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There are other later hieroglyphs known as " Epi-Olmec", and while there are some who believe that Epi-Olmec may represent a transitional script between an earlier, unknown Olmec writing system and Maya writing, the matter remains unsettled. Some challenged the 2002 find, suggesting that it was not writing, however, the discovery of a stone inscription in 2006 mostly settled the dispute. Symbols found in 20 date to 650 BC and 900 BC precede the oldest Zapotec writing, dated to about 500 BC. The Olmec are thought to be the first civilization in the Western Hemisphere to develop a writing system. In this heartland, the first Mesoamerican civilization would emerge and reign from 1200–400 BC. They also had great influence beyond the heartland: from Chalcatzingo, far to the west in the highlands of Mexico, to Izapa, on the Pacific coast near what is now Guatemala, Olmec goods have been found throughout Mesoamerica during this period. Here the Olmecs constructed permanent city-temple complexes at several locations, among them San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, La Venta, Tres Zapotes, Laguna de los Cerros, and La Mojarra. The Tuxtlas Mountains rise sharply in the north, along the Gulf of Mexico's Bay of Campeche. The Olmec Heartland is characterized by swampy lowlands punctuated by low hill ridges and volcanoes. The Olmec predominated in their lands from about 1200 BC to about 400 BC and they are, in fact, claimed by many to be the progenitors and mother culture of every primary element common to later Mesoamerican civilizations. Their immediate cultural influence went much further though, Olmec artwork being found as far afield as El Salvador. The Olmec were an ancient Pre-Columbian people living in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, roughly in what are the modern-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Monument 1, one of the four Olmec colossal heads at La Venta.