The Isthmian Script: Deciphering Ancient Mesoamerican Writing Volume 284 - Hardcover

The Isthmian script, sometimes called Epi-Olmec, first came to the attention of scholars through inscribed texts on the Tuxtla Statuette and the La Mojarra Stela, both discovered in Veracruz, Mexico. In The Isthmian Script: Deciphering Ancient Mesoamerican Writing, linguist Martha J. Macri provides the most comprehensive account ever given of this ancient script and the tantalizing clues it holds for pre-Maya culture. While the Olmec culture of the Gulf of Mexico, among the oldest known in Mesoamerica, clearly inspired the artistic motifs and iconography of the region, Macri argues that on the basis of evidence from sculptural traditions farther to the south, the Isthmian script proper originated in Chiapas and Guatemala, not in the Olmec centers of San Lorenzo and La Venta.