La Mojarra Stela 1 comes from the coast of Veracruz in the first two centuries CE, and minor objects with the same kind of writing are from nearby. Alternative ongoing decipherment efforts are reported, including actual content readings of portions. There are complete concordances and indexes. Illustrations are large and immediately face the explanatory text. Parallels include early and preclassic Mayan, Olmec, Mixtec, and Zapotec writing, as well as later codices. The tools available here make the texts of this very important writing system maximally accessible. The focus is on extensive explanations of sentence structure, [ intro - calendrics - verb - complements - subject ].

Linguistic interpretations are provided on alternative assumptions that the text is either Mayan or Zoquean language. This work argues strongly that claims of pre-Zoquean decipherment are not justified, as evaluated by a number of measures which have classically been applied to judging whether such claims are warranted. The reasoning process which led to the claims is dissected. No claim is here made for decipherment as Mayan language.

Fourth edition 1999, 2 volumes 121 pp. and 91 pp. spiralbound to lie flat. By Lloyd Anderson (The 1994 2nd edition was reviewed by Stephen Houston 1997 in International Journal of American Linguistics.)

Magliabecchiano

FCE