Ancient Civilizations of the
Americas Lecture 5B
Formative Cultures Outside of the Olmec
Heartland
Pre-Classic Guerrero Juxtlahuaca Cave, Oxtotitlan rock shelter
Figure in a Jaguar costume with
cudgel
Teopantecuanitlan: 1000-500 BC (three phases)
Excavator: Guadalupe Martínez Donjuán in 1984
Features:
•Sunken court with monumental sculpture at four sides
•Stone drainage system like at San Lorenzo leading from
sunken court
•Slab-lined irrigation channel linked to a storage dam
•Residential area with residences clustered around a
courtyard
•Dog made up half of the faunal total
•Iron ore mirrors, onyx & serpentine earspools, pearl
oyster worked for export, obsidian imported from the
Basin of Mexico and worked into prismatic blades (75%)
Tlatilco Culture: Tlatilco, Tlapacoya, Chalcatzingo
Tlatilco: excavated by Miguel Covarrubias, Roman Piña Chan
•Excavated:19421968
•Occupied: 1200400 BC
•City
Tlatilco Culture in the Puebla/Morelos basin
Chalcatzingo, Morelos
•Excavated by Jorge Angulo, Raul Arana, and David C.
Grove in 1972-76. Additional excavations in ’95 &‘98.
•Rivers densely settled – three-tiered settlement hierarchy
•Obsidian imported from Teotihuacán Valley
•Chalcatzingo is located in Amatzinac Valley in E.
Morelos.
•Village established in Early Formative at the base of the
Cerro Chacatzingo/Cerro Delgado around 1500 BC.
By 900 BC, village is remade into a series of terraces at
the base of the mountains with dispersed houses.
500-700 BC monumental art is created – contemporary
with examples from La Venta.
A mound is erected on the highest terrace 70m long by
7m high
World Tree or
Dowery Bundle?
Stylized earth
monster?
“El Rey”
Monument 9
Sunken patio with altar/throne decorated with eyes of
earth supernatural
Corn stalk
“Marching Olmecs”
Formative
Oaxaca
Valley of Oaxaca
Human Ecology
Project directed by
Kent Flannery since
1966, and since
1972 co-directed by
Joyce Marcus
Tierras Largas
phase: 1400-1150
BC
Remains of a public building San Jose Mogote, early
Tierras Largas Phase: c. 1350 BC Pine posts and cane wattle
plastered with white stucco
San Jose Phase:
1150-850 BC
Guadalupe Phase:
850-700 BC
Rosario Phase: 700-500 BC
Formative Mesoamerican Cultural Uniformity
•Theories:
•Olmec Empire
• Olmec Missionaries
Axe from
Chiapas with
werejaguar
symbols
• Pan-Mesoamerican Interaction Sphere
Pot from
Puebla
with fire
serpent
symbol
Chalcatzingo,
Morelos
Formative Mesoamerican Religious Practices
Cosmology: sacred directions, cosmos of
multiple vertical layers
Sacred mountains and
pools.
Olmec statue found on top
of San Martin Pajapan
volcano
Figurine from
Las Limas
Olmec Gods: theories of
David Joralemon
Bird, Fish, Banded Eye;
Crocodile
Formative Rituals:
Group ritual
Personal ritual