Items those

men, women, and children left behind when they died –

–  tell

anthropologists a lot. And sometimes even their words survive. Experts believe

that a discovery in Mexico, near the capital city of ancient people called the

Olmec, is the oldest example of writing that has ever been found in the

Americas. The people who created it probably lived 3,000 years ago,

,

says the discovery is extremely exciting. “It makes clear that the Olmec were

literate,

____. It’s

like hearing voices from the past," he says. But experts don’t know

exactly what the writing says. If you have ever tried to figure out a message

written in code, you have a pretty good idea of the hard work ahead. Finding

other examples of Olmec writing could help crack the code. “We could have whole

sets of ancient writing 

,” says Houston. “There

are many puzzles to be solved, and this is just one of them.“