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A Study on the Olmec Iconographic Symbols and Mesoamerican Writing

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A Study on the Olmec Iconographic Symbols and Mesoamerican Writing SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS Number 273 November, 2017 Are Olmec Scripts Chinese? A Study on the Olmec Iconographic Symbols and Mesoamerican Writing by ZHANG He Victor H. Mair, Editor Sino-Platonic Papers Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 USA [email protected] www.sino-platonic.org SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS FOUNDED 1986 Editor-in-Chief VICTOR H. MAIR Associate Editors PAULA ROBERTS MARK SWOFFORD ISSN 2157-9679 (print) 2157-9687 (online) SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS is an occasional series dedicated to making available to specialists and the interested public the results of research that, because of its unconventional or controversial nature, might otherwise go unpublished. The editor-in-chief actively encourages younger, not yet well established, scholars and independent authors to submit manuscripts for consideration. Contributions in any of the major scholarly languages of the world, including romanized modern standard Mandarin (MSM) and Japanese, are acceptable. In special circumstances, papers written in one of the Sinitic topolects (fangyan) may be considered for publication. Although the chief focus of Sino-Platonic Papers is on the intercultural relations of China with other peoples, challenging and creative studies on a wide variety of philological subjects will be entertained. This series is not the place for safe, sober, and stodgy presentations. Sino- Platonic Papers prefers lively work that, while taking reasonable risks to advance the field, capitalizes on brilliant new insights into the development of civilization. Submissions are regularly sent out to be refereed, and extensive editorial suggestions for revision may be offered. Sino-Platonic Papers emphasizes substance over form. We do, however, strongly recommend that prospective authors consult our style guidelines at www.sino-platonic.org/stylesheet.doc. Manuscripts should be submitted as electronic files, preferably in Microsoft Word format. You may wish to use our sample document template, available here: www.sino-platonic.org/spp.dot. Beginning with issue no. 171, Sino-Platonic Papers has been published electronically on the Web at www.sino-platonic.org. Issues 1–170, however, will continue to be sold as paper copies until our stock runs out, after which they too will be made available on the Web. Please note: When the editor goes on an expedition or research trip, all operations (including filling orders) may temporarily cease for up to three months at a time. In such circumstances, those who wish to purchase various issues of SPP are requested to wait patiently until he returns. If issues are urgently needed while the editor is away, they may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. You should also check our Web site at www.sino-platonic.org, as back issues are regularly rereleased for free as PDF editions. Sino-Platonic Papers is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs 2.5 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. Are Olmec Scripts Chinese? A Study on the Olmec Iconographic Symbols and Mesoamerican Writing ZHANG He William Paterson University ABSTRACT This study is an investigation on four pieces of jade work of the Olmec civilization found at La Venta, Mexico. It argues against identifying the design markings on the jade celts (a type of ax-shaped stonework) as Chinese script, as has been proposed, and it demonstrates that the design motifs found on the celts are identical with those in many works of Olmec art. These motifs are the basic elements used to compose a pictorial mask face. By providing a series of motifs with similar imagery to compare with those on the celts, I demonstrate that the designs on the celts are the remains of a typical Olmec image of a supernatural being with symbolic motifs. Some of these symbolic motifs are Olmec symbols, well known from pictorial images, that developed into a true writing system such as the Cascajal Script; they do not show any resemblance to Chinese characters. ZHANG He, “Are Olmec Scripts Chinese?” Sino-Platonic Papers, 273 (November 2017) OLMEC AND CHINESE In his book Origin of the Olmec Civilization (Xu 1996), H. Mike Xu announced that he had discovered that certain ancient Olmec glyphs were Chinese writing, and stated that ancient China is the origin of the Olmec civilization in Mesoamerica. His key evidence was his identification of some incised markings on a few Olmec jade works. Some years earlier, a few Chinese scholars had also independently discovered similarities between the Olmec signs and Chinese oracle-bone inscriptions, but their studies, written in Chinese, did not gain much attention in the English-speaking world. In a follow-up study in 1999, Xu gave a detailed comparison of the Olmec signs and Shang oracle bone scripts, and