THE OLMECS

A History from Beginning to End

Copyright © 2019 by Hourly History.

All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Origins

The Olmec Enigma

San Lorenzo, the First Olmec City

The Fall of San Lorenzo

Were-Jaguars and Feathered Serpents

The Rise of La Venta

Tres Zapotes

The Disappearance of the Olmecs

Conclusion

Your Free eBooks!

Introduction

The Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica is one of the least understood of
the ancient civilizations of the world. It is generally recognized as the
first true Mesoamerican civilization, but there is debate and disagreement
about where these people came from, how significant they were, and what
caused them to disappear suddenly. The Olmec civilization may have lasted
for more than seven hundred years (though even this is disputed), and it
left behind fascinating sculptures and archaeological remains, but these
people left almost nothing to tell us how they lived, what they believed
in, and how they viewed the world.

Everything we know about the Olmecs comes from the analysis of
archaeological finds, but almost every conclusion reached in this way has
been challenged. The Olmec civilization seemed to arrive suddenly, but did
the Olmecs arrive from Siberia via the Bering Land Bridge, as did most of
the people of North and South America, or did they originate somewhere very
different? What happened to destroy this sophisticated and long-established
civilization in a period of little more than fifty years? Climate change?
Overpopulation? A volcanic eruption? Disease? War? Insurrection? All have
been suggested, but none proven.

This is a story with many questions and many different potential answers.
Even respected and qualified experts seem to take diametrically opposed
positions with regards to the Olmecs. Therefore, this is not a neat and
tidy history which explains the Olmecs; it is instead an attempt to look at
the present evidence to see if we can understand something about who these
people were, where they came from, and what happened to them. This is the
story of the mysterious Olmecs.

Chapter One

Origins

“Not for the first time I felt myself confronted by the dizzying
possibility that an entire episode in the story of mankind might have been
forgotten.”

—Graham Hancock, The Mystery of the Olmecs

The area known as Mesoamerica (meaning “middle America” in Greek) is
loosely defined but is generally taken to extend across present-day Central
America and incorporate parts of Mexico and Costa Rica and the whole of
Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. This important
region was the home of the Olmecs, one of the two American civilizations
which arose independently—the other was on the northern coast of
present-day Peru. Mesoamerica was also one of only three areas where
writing developed in the ancient world (the other two were
Mesopotamia and China).

The first humans to colonize the continents of North and South America were
tribes of hunter-gatherers who arrived from Siberia towards the end of the
last ice age, around 12,000 years ago. These people had discovered fire and
had become adept at hunting. They crossed the Bering Land Bridge, which
then connected Siberia and Alaska, and began to move south and east to
occupy most of North and South America.

This era, known as the Paleo-Indian period, was characterized in North and
South America by bands of nomadic hunters who followed big game and used
primarily stone weapons and tools. Somewhere around 9000-8000 BCE, settlers
began to arrive in the lands around the Gulf of Mexico. Here, they
initially hunted big game but, as these animals became scarce, they began
to settle and to take advantage of the temperate climate and fertile land
to start farming. This period is known as the Archaic and is characterized
by a more sedentary lifestyle where permanent settlements were built in
areas where crops which included maize and beans as well as tomatoes,
avocado, and squash could be grown. As these settlements became established
and their sources of basic foods secure, they also began to farm luxury
items such as vanilla, chili, and cacao. The lands settled by these early
people included coastal areas and areas close to the many rivers in the
region, but settlements ranged from the Sierra Madre Mountains to the arid
flatlands of the northern Yucatán Peninsula.

The change from mainly nomadic groups which relied on hunting and foraging
to more settled communities who developed agriculture was a gradual one,
and both types of lifestyle continued in tandem for a very long period.
There were relatively few people competing for abundant resources, and
there was little or no large-scale conflict. There were no large urban
centers in this period—even settled groups tended to live in small villages
adjacent to fertile agricultural land and close to rivers or the sea.
However, as agriculture became more efficient, there were food surpluses
and population growth, and for the first time towards the end of this
period, the first crafts and trade began to appear, with artisans producing
weapons and tools as well as textiles.

