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The Tuxtla Script: Steps toward Decipherment Based on La Mojarra Stela 1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Sylvia Méluzin
Sylvia Méluzin*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, California State University, Fullerton, CA 92634-9480
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Abstract

The existence of the mesoamerican Tuxtla script is based primarily on inscriptions from five objects in addition to very scant epigraphic evidence on 16 other items (Méluzin 1992). The name “Tuxtlatec” is used to refer to the language rendered by this script. The longest inscription so far known in this writing system is on the recently discovered La Mojarra, Veracruz, Stela 1, which also reveals two Initial-Series-style dates. A bilingual approach is attempted using the month and day glyphs in the stela dates and their presumably equivalent glyphs and names in the Yucatec Maya calendar. Meanings of the four calendar names in the Tuxtlatec system are suggested. The four corresponding Maya glyphs are reinterpreted with alternate Yucatec translations offered for two of them. In two of the analyses Zoque words are pivotal, but it is argued that this in itself does not prove that Tuxtlatec was a dialect of Zoque.

La existencia de la escritura de Tuxtla de Mesoamérica se basa principalmente en inscripciones en cinco objetos, además de muy escasa evidencia epigráfica en otros 16 artículos (Méluzin 1992). El nombre “tuxtlateca” se usa para referirse al lenguaje usado en esta escritura. La inscripción más larga conocida hasta este momento en este sistema de escritura se halla en la Estela 1 de La Mojarra, Veracruz, recientemente descubierta, la cual también revela dos fechas de estilo Serie Inicial. Contiene un enfoque bilingüe que trata de usar los glifos del mes y del día en las fechas de la estela y sus presumibles equivalentes glifos y nombres en el calendario maya yucateco. Se sugieren los significados de los cuatro nombres del calendario en el sistema tuxtlateca. Los cuatro glifos mayas correspondientes son reinterpretados con traducciones alternas yucatecas para dos de ellos. En dos de los análisis las palabras de la lengua zoque son esenciales, pero se argumenta que este hecho por sí sólo no prueba que el tuxtlateca era un dialecto del zoque.

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Articles
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Latin American Antiquity , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , December 1992, pp. 283 - 297
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1992

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