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

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.