Ancient American Writing Discovered

The NYT reports the discovery of "3,000-year-old writing previously unknown to scholars" in Mexico, in an article entitled "Writing on Stone May Be Oldest in the Americas." The article reports that "62 distinct signs" were found inscribed on a stone slab, initially dated to around 900 BC and apparently linked to the Olmecs. The National Geographic site has a similar article, entitled "Oldest Writing in New World Discovered, Scientists Say."

Interestingly, one of the co-authors on the related scientific paper is Michael D. Coe, a Yale archaeologist. In Mormon circles, he is best known for an article entitled "Mormons and Archaeology: An Outside View," Dialogue Vol. 8, No. 2 (Summer 1973), p. 40-48. The money quote is on page 42: "[T]here is not one professionally trained archaeologist, who is not a Mormon, who sees any scientific justification for believing the foregoing to be true" (emphasis in original). The phrase "the foregoing" referred back to a short summary of traditional LDS beliefs that included discussion of Zelph the white Lamanite; the Kinderhook plates; the Book of Mormon as "an accurate, historical account of the New World peoples between about 2,000 B.C. and A.D. 421"; and Joseph Smith's ability to translate "reformed Egyptian." As a criticism of informed LDS beliefs, that summary is rather dated: as I follow the evolving FARMS consensus, LDS scholars have rejected the traditional LDS positions on every one of those points. Not that you should expect non-LDS archaeologists to flock to the banner of Nephite archaeology anytime soon, of course.

If you find the topic of Book of Mormon archaeology interesting, here are a few other sources. A critical review from the IRR site, written in 1992, is "Does Archaeology Support the Book of Mormon?". A supportive review from the FARMS Review, written by William J. Hamblin in 1993, is "Archaeology and the Book of Mormon," a review of a Tanner publication of the same name. Particularly relevant to the recent discovery is the section entitled "Writing," about a dozen paragraphs into the essay. Finally, a supportive review of the topic from the FAIR site is "Archaeological Evidence and the Book of Mormon," by Michael Ash, which is much more recent and includes references to a number of other FAIR articles.

Comments

[Ronan]

The other co-author is Stephen Houston, a non-Mormon Mayanist formerly at BYU.

[Dave]

Thanks for reminding me about Houston's background, Ronan. I should have remembered that, since I posted on it a couple of years ago.

[J. Stapley]

I guess all the exmo sites are going to have to update their claims that Mayan writing is the only writing system in ancient America.

[DKL]

From what I understand, the inscription has characters that match the Anthon "Caracters" document. How exciting!

[Dave]

Actually, DKL, the correct misspelling should be "Caractors." And should I redate your comment to April 1?

[DKL]

Yeah. I can't even misspell right.

But I'm hoping this new Jaredite writing at least matches Hoffman's Anthon transcript. Otherwise, what use is the writing anyway?

[Steve EM]

And I thought I was a cynic.