By around 2000 BCE, this region had entered the early Preclassic period,
which saw the first production of ceramics as well as more complex and
structured societies with increasing specialization and social divisions.
Buildings became more advanced and more permanent though towns were still
generally small and there was no one over-riding civilization or people who
dominated all others. Most communities appear to have been limited in size,
and while there were some trade and exchange of goods, this was also on a
very limited scale and restricted to local areas.

There were religions during this period, but we know relatively little
about them, and these seem to have varied in different areas—there was no
single religion which covered a wider area.

Somewhere around 1400 BCE, a fundamental change began in the area of
present-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco at the Bay of Campeche
on the Gulf Coast. A new group of people appeared who would become the
forerunners of every subsequent Mesoamerican people and whose customs,
religions, and architecture were copied by almost every culture which
followed. The problem is, we don’t know where these people came from, why
they developed as they did, or even what they called themselves.

Chapter Two

The Olmec Enigma

“Archaeological exploration in Mesoamerica, together with other
anthropological studies, is, at best, an incomplete map of a number of
islands in an uncharted ocean.”

—Ignacio Bernal, The Olmec World

There are fundamental disagreements about where this new civilization came
from. Most mainstream historians believe that the people who became known
as the Olmecs developed from the indigenous people who had come to the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge. However, there are several other and
completely different explanations for the origin of the Olmecs.

The earliest traces of the Olmecs date from around 1600 BCE at an
archaeological site called El Manatí, near present-day San Lorenzo. By
somewhere around 1400-1200 BCE, these people had spread across Mexico to the Pacific coast and into Central America into parts of
present-day Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and
Nicaragua. This civilization seems to have arrived abruptly, with new
religions and architectural styles, and there are no archaeological remains
which suggest a gradual evolution of these new styles. It is this, in part,
which has given rise to speculation that the Olmecs may have arrived from
elsewhere rather than being indigenous to the area.

Initially, historians and archaeologists believed that Olmec civilization
appeared much later, around 250 BCE, but as more discoveries were made in
the nineteenth century, this date was pushed further and further back.
Then, in 1862, a Mexican explorer and scholar made an astonishing
discovery—José María Melgar y Serrano discovered a huge stone head in Tres
Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico. The head was carved from hard volcanic basalt
which had been quarried in the region of the Sierra de los Tuxtlas
Mountains on the Veracruz Gulf coast and transported to Tres Zapotes, a
distance of around 50 miles.

The head was clearly not part of a larger statue; it had been made solely
as a representation of a head, and it was around 1.5 meters tall (5 feet)
and weighed almost 8 tons. It was carved wearing a close-fitting helmet,
but the thing that perplexed its finder was that the facial features
appeared to be African with flared nostrils and thickened lips, quite
different to the indigenous people of the area.

In the period since this first discovery, sixteen more of these strange
heads have been discovered—one more at Tres Zapotes, one in La Cobata, four
in La Venta, and ten in San Lorenzo. The last was discovered in 1994.
Although the heads are subtly different in terms of facial features and
expression, the general style is very similar. They are all around 1.5 to 3
meters tall, all weigh in excess of 6 tons, and all show what are
apparently African faces wearing close-fitting helmets. The stone heads
have all been attributed to the period of Olmec civilization, but we have
no idea who or what they represent, why or how they were made, or how they
were transported from the Sierra de los Tuxtlas Mountains to the areas in
which they were found.

These colossal stone heads have become some of the most discussed and
debated artifacts of the ancient world. Subsequent investigation has shown
that the rock from which most of the heads are carved comes from the
southeastern slopes of a mountain called Cerro Cintepec. Most were carved
from boulders taken from the slopes of this mountain, but some seem to have
been re-purposed from other exciting items which had been carved from the
same type of stone. Some heads, for example, show signs of having
previously been used as some form of royal throne before it was re-carved
as a head.

The discoverer of the first head, José María Melgar y Serrano, wrote two
papers about it in the 1860s, where he expressed his belief that it
belonged to an African people. In the early years of the twentieth century,
American historian Leo Wiener became interested in the heads, and in 1920,
he published a three-volume work entitled Africa and the Discovery of America. In this, Wiener proposed that
the Olmecs originated in West Africa, and he supported the African origin
of the heads by noting his belief that many modern Mexican words have their
linguistic roots in West African languages.

