Science. 1993 Mar 19;259(5102):1703-11. doi: 10.1126/science.259.5102.1703.
The decipherment of part of the epi-Olmec script of ancient Mexico, which yields the earliest currently readable texts in Mesoamerica, has been achieved over the last 2 years. This was made possible by the discovery of a stela with a long inscription at La Mojarra, Veracruz, Mexico, in 1986. This decipherment is based on both a reconstruction of the early stages of languages spoken in the region and semantic clues provided by comparison with cultural practices and other script traditions of early southern Mesoamerica. Summarized here is the current state of the phonetic decipherment, the methods used for the decipherment, and results concerning the epi-Olmec language and script. The language identified in the inscriptions is pre-proto-Zoquean, the ancestor of four languages now spoken in the states of Veracruz, Tabasco, Chiapas, and Oaxaca. The decipherment contributes to knowledge of early Mixe-Zoquean language history. The script is more closely related to Mayan hieroglyphic writing than to other early Mesoamerican scripts, and this relation is closer than previously recognized.
过去 2 年来，人们已经成功解读了部分古代墨西哥的前奥尔梅克文字，这些文字是中美洲目前最早可识别的文字。这一成就得益于 1986 年在墨西哥韦拉克鲁斯州拉莫拉的一块石碑上发现了一段长铭文。这种解读是基于对该地区早期语言的重建以及与早期中美洲南部的文化实践和其他文字传统的语义线索的比较。本文总结了目前语音解读的状况、用于解读的方法以及关于前奥尔梅克语言和文字的结果。在铭文中确定的语言是前普罗佐克语，它是现在在韦拉克鲁斯州、塔巴斯科州、恰帕斯州和瓦哈卡州使用的四种语言的祖先。这种解读有助于了解早期米克-佐克语的历史。这种文字与玛雅象形文字的关系比与其他中美洲早期文字的关系更为密切，而且这种关系比以前所认识的更为密切。