supported his discovery by paralleling more Pan-American signs and Chinese characters. Xu identified the signs on these jade celts as Shang Chinese writing (Fig. 1). He managed to match almost every single Olmec mark with a Chinese word. More convincingly, Xu even read the markings in their Chinese equivalents as denoting some ancestral oblation and commemoration with the actual names of a few Chinese legendary emperors, a characteristic typical of oracle bone inscriptions, and probably of the Olmec offerings. This discovery seemed to be solid evidence for solving the problem of the origin of the Olmec civilization. Several major national news media,1 including ABC news, reported this discovery, and The Atlantic Monthly (Digital Edition Jan. 2000) also concluded that: “the diffusionists have landed,” meaning that the origin of the ancient American civilization is found not in the New World but in the Old. 1 ABC News: Early Crossings: Scientists Debate Who Sailed to the New World First. http://abcnews.go.com/ABC2000/abc2000science/newworld991019.html National Geographic News: Ancient Writing Links China and Mesoamerica. http://www.ngnews.com/news/1999/10/100599/mesochina_6185.asp The Atlantic Monthly: The Diffusionists Have Landed. http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/01001stengel.htm Discover Magazine: Chinatown, 1000 B. C. http://www.discover.com/feb_00/breakchinatown.html 2 ZHANG He, “Are Olmec Scripts Chinese?” Sino-Platonic Papers, 273 (November 2017) Figure 1. M. Xu’s Identification for Celt No. 1 of La Venta Offering 4 (Xu’s Celt 4; from Xu’s website: http://www.chinese.tcu.edu/www_chinese3 _tcu_ edu.htm ). Note: the website cannot be retrieved as of 2017. PROBLEMS OF THE CHINESE IDENTIFICATION Doubts, however, arise from the following concerns on the identification of the signs, particularly on the four jade celts found at La Venta Offering-4: 1. The archaeological report describes the jade pieces as re-used objects from some original work, and the incised signs are the ground-off remains of the original. Yet such an important condition is not considered in making the identification, and instead, the markings are treated as complete, independent signs. 3 ZHANG He, “Are Olmec Scripts Chinese?” Sino-Platonic Papers, 273 (November 2017) 2. The remaining signs of the markings are identifiable as some known Olmec motifs that compose picture images, and that do not show resemblance to Chinese characters. 3. The identification fails to draw on more comparative sources for a cross-examination, which shows methodological weakness. 4. The collection of the supporting signs for the identification is too random and uncontrolled, and therefore cannot be used to establish a supporting case. LA VENTA OFFERING-4 CELTS AND RECONSTRUCTION The objects with the sign markings are four of six pieces of jade celts grouped with sixteen figurines of people made of jade, serpentine, and granite, discovered at La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico, in 1955. The group is called La Venta Offering-4, and the site is dated Middle Formative Period (900–600 B. C.). The group as found was arranged with one figure standing facing the other fifteen figures, with the celts upright behind that one figure. Since their discovery, much attention has been paid to the function and meaning of the entire offering, yet no significant interpretation has been made. While some scholars observed hostility between the single figure and the rest (Miller 1996:29), others saw meditative expressions on them (Tate 1995:58). Many agreed that the celts represented stelae (Gonzalez-Lauck 1996:78) and symbolized the cosmic axis, or in general, the Axis Mundi (Tate 1995:58; Tate and Reilly 1995:225). 4 ZHANG He, “Are Olmec Scripts Chinese?” Sino-Platonic Papers, 273 (November 2017) Figure 2. Drawings of the celts from La Venta Offering 4 (Drucker, Heizer, and Squier 1959) Among the six celts, two are plain and four have the incised markings (Fig. 2); these four pieces appear to be cut from one jade plaque. According to the excavation report (Drucker, Heizer, Squier 1959:156–158): In point of fact it is highly probable that all four of these celts were actually cut from the same piece of stone. Not only are they similar in color and texture, but all four of the remnants have a design incised upon them prior to the grinding away of their present edges. … It has proved impossible for us to reconstruct the original design, since so much of it has been ground away in rounding off the edges of the celts. … Reading this section of the description, we can immediately eliminate any identification that does not consider the missing parts, since the signs were not made for the offering per se, but were simply the remains of an original work. It is clear that we are dealing with some very incomplete design motifs rather than clearly written signs. This misconception may have come from the same 5 ZHANG He, “Are Olmec Scripts Chinese?” Sino-Platonic Papers, 273 (November 2017) report when it says: “Celt No.
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