Anthropology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA.
2 Department of Art and Art History, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA. 3 Escuela de Historia, Universidad de San Carlos, Guatemala City, Guatemala. * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: wsaturno{at}unh.edu
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
|
Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
News | Science Journals | Careers | Blogs and Communities | Multimedia | Collections | Help | Site Map | RSS
Subscribe | Feedback | Privacy / Legal | About Us | Advertise With Us | Contact Us
© 2006 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
AAAS is a partner of HINARI, AGORA, PatientInform, CrossRef, and COUNTER.
You have reached the bottom of the page. Back to top