In 1972, Polish anthropologist Andrzej Wierciński published several papers
in which he claimed that a number of skeletons unearthed in sites which had
Olmec connections, at Monte Alban, Cerro de las Mesas, and Tlatilco, were
of African racial type. In 1976, Ivan Van Sertima, associate professor of
African Studies at Rutgers University in the United States, published They Came Before Columbus in which he asserted that continuing
examination of the evidence confirmed an African origin for the Olmec
people. Van Sertima specifically noted the Mande peoples, a collection of
ethnic groups in Western Africa, as the original Olmecs. There have also
been attempts to link Olmec carvings with scripts which originated in
Africa, and historians have also noted that the Popol Vuh, the
sacred book of the later Quiche Maya people, claims that the Olmec came to
Mexico in “ships of bark.”

Despite this, the notion that the Olmecs may have originated in Africa is
disputed, not just by most mainstream historians but also by others who
have their own explanation for the origins of the Olmecs. For example,
according to the Book of Mormon, regarded as scripture by followers of
Latter Day Saint (LDS) movement, the Olmecs were ancestors of the
Jaredites, people who were said to have traveled to North and South America
from somewhere in Africa or Europe in ancient times.

Other people have theorized that the Olmecs originated in ancient Egypt,
citing similarities between what we know of Olmec religion and aspects of
ancient Egypt and the fact that one Olmec city features a great pyramid.
Others have suggested that the original Olmecs were actually Chinese,
refugees from Shang dynasty China. Supporters of this theory cite
similarities between markings found on some Olmec artifacts and similar
items from ancient China. Still others, including Norwegian historian and
explorer Thor Heyerdahl, believe that at least some of the original Olmecs
came from Nordic countries, though the only evidence used to support this
theory comes from some Olmec carvings and decorations which appear to show
human figures with notably Nordic features. The most outlandish theory of
all suggests that the Olmec were extraterrestrials, or at least that they
had their origin with a race who did not originally come from Earth.

The problem with all these theories is that they rely on the existence of
seafaring people capable of undertaking a trans-continental voyage far
earlier than most historians believe possible. Perhaps the sudden
appearance of the Olmecs as a seemingly fully-fledged society and a lack of
archaeological evidence which shows their development makes this kind of
theorizing inevitable. However, none of the many theories about the origins
of the Olmecs have been proven, and every theory has its supporters and
detractors. All we can be certain about is that there is no agreement of
where these people came from or whether they developed from indigenous
people in the area or came from somewhere else completely.

Chapter Three

San Lorenzo, the First Olmec City

“Ancient Egypt, like that of the Olmecs emerged all at once and fully
formed. Indeed, the period of transition from primitive to advanced society
appears to have been so short that it makes no kind of historical sense.”

—Graham Hancock, The Mystery of the Olmecs

The earliest generally accepted evidence for the existence of Olmec culture
has been found at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán in the southwest of the
present-day Mexican state of Veracruz, around 35 miles from the Gulf Coast.
The site was first excavated in 1938 by American ethnologist and
archaeologist Matthew Williams Stirling. Prior to this, the oldest Olmec
site excavated had dated to around 250 BCE, but the discoveries at San
Lorenzo Tenochtitlán pushed back the beginning of Olmec culture more than
1,000 years.

This discovery was important because, prior to this, it was assumed that
the Maya civilization was the oldest in Mesoamerica and that the Olmecs
were influenced by the Maya. However, more extensive archaeological work
had shown that the opposite is true—the Olmecs came before the Maya, and
similarities between the two cultures must therefore be due to Olmec
influence on the Maya and not the other way around. It wasn’t until a
special meeting in Mexico City in 1942 that historians finally agreed that
the Olmec people came before the Maya.

Even the name, Olmecs, isn’t the name by which these people knew
themselves. This name was first used in 1929 by Marshall H. Saville, the
director of the Museum of the American Indian in New York. The word Olmec
actually means “rubber people” in Nahuatl, the language of the later Aztec
people. This was how the Aztecs referred to the Olmecs, possibly because
they were amongst the first to cultivate and use rubber. Some academics
refer to these people as Proto-Mayans while others call them Olcans,
meaning people who lived in Olmec lands, but they are still generally
referred to as Olmecs in most academic and scientific literature.

San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán (the name given by Stirling during his
excavations) actually comprises three separate sites connected with the
Olmecs—two are in low-lying marshy areas west of the Coatzacoalcos River
and one, the Olmec settlement that is generally referred to as San Lorenzo,
is on a low plateau which rises around 50 meters (160 feet) above the
floodplain of the river. Excavations suggest that San Lorenzo was the
earliest, large Olmec settlement (or at least, the earliest that had been
discovered to date) and was probably the largest city in Mesoamerica from
around 1200 to 900 BCE.

The settlements in the area, those on islands in the marshy area, seem to
be the even older, dating to around 1600 BCE, but the city of San Lorenzo
was not just the first Olmec city, but perhaps the first city in Mesoamerica. Even at this very early stage, Olmec building skills were very
advanced—the core of the city covered around 55 hectares (140 acres) on a
plateau which had been artificially flattened and provided with a complex
and sophisticated drainage system. Anything up to 2 million cubic meters
(71 million cubic feet) of material would have required to have been
removed to create the plateau on which the city was constructed—an enormous
task given that the Olmecs had no draft animals or wheeled vehicles. It
seems likely that this material was removed by individuals carrying it in
baskets, which tells us that the Olmecs, even in this early period, were
capable of organizing, feeding, and housing a very large workforce.

The temperate climate in this area combined with rich and fertile farmland
along the Coatzacoalcos River is thought to have been capable of producing
two crops each year, something that would have provided the food surpluses
required to feed a large workforce who were not themselves involved in food
production. The discovery of large numbers of grinding stones in the areas
close to the city of San Lorenzo suggests that maize was an important crop
to the Olmecs.

Because the Olmecs left no written records, archaeologists have been forced
to make assumptions based on their excavations, and most agree that San
Lorenzo was most likely some form of religious or ceremonial center. It
had, for example, no outer city walls, so it cannot have been the type of
fortified city which later became common in this area. Excavations show
that over 5,000 people lived in this city and up to 10,000 more may have
lived and worked in the surrounding fertile agricultural land of the
Coatzacoalcos River basin in smaller settlements.

Most of the buildings in the city were constructed using mud though some,
notably the large building which has been called the Red Palace, were much
grander and used massive basalt columns and bentonite (weathered volcanic
ash) floors. Some buildings used bentonite blocks joined with mud mortar.
The assumption is that the rulers of San Lorenzo and possibly those who
served a religious or ceremonial purpose lived in the largest houses in the
center of the city while poorer people lived in much smaller wattle and
daub housing which was placed on the terraces surrounding the main plateau.

San Lorenzo also had a sophisticated system to ensure a reliable supply of
fresh water for its inhabitants—an aqueduct and a series of basalt troughs
(some weighing several tons) brought fresh water to a large cistern near
the center of the city. A wide route, thought to have been used for
religious processions, ran through the city from north to south and also
passed through the center.

However, the most astounding things that excavation of this site revealed
were sculptures of surprising size and complexity. Ten of the colossal
basalt heads were discovered here in addition to sculptures of animals and
people and a number which appeared to show supernatural deities. Almost all
were sculpted from basalt quarried from Cerro Cintepec in the Tuxtlas
Mountains and transported to the city. The Tuxtlas Mountains are located
close to the sea, and it is thought that the stones were most likely
floated on rafts from the area where they were quarried to the mouth of the
Coatzacoalcos River, a voyage of around 60 miles. They were then taken by
raft up the river to San Lorenzo, another 30 miles, before somehow being
carved and lifted onto the plateau on which the city was built. This
represents a massive undertaking when only human muscle is available to
quarry, transport, and carve these huge stones. Just like the flattening of
the plateau, this suggests advanced engineering and organizational skills
and the ability to maintain, control, house, and feed a substantial
workforce.

It is thought that many of these sculptures were painted in bright colors,
and some, including the colossal heads, seem to have been placed at the
circumference of open areas covered in designs created using red sand and
yