Cascajal Block (Olmec script)
Bloque de Cascajal (escritura olmeca)
- Date
- c. 900 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Lomas de Tacamichapa, Jáltipan, Veracruz, Mexico
- Credited to
- Olmec culture
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
A serpentine slab with 62 signs arranged in lines, proposed as the oldest text in the Americas. If it is writing, it predates Zapotec and Maya script by several centuries.
Published in 2006 (Rodríguez Martínez et al., Science); found out of stratigraphic context, some researchers doubt its dating or whether it is writing at all.
What it led to
- debate over the origin of Mesoamerican writing