# Mora-Marín 2009: Early Olmec Writing: Reading Format and Reading Order

> David F. Mora-Marín, 2009. 4 records on Mysteries Department cite it. The main revision of the 2006 reading format.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0CYBBJX86XAQ/early-olmec-writing-reading-format-and-reading-order  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Sources](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources)[Cascajal block and Isthmian writing](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/cascajal-block)Mora-Marín 2009

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# Early Olmec Writing: Reading Format and Reading Order

David F. Mora-Marín, 2009. _Latin American Antiquity 20(3), pp. 395 to 412_.

Argues from repeated sign sequences and layout, not from sign orientation, that the block should be turned 90 degrees and read in columns left to right and top to bottom, like later Mesoamerican scripts; finds structural patterns that may be linguistic.

**Cascajal block and Isthmian writing** Articledoi: **[10.1017/S1045663500002777](https://doi.org/10.1017/S1045663500002777)** Checked against the original0

## What it's used for here

The main revision of the 2006 reading format.

## Cited by on this site 4 records

[The block should be rotated 90 degrees and read in columns, left to right and top to bottom.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/cascajal-block/answers/ANS0CYBC4QJ6B9F/the-block-should-be-rotated-90-degrees-and-read-in-columns)

Answer

ANS

[Repeated sequences and layout favour a column format like later Mesoamerican scripts.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/cascajal-block/evidence/EVD0CYBC4ZC0Q5N/repeated-sequences-and-layout-favour-a-column-format-like)

Evidence

EVD

[The Cascajal block and Isthmian writing](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/cascajal-block)

The mystery article

MYS

[How is the Cascajal text laid out and read?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/cascajal-block/questions/QST0CYBBY4M58X1/how-is-the-cascajal-text-laid-out-and-read)

Question

QST

## Cite it

```
Mora-Marín, D. F. (2009). Early Olmec Writing: Reading Format and Reading Order. Latin American Antiquity 20(3), pp. 395 to 412. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1045663500002777
```

[Find it at doi.org](https://doi.org/10.1017/S1045663500002777)

Key

**SRC** 0CYBBJX86XAQ

Kind

Journal article

Rights

The publisher's

Kept

27 Oct 2026, for editors

Checked

Against the published article

Added by

[apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo)

The record

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