Oldest Manuscript in the Americas Confirmed

A detail of an image from page 4 of the Grolier Codex with red underpainting visible. (Credit: Justin Kerr) The Grolier Codex, a much-disputed Maya manuscript, is indeed the real deal, which makes it the oldest book discovered in the Americas. A team led by a researcher from Brown University performed a comprehensive analysis of the Grolier Codex, a collection of 11 sheets of bark paper discovered in 1965 in a cave in Chiapas, Mexico. They say that a number of factors point to the pages being authentic, putting to rest a debate that has gone on for over four decades.