Olmec

The first complex civilization of Mesoamerica and its distinctive art style, beginning in the Early Preclassic (c 1200 BC) and ending c 400 BC. The farming population built and supported great ceremonial centers (La Venta, San Lorenzo, Tenochititlan, Tres Zapotes), importing tons of serpentine and basalt from outside the region. The Olmecs were great stone-carvers whose products ranged from basalt heads almost 2 meters high to small jade figurines in which the attributes of a baby-faced human being merge and blend with those of a jaguar to form a composite monster (were-jaguar). Carvings in this distinctive style have been discovered over much of Mexico and as far south as El Salvador and Costa Rica. They are also noted for a distinctive black, white-rimmed kaolin pottery. Olmec figurines and pottery have been found at various sites in central Mexico and contacts were strong with the cultures of Oaxaca before the construction of Monte Albán. The Olmec are also known for art in jadeite and shell and the first hieroglyphic writing system. The Olmec golden age was the early part of the 1st millennium BC. They developed many of the religious traditions that were to sustain the Maya and other Mesoamerican civilizations such as Teotihuacán. They are not to be confused with historic Olmecs, who were a later group and may have helped destroy Teotihuacan, and whose tyranny was responsible for migration of many Mesoamerican peoples.

A Mesoamerican group whose heartland lay in the low-lying swampy areas of the southern Veracruz and Tabasco provinces of Mexico. Since their cultural zenith occurred in the Middle Pre-Classic, they are often proposed as the earliest civilization in Mesoamerica. The ceremonial centre settlement pattern is typical, although an Olmec presence is evident at numerous small sites in Mesoamerica which are presumed to be trading stations. The Olmec were apparently great traders, but they are particuarly noted for the variety and high quality of their art, especially their ceramic and jade figurines. Massive basalt heads depicting thick-lipped men in tightly fitting helmets have been found at all the major centres (see San Lorenzo, Tenochtitlan, La Venta and Tres Zapotes). They are also noted tor a distinctive black, white-rimmed kaolin pottery. Certain elements of style are highly characteristic, including the down-turned mouth, the St Andrew Cross, infantile features and feline motifs. The were-jaguar (the transmutation of man and jaguar) is a constantly recurring theme in Olmec art. The internal workings of Olmec society are by no means certain but it is clear that the Olmec were controllers of a widespread trade network. None of the elaborately worked stone found at the major centres occurs naturally there; jade, obsidian and even the basalt for the massive heads had to be imported, in some instances over distances of 100 km. On the other hand, unmistakeably Olmec materials have been found as far afield as El Salvador. Figurines have been found at Las Bocas, ceramics of all kinds at Tlatilco, cave art (see Juxtlahuaca) and carved jade in Guerrero, and colossal heads in sites in Morelos. Although San Lorenzo and La Venta were abandoned in the Pre-Classic, Olmec traits persisted well into the Classic Period at such sites as Tres Zapotes and Cerro de las Mesas.