Not elder law: Mysterious stone slab bears ancient writing
From an AP Report:
An ancient slab of green stone inscribed with insects, ears of corn,fish and other symbols is indecipherable so far, but one message isclear: It is the earliest known writing in the Western Hemisphere.
Theancient Olmec civilization probably produced the faintly etched symbolsaround 900 B.C., or roughly three centuries before what previously hadbeen proposed as the earliest examples of writing in the Americas.
“Weare dealing with the first, clear evidence of writing in the NewWorld,” said Stephen Houston, a Brown University anthropologist.Houston and his U.S. and Mexican colleagues detail the tablet’sdiscovery and analysis in a study appearing this week in the journalScience.
The pattern of symbols covering the face of the rectangular block also represents a previously unknown ancient writing system.
Thetext contains 28 distinct glyphs or symbols, some of which are repeatedthree and four times. The writing system does not appear to be linkedto any known later scripts and may represent a dead end, according tothe study.
Other experts not involved in the study agreed withHouston and his colleagues that the horizontally arranged inscriptionshows patterns that are the hallmarks of true writing, including syntaxand language-specific word order.
And, while we’re at it, there’s a rune in Minnesota you might want to check out….