The Olmec were the first major civilization in Mexico, lasting from
approximately 1400­400 BCE.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES [ edit ]
Recognize how uncertain scholars are about some aspects of the Olmecs
Sketch life for the Olmec
KEY POINTS [ edit ]
The Olmec lived in south­central Mexico, with their center inLa Venta.
Little is known about Olmec religion, though scholars believe there were eight main deities.
People lived in small agricultural villages outside of urban centers which were mainly for
ceremonial use.
The decline of the Olmec population from 400­350 BCE may have been due to environmental
changes.
TERM [ edit ]
La Venta
The main city of the Olmec civilization.
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The Olmec were the first major civilization in Mexico. They lived in the tropical lowlands of
south­central Mexico, in the present­day states of Veracruz and Tabasco, and had their
center in the city of La Venta.
The Olmec flourished during Mesoamerica's formative period, dating roughly from as early
as 1500 BCE to about 400 BCE. Pre­Olmec cultures had flourished in the area since about
2500 BCE, but by 1600–1500 BCE, Early Olmec culture had emerged. They were the first
Mesoamerican civilization and laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that
followed.
The Olmec heartland is the area in the Gulf of Mexico's lowlands and is generally considered
the birthplace of the Olmec culture. This area is characterized by swampy lowlands
punctuated by low hills, ridges, and volcanoes. The Tuxtlas Mountains rise sharply in the
north, along the Gulf of Mexico's Bay of Campeche. Here the Olmec constructed permanent
city­temple complexes at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, La Venta, Tres Zapotes, and Laguna de
los Cerros.
Religion
Unfortunately, there is no surviving direct account of Olmec beliefs, but their notable
artwork provide clues about their life and religion.
Olmec King
Surviving art, like this relief of a king or chief found in La Venta, help provide clues about how Olmec
society functioned.
There were eight different androgynous Olmec deities, each with its own distinct
characteristics. For example, the Bird Monster was depicted as a harpy eagle associated with
rulership while the Olmec Dragon was shown with flame eyebrows, a bulbous nose, and
bifurcated tongue. These gods were believed to provide the rulers a mandate to lead.
Trade and Village Life
The Olmec were not economically confined by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, Olmec
artifacts have been found across Mesoamerica, indicating that there were extensive
interregional trade routes. The Olmec period saw a significant increase in the length of trade
routes, the variety of goods, and the sources of traded items.
Trading helped the Olmec build their urban centers of San Lorenzo and La Venta. However,
these cities were used predominantly for ceremonial purposes; most people lived in villages.
Individual homes had a lean­to and a storage pit nearby. They also likely had gardens in
which the Olmec would grow medicinal herbs and small crops like sunflowers.
Most agriculture took place outside of the villages in fields cleared using slash­and­burn
techniques. The Olmec likely grew crops like maize, beans, squash, manioc, sweet potatoes,
and cotton.
Art
The Olmec culture was first defined as an art style, and this continues to be the hallmark of
the culture. Wrought in a large number of media – jade, clay, basalt, and greenstone among
others – much Olmec art, such as The Wrestler, is surprisingly naturalistic. Other art
expresses fantastic anthropomorphic creatures, often highly stylized, using an iconography
reflective of a religious meaning. [26] Common motifs include downturned mouths and a
cleft head, both of which are seen in representations of were­jaguars.
The Olmec colossal heads are at least seventeen monumental stone representations of
human heads sculpted from large basalt boulders. The heads date from at least before 900
BC and are a distinctive feature of the Olmec civilization of ancient Mesoamerica. All portray
mature men with fleshy cheeks, flat noses, and slightly crossed eyes; their physical
characteristics correspond to a type that is still common among the inhabitants of Tabasco
and Veracruz. The backs of the monuments often are flat. The boulders were brought from
the Sierra de los Tuxtlas mountains of Veracruz. Given that the extremely large slabs of stone
used in their production were transported over large distances, requiring a great deal of
human effort and resources, it is thought that the monuments represent portraits of powerful
individual Olmec rulers. Each of the known examples has a distinctive headdress. The heads
were variously arranged in lines or groups at major Olmec centres, but the method and
logistics used to transport the stone to these sites remain unclear.The discovery of a colossal
head at Tres Zapotes in the nineteenth century spurred the first archaeological investigations
of Olmec culture by Matthew Stirling in 1938. Seventeen confirmed examples are known
from four sites within the Olmec heartland on the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Most colossal heads
were sculpted from spherical boulders but two from San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán were re­
carved from massive stone thrones. An additional monument, at Takalik Abaj in Guatemala,
is a throne that may have been carved from a colossal head. This is the only known example
from outside the Olmec heartland.
Olmec Head
This sculpture is typical of the Colossal Heads of the Olmec
The End of the Olmecs
The Olmec population declined sharply between 400 and 350 BCE, though it is unclear why.
Archaeologists speculate that the depopulation was caused by environmental changes,
specifically riverine environment changes. These changes may have been triggered by the
silting up of rivers due to agricultural practices.
Another theory for the considerable population drop relates to tectonic upheavals or
subsidence, as suggested by Santley and colleagues who propose relocation of settlements
due to volcanism, instead of extinction. Volcanic eruptions during the Early, Late and
Terminal Formative periods would have blanketed the lands and forced the Olmec to move
their settlements.