Decipherment
Day 25 Handout: Zapotec, Isthmian, and Olmec Scripts
Maya Warm-Up
- Open this resource: University of Maine Hudson Museum
- Using the CV syllabary:
- Try to write the word balam (jaguar: ba-la-ma)
- Then spell your neighbor’s first name in Maya glyphs (approximate the sounds)
- If you have time: spell one additional name! (your best friend, your pet, whatever!)
Stage 1 — Basic Facts
Zapotec
Look at the following resources:
Then answer the following questions:
What does the script look like? How similar is it to Mayan? Sketch or describe 2–3 signs.
How big is the corpus? (rough number of known inscriptions)
What language does it possibly encode — and how confident are scholars?
What is the single biggest obstacle to decipherment?
Isthmian / Epi-Olmec
Look at the following resources:
Then answer the following questions:
What does the script look like? Sketch or describe 2–3 signs.
How big is the corpus?
What language does it possibly encode — and how confident are scholars?
What is the single biggest obstacle to decipherment?
Olmec (Cascajal Block)
Look at the following resources:
Then answer the following questions:
What does the script look like? Sketch or describe 2–3 signs.
How big is the corpus?
What language does it possibly encode — and how confident are scholars?
What is the single biggest obstacle to decipherment?
Stage 2 — Text Analysis
~15 minutes. A specific text sample is provided for each script. Look carefully and answer the four questions for each one.
Zapotec — Stelae 12 & 13, Monte Albán
One interpretation of this text suggests:
“In Year 4 Lightning, [a man named] 8 Water was seated in office.”
1. What can you observe about the signs — pictographic, abstract, or both?
2. Is there internal structure you can detect? (repetition, directionality, grouping)
3. What would you need to begin reading more of this text?
4. Which features resemble the Maya system — and which don’t?
Isthmian — La Mojarra Stela 1
View La Mojarra Stela 1 schematic
Contains ~535 glyphs. Two Long Count dates are independently readable: May 143 CE and July 156 CE.
1. What can you observe about the signs — pictographic, abstract, or both?
2. Is there internal structure you can detect?
3. What would you need to begin reading more of this text?
4. Which features resemble the Maya system — and which don’t?
Olmec — Cascajal Block
View Cascajal Block photograph
Contains 62 signs, 28 unique types.
1. What can you observe about the signs — pictographic, abstract, or both?
2. Is there internal structure you can detect?
3. What would you need to begin reading this text?
4. Which features resemble the Maya system — and which don’t?
Stage 3 — Ranking
Ranking Table
Fill in what you found for each criterion, then rank the three scripts from most (1) to least (3) decipherable.
| Script | Corpus size | Calendar anchor? | Language ID? | Falsifiable? | Rank (1–3) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zapotec | |||||
| Isthmian | |||||
| Olmec |
Criteria key:
- Corpus size — Large = hundreds of texts; Tiny = fewer than 10; One = a single artifact
- Calendar anchor — Does the script contain independently-readable calendar dates?
- Language ID — Is the underlying language family known or plausibly identified?
- Falsifiable — Could a proposed decipherment be tested — and potentially broken — by new evidence?
Final Question
If you had to dedicate your career to deciphering one of these three scripts, which would you choose — and why? What is the most realistic path forward for that script?