Discovered: Oldest Writing in the New World November 3, 2006 uae Zao a ‘i 2 fg : x } Po This is called an epigraphic drawing of Cascajal Block. Can you find vegetables drawn in the stone? Illusiration by Carmen Rodriguez Martinez Anthropologists study people who are no longer living. Items those men, women, and children left behind when they died— everything from clothing to jewelry and tools—tell anthropologists a lot. And sometimes even their words survive. Experts believe that a discovery in Mexico is the oldest example of writing ever found in the Americas. The people who created it probably lived 3,000 years ago, long before Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World. Workers digging in a stone quarry happened to notice a stone block with marks carved onto its surface. They found the large piece of serpentine stone in Cascajal in Veracruz, Mexico, near the capital city of an ancient people called the Olmec. “There are signs on the block that seem to show religious objects used by the Olmec,” says Dr. Stephen Houston, an anthropologist with Brown University in Rhode Island. “There is a pointy sign that looks very similar to something they used for blood-letting, and another that looks like a throne,” he explains. Houston, an expert on the writing systems of ancient cultures, says the discovery is exciting because “it makes clear that the Olmec were literate, that they could read and write. It’s like hearing voices from the past," he says. But experts don’t know exactly what the writing says. If you have ever tried to figure out a message written in code, you have a pretty good idea of the hard work ahead. Finding other examples of Olmec writing could help crack the code. Plenty of exciting finds await discovery, says Houston, maybe even by kids reading this article who decide to study past cultures when they grow up. “We could have whole sets of ancient writing which will basically make ancient people speak to us directly,” says Houston. “There are many puzzles to be solved, and this is just one of them.” Text by Catherine Clarke Fox2Qué objetos se aprecian en la imagen del texto? 2.- El texto va a tratar del descubrimiento de. a) la escritura en el viejo mundo. b) la antropsioga Carmen Martinez. ©) una estela de piedra con escritura antigua d) unos fésiles vegetales. El descubrimiento fue realizado en ___ y pertenece a Ia cultura 4.- Hay evidencia de que algunos objetos en la escritura tienen una connotacién: a) festiva b) religiosa ~—c) bélica._—d) musical Los expertos lo que dice la escritura I.- Completa el siguiente ejercicio con informacién del texto de la pagina anterior. L.- En el primer parrafo del texto hay ejemplos de objetos que son utilizados por los antropélogos para estudiar a la gente del pasado. Menciona 2: éHace cuanto tiempo vivid la cultura a la que pertenece el objeto descubierto? 3.- 2En qué parte de México se realizé el hallazgo? 4.- El Dr. Houston trabaja para y es experto 5.- £Qué ayudaria a descifrar el cédigo en el que esté escrito el mensaje de la piedra? TIE. En el texto “Discovered: Oldest Writing in the New World” de \a pagina anterior, localiza e identifica a qué hacen referencia los siguientes términos. 1 they (P.1L.3) hace referencia a 2.- their (P.1 L.6) hace referencia a 3.- It (P.1T L.9) hace referencia a 4. they (P.1TI L.15) hace referencia a a they (P.1V L.24) hace referencia a 6.- he (P.IV L.26) hace referencia a___ 7.- it (PV L.29) hace referencia a 8.- they (P.V L.30) hace referencia a ° he (P.V L.32) hace referencia a 10.- they (P.VII L.42) hace referencia a