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IZAPAN WRITING: CLASSIFICATION AND PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2018

David F. Mora-Marín
David F. Mora-Marín*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Linguistics Department, 307 Smith Building, CB #3155, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599
*
Email correspondence to: davidmm@unc.edu
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Abstract

This paper reviews the limited evidence for the classification of the script attested at the site of Izapa. Sufficient data for assessing the nature of key formal traits exists, thanks to the more recent documentation of the sculptural corpus (Clark and Moreno 2007). After a review of the archaeological and historical linguistic context, the paper examines the history of research on the classification of the writing systems of Mesoamerica (Justeson 1986; Justeson and Mathews 1990; Justeson et al. 1985; Prem 1973), focusing on the Southeastern Tradition. Three diagnostic traits allow for a narrow assignation of Izapa's script, perhaps unsurprisingly, to the Greater Izapan or Maya-Izapa sub-tradition (Justeson and Mathews 1990; Justeson et al. 1985) of the Southeastern Tradition: the superfixed placement of the bar-and-dot numeral with respect to the day sign cartouche, positional notation for counting, and the use of day sign pedestals. Other traits include the conflation and embedding of signs. The paper concludes that the evidence is, at present, insufficient to distinguish between the two likely options, Mixe-Zoquean and Mayan. Finally, a preliminary signary is provided in the Appendix.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , Spring 2018 , pp. 93 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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