The Olmec and The Gulf Coast
ANTH 221: Peoples and Cultures of Mexico
Kimberly Martin, Ph.D.

Culture Heartland in Mexico

Overview of Pre Classic Sites
Also called Formative Sites

The Olmec
• Writing
• Long Count Calendar
• Concept of Zero
• Blood Sacrifices (?)
• Ceremonial Cities
• Monumental Architecture
• Possible Inventors of MesoAmerican Ball
Game
• Domesticated dogs
• Forerunners of MesoAmerican gods
• Hugely influential for all cultures that followed in MesoAmerica

Social Classes
• Three to four classes – indicated by houseforms
– Kings with stone houses inside the monumental architecture zone
– Hamlets outside the architectural zone
– Farmsteds farther out.

Religion
• Feathered Serpent
• Man of Crops
• Werejaguars

Human Sacrifice ?
• Stingray spikes and clay instruments used in blood-letting/sacrifice in later periods are found
• Disarticulated human skeletons may indicate human sacrifice
• Complete skeletons of newborn or unborn children may indicate infant sacrifice
• No direct evidence of sacrifice

l o s m b
S y o c l
B k l a a j s c
C a
First writing system in North America - Controversial stone tablet found in 1999 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/09/060914-oldest-writing.html

Long Count Calendar
18 20-day months plus 5 days (Base 20
System)
Stella C
Tres Zapotes
7-16-6-16-18 corresponds with
September 3, 32
BCE
Other glyphs are considered early writing symbols.

Concept of Zero
• Used in the Long Count Calendar
• May have been first invented in new world.
• Represented by a shell glyph: http://www.ancientscripts.com/ma_ws.html
For More Information

Olmec Heartland

Monumental Architecture
• North-South Alignment
• Clay and logs with occasional basalt columns from the Tuxtla Mountains
• Colored clays used for floors
• Structures “painted” red, yellow and purple
• Mosaic pavements made from serpentine stone

Major Sites
• El Manati
• San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan
• La Venta
• Tres Zapotes
• Early phases egalitarian, hunting and gathering
• Later phases highly stratified with agriculture, ceremonial centers, monumental architecture, writing, calendar.
• Signs of a well developed trade network –
Eg. Jade from Guatemala is found throughout Gulf Coase

El Manati
• Oldest PreClassic Site on the Gulf Coast
• Before 1750 BCE
• Bog environment with anaerobic preservation.
• Rubber balls
• Wooden Figures
• Jadeite axes
• Beads
• Obsidian blades

El Manati

El Manati

El Manati Figurines

San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan
• 1200 BC – 900 BC
(Vera Cruz)
– Ceremonial center
• Perhaps 5000 residents
– Agricultural area
• Population of perhaps 10,000- 15,000
– Carved stone drainage system
– Ten carved stone heads
• Stone from 60 miles away in the Tuxtla Mts.
– Carved stone thrones with names on the sides

La Venta
• Island settlement
– Vera Cruz and Tobasco
• 1750 BCE Early Occupation
– Villages growing maize
• From 1000 BC Olmec Culture
– More than 18,000 population
– Great Pyramid (30 meters tall)
• 800,000 person days to construct
– Giant stone head monuments
• Abandoned at about 400 BCE

La Venta

La Venta

La Venta Temple Mound

La
Venta
Site
Plan

La Venta

La Venta

La Venta Heads

Altars/Thrones

Links
BBC Documentary on Stone Sculpture
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpAd
EmR2PW4&feature=related ( video 18 min)
New Olmec Site Discovered
• http://news.nationalgeographic.com/new s/2007/01/070126-mexico-olmec.html
(article)

Classic and Post-Classic Periods
Classic Veracruz – El Tajin
• Most important Classic and Post-Classic
Veracruz site
• In the northern part of the region
• 17 ball courts
• Unique architecture and art styles not found anywhere else in Mesoamerica.

Classic Veracruz

Ball Game Played in
I Shaped Court
• Used a hard rubber ball which could played only by the elbow, knee or hip
• 2 teams on either side of a center line
• To win: team had to pass the ball thru the stone ring on the wall of the court the most times
• Losing team (or losing team leader) often sacrificed ?

Mesoamerican Ball Game

Ball Court Sacrifice Carvings

El Tajin Central Zone

Pyramid of the Niches

El Tajin Palmas
El Tajin
Carved Yoke
Ball Game Attire