La Mojarra Stela 1 is a
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. Wit ...
n carved monument (
stela
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), wh ...
) dating from 156 CE (2nd century CE). It was discovered in 1986, pulled from the Acula River near
La Mojarra,
Veracruz
Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...
,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
, not far from the
Tres Zapotes
Tres Zapotes is a Mesoamerican archaeological site located in the south-central Gulf Lowlands of Mexico in the Papaloapan River plain. Tres Zapotes is sometimes referred to as the third major Olmec capital (after San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán and ...
archaeological site. The by , four-
ton
Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses.
Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean
* the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds
...
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...
slab contains about 535
glyphs
A glyph () is any kind of purposeful mark. In typography, a glyph is "the specific shape, design, or representation of a character". It is a particular graphical representation, in a particular typeface, of an element of written language. A g ...
of the
Isthmian script. One of Mesoamerica's earliest known written records, this
Epi-Olmec culture The Epi-Olmec culture was a cultural area in the central region of the present-day Mexican state of Veracruz. Concentrated in the Papaloapan River basin, a culture that existed during the Late Formative period, from roughly 300 BCE to roughly 250 ...
monument not only recorded this ruler's achievements, but placed them within a cosmological framework of calendars and astronomical events.
The right side of the stone features a full-length portrait of a man in an elaborate headdress and costume, although the bottom half of the carving is very badly weathered. Above the figure, 12 short columns of glyphs have been etched into the stone, matched by eight longer columns to the figure's right. Among these glyphs are two
Mesoamerican Long Count calendar
The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar is a non-repeating, vigesimal (base 20) and octodecimal (base 18) calendar used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya. For this reason, it is often known as the May ...
dates which correspond to May 143
CE and July 156 CE. The monument is an early example of the type of stela which later became common commemorating rulers of
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Civilizations
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (Ethiopia), a popul ...
sites in the
Classic era.
Description and interpretation
The figure engraved onto Stela 1 is complex and not easily interpreted. Pool describes the figure as follows:
Prof. Philip Arnold has tentatively identified the stylized sharks as the
Olmec Fish/Shark Monster, a symbol of rulership.
According to
Mary Ellen Miller
Mary Ellen Miller (born December 30, 1952) is an American art historian and academician specializing in Mesoamerica and the Maya.
Academic career
A native of New York State, Miller earned her A.B. degree from Princeton University and her Ph.D. ...
, the figure wears the headdress of the
Principal Bird Deity. Bird deities were often featured on stelae of this period, and can be seen on
Izapa
Izapa is a very large pre-Columbian archaeological site located in the Mexican state of Chiapas; it is best known for its occupation during the Late Formative period. The site is situated on the Izapa River, a tributary of the Suchiate River, ...
Stela 4 as well on monuments at
Kaminaljuyu
Kaminaljuyu (pronounced ) is a Pre-Columbian site of the Maya civilization that was primarily occupied from 1500 BC to AD 1200. Kaminaljuyu has been described as one of the greatest of all archaeological sites in the New World by Michael Coe ...
,
Takalik Abaj
Tak'alik Ab'aj (; ; ) is a pre-Columbian archaeological site in Guatemala. It was formerly known as Abaj Takalik; its ancient name may have been Kooja. It is one of several Mesoamerican sites with both Olmec and Maya features. The site flourishe ...
, and
Zaculeu
Zaculeu or Saqulew is a pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site in the highlands of western Guatemala, about outside the modern city of Huehuetenango. Occupation at the site dates to the Early Classic period (AD 250–600) of Mesoameric ...
.
The
Tuxtla Statuette
The Tuxtla Statuette is a small 6.3 inch (16 cm) rounded greenstone figurine, carved to resemble a squat, bullet-shaped human with a duck-like bill and wings. Most researchers believe the statuette represents a shaman wearing a bird m ...
, a small , also portrays a human dressed as a bird. It comes from the same culture and period as Stela 1, and both feature
Isthmian script glyphs. These two artifacts were found roughly apart and their Long Count dates are separated by only 6 years. They may even refer to the same person.
Discovery and decipherment
For some years after discovery, the monument was in storage in the
Museo de Antropología in
Xalapa
Xalapa or Jalapa (, ), officially Xalapa-Enríquez (), is the capital city of the Mexican state of Veracruz and the name of the surrounding municipality. In the 2005 census the city reported a population of 387,879 and the municipality of which ...
. In November 1995, as the monument was being prepared for display, a previously neglected series of glyphs was noticed on one side in eroded but still partially recognizable condition.
In 1993, and again in 1997, after discovery of the new column of glyphs,
John Justeson and
Terrence Kaufman
Terrence Kaufman (1937 – March 3, 2022) was an American linguist specializing in documentation of unwritten languages, lexicography, Mesoamerican historical linguistics and language contact phenomena. He was an emeritus professor of linguisti ...
put forward a proposed decipherment of the glyphs. This decipherment names the figure depicted as "Harvester Mountain Lord", and describes his ascension to kingship, a solar eclipse, appearances of
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
, warfare, and an attempted usurpation, human sacrifice (perhaps Harvester Mountain Lord's brother-in-law) and Harvester Mountain Lord's own
bloodletting
Bloodletting (or blood-letting) is the withdrawal of blood from a patient to prevent or cure illness and disease. Bloodletting, whether by a physician or by leeches, was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and other bodily flu ...
.
[Kaufman (2000) and Justeson and Kaufman (2001).]
This decipherment has been disputed by
Michael D. Coe
Michael Douglas Coe (May 14, 1929 – September 25, 2019) was an American archaeologist, anthropologist, epigrapher, and author. He is known for his research on pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, particularly the Maya, and was among the foremost Mayan ...
and
Stephen D. Houston, among others. Resolution of this debate will likely need to await further archaeological discoveries.
File:La Mojarra Estela 1 (Detalle).jpg, Detail of the central character of the sculpture.
File:La Mojarra Estela 1 (Escritura superior).jpg, Detail of the inscriptions top view.
File:La Mojarra Estela 1 (Escritura inferior).jpg, Detail of the inscriptions bottom view.
Notes
See also
*
Detail showing one of the two Long Count dates.
References
* (2005) "The Shark-Monster in Olmec Iconography", in ''Mesoamerican Voices'', 2005, v. 2.
* (2001) "Mojarra, La (Veracruz, Mexico)", in Evans, Susan, ed., ''Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America'', Taylor & Francis, London.
* (2006) ''Ritual and Power in Stone: The Performance of Rulership in Mesoamerican Izapan Style Art'', University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, .
*
* (2001
''Epi-Olmec Hieroglyphic Writing and Texts''
* (2000)
on University of Pittsburgh Department of Anthropology website (accessed January 2008).
* (2001) ''Landscape and Power in Ancient Mesoamerica'', Westview Press.
*
* (2007) ''Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica'', Cambridge University Press, .
*{{aut, Schuster, Angela M. H. (1997)
in ''Archaeology'', online (accessed January 2008).
2nd-century establishments
2nd-century inscriptions
1986 archaeological discoveries
Epi-Olmec culture
Inscriptions in undeciphered writing systems
Mesoamerican inscriptions
Mesoamerican stelae
