Mexican stone block could hold New World's first poem

[Judi Lynn]

Mexican stone block could hold New World's first poem
Last Updated Thu, 14 Sep 2006 16:37:40 EDT
CBC Arts

It could be the New World's first poem, as well as its earliest example of writing of any kind.

The Cascajal block, which was found by road builders near Veracruz, Mexico, may have the New World's first writing. (Science) A stone discovered in Veracruz, Mexico, has the earliest form of text in the Americas, according to research to be published in the journal Science.

And careful study of the previously unknown system of writing shows it has paired sequences of signs that could be poetic couplets, according to a release from Brown University on Thursday.

The writing, on what is known as the Cascajal block, was found by road builders in a pile of debris in the community of Lomas de Tacamichapa, Mexico, in the late 1990s.

Mexican archeologists Carmen Rodríguez and Ponciano Ortiz, lead authors of the article in Science, were the first to recognize the importance of the find and also have studied ceramic and stone fragments found nearby.
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http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/09/14/mexico-archeology.html

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People need to remind themselves that there's such a deep silence about early American people because the Spanish invaders destroyed their cultures, burned all their records. Nice touch, right?

So we've lived in complete, idiotic ignorance about people right here in the Americas. What an incomprehensible loss.