La Venta Monument 13 ("The Ambassador")

Anonymous / Olmec sculptors of La Venta · c. 600-400 BC on stylistic grounds; Karl Taube argues for a date as much as two centuries later, into the Late Formative (c. 400-200 BC) · La Venta (Mexico) · other

composition: contested

witness: the monument itself, standing at La Venta; both its date (600-400 BC per Houston 2004, vs. as much as two centuries later per Taube) and whether its four carved signs constitute writing are actively disputed among specialists

Controversial: La Venta Monument 13, a striding human figure nicknamed the Ambassador for the staff he carries, bears four carved glyphs, three in a linear arrangement and a fourth shaped like a footprint, the common Mesoamerican symbol for movement or arrival, which epigrapher Stephen Houston treats as one of only two candidates, alongside Monument 3 of San Jose Mogote (see the separate entry), for the first true writing anywhere in Mesoamerica; the monument is conventionally dated 600-400 BC on stylistic grounds, though Karl Taube argues for a date as much as two centuries later, placing it in the Late Formative period well after La Venta's main Olmec-era flourishing, so both the monument's date and whether its four signs constitute writing proper, rather than a non-linguistic notation, remain open questions.