Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Science
Science
The ruins of San Bartolo, Guatemala, contain a sample of the Sub-V phase. The approximately 4-m high Sub-V
Maya hieroglyphic writing dating to the Late Preclassic platform extends 28 x 12 m at its base and supported three
period (400 BC to 200 AD). The writing appears on separate masonry rooms. The 2005 excavations established
preserved painted walls and plaster fragments buried that its central room was richly decorated and painted with
within the pyramidal structure known as “Las Pinturas,” polychrome murals. The surviving doorjamb bears a colorful
which was constructed in discrete phases over several image of the Maize God, who is a central character in the
centuries. Samples of carbonized wood that are closely mythological scenes of the later Room 1 murals (4). The line
associated with the writing have calibrated radiocarbon of script was possibly associated with this religiously themed
dates of 200 to 300 BC. This early Maya writing implies scenery, but its original placement within the room is
that a developed Maya writing system was in use uncertain.
centuries earlier than previously thought, approximating We obtained accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)
a time when we see the earliest scripts elsewhere in radiocarbon dates on five charcoal samples from sealed
Mesoamerica. deposits in the three architectural strata (Sub-VI, Sub-V, and
Sub-IV) in order to bracket the age of the painted blocks (Fig.
Research on the origins of Maya hieroglyphic writing has
3). The first of these, from within the floor of the Sub-VI
long been hindered by the paucity of good archaeological
platform, the construction phase that was encapsulated by
contexts and reliable dates for inscribed artifacts and
Sub-V construction, provides a maximum uncalibrated
monuments. With a few exceptions, examples of archaic
radiocarbon date of 2260±40 BP (400 - 200 BC; 2 sigma
Maya script appear on illicitly excavated objects that can be
[95% probability] calibrated range) (fig. S1). A sample from
stylistically dated to no earlier than about 100 BC -100 AD,
within the floor of Sub-V dates the construction of the room
when writing seems to have been already well-established
at 2200±60 BP uncalibrated (390 - 80 BC; 2 sigma [95%
elsewhere in Mesoamerica. Here we provide new evidence of
probability] calibrated range) (fig. S2). The final three
early Maya writing preserved in the ruins of San Bartolo,
samples 2260±40 uncalibrated (400 - 200 BC; 2 sigma [95%
Guatemala.
probability] calibrated range), 2180±40 uncalibrated (370 -
The ruins of San Bartolo, Guatemala (Fig. 1) were
100 BC; 2 sigma [95% probability] calibrated range) and
identified in 2001 and include early wall paintings buried
2150±40 BP uncalibrated (360 - 60 BC; 2 sigma [95%
within a pyramidal structure today known as “Las Pinturas.”
probability] calibrated range) (figs. S3 to S5) surround the
These had been partially exposed by illicit digging a few
painted blocks and relate contextually to both destruction of
years previously, and subsequent scientific excavations in
the Sub- V painted room and the subsequent construction of
Room 1 (as that location is now designated) has uncovered
the Sub-IV platform above it. Taken in concert, these samples
most of this important mural, dating to approximately 100 BC
and those analyzed in association with the final two phases of
(1–4) (figs. S6 to S10). Tunneling deeper into the Las
construction, imply that the text was painted between 300 and
Pinturas structure has since led to the discovery of other
200 BC.
buildings with remains of painted decoration that are
The painted block bears a column of ten hieroglyphs (Fig.
significantly older than the Room 1 murals.
4). The text appears to be the end of a longer sequence of
One example of this earlier painting comes from a block
signs that continued above. All are painted in a thick black
from a dismantled wall of the building that once stood upon
line on white plaster apparently along a subtle pinkish-orange
the platform of the Sub-V construction phase (Fig. 2). The
stripe that served as a guideline for the scribe. As with later
Room 1 murals were painted on the Sub-I phase of the
examples of Maya writing discovered at San Bartolo, its
pyramid, that is to say four construction episodes later than
& $ /,% 5$ 7,21 2 )5 $' ,2& $5 % 2 1 $ *( 72 & $/( 1 ' $ 5< ( $ 5 6
9D ULDEOH V && ODEPXOW
/D ERU DWR U\QXP EHU %HW D
&RQYHQW LR QDOUDGLRFDUE RQ DJH %3
6LJPD F DOLE UDWHG UHVX OW &DO%& W R&DO%3 W R
SUREDELOLW\
,Q WH UF HS WGDWD
,QWHU FHSWRI U DGLRFDU ERQ DJH
ZLWKFDOLEU DWLRQ FXU YH &DO%&&DO%3
6 LJPDFDOLEUDWHGUHVXOWV &DO%&WR &DO %3 WR DQG
SU REDELOLW\ &DO%&WR &DO %3 WR
5DGLRFDUERQDJH %3
& D O% &
5H IHUHQFH V
'DWDEDVH X VHG
, 17& $/
&DOLEUDWLRQ' DWDEDVH
(GLWRULDO&RP P HQW
6WXL YHU0Y DQ GH U3O LFKW + 5 DGL RF DUERQ S[LL [L LL
,17 &$/ 5DGLRFDUERQ$JH & DO LEUDWLRQ
6WXL YHU0H W DO5 DGLRFDUERQ S
0 DWKH P DWLFV
$6LP SO LIL HG $SS URDF KWR&DOLEUDWLQ J & ' DWHV
7 DOPD $ 69 RJHO- &5 DGLRFDUERQ S
&IGURE #ALIBRATION CURVE FOR 3AMPLE 3"