It was ruled by powerful kings who could command the carving of multi-ton portrait heads from basalt that had to be imported from the Tuxtla Mountains to the northwest. Its first inhabitants may have arrived there about 1400 ВС from the Pacific coast of Chiapas and Guatemala, but by 1200 ВС (in radiocarbon years), this great center was fully Olmec. It is now clear that the most ancient, and the greatest, Olmec site is San Lorenzo, located just about in the center of the heartland. It was only when the first radiocarbon dates on the major Olmec sites of La Venta and San Lorenzo were published that the Mayanists were proved completely wrong: the leading Maya authority of the time, Sir Eric Thompson, had underestimated the true age of the Olmec by about 2,000 years! Olmec civilization was as much the «Gift of the River» as were the ancient cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia.Įver since its discovery by pioneers like archaeologist Matthew Stirling and artist Miguel Covarrabias, the age and nature of the Olmec culture have been the source of endless controversy.įor a very long time, leading Mayanists were reluctant to grant it temporal priority over the Classic Maya, even though archaeological evidence outside the heartland showed that objects in Olmec style were stratigraphically very early, in fact, Formative or Pre-Classic in date. These factors have resulted in the richest lands in all Mesoamerica for maize agriculture. Rainfall is heavy, continuing even through most of the so-called dry season. ![]() The heartland is watered by some of Mesoamerica’s most high-volume rivers, including the Coatzacoalcos and Tonala, and these annual deposit layers of rich alluvium on the natural levees above their banks. Within this compact area is found the vast majority of great Olmec stone monuments – the colossal heads, «altars» (actually thrones), freestanding sculpture, and stelae for which this ancient culture is famous. ![]() The Olmec heartland is a low lying, crescent-shaped area along Mexico’s Gulf Coast, about 200 km long and 100 km broad (at its widest point). Almost all of the world’s earliest civilizations have arisen in river valleys, and the Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica was no exception.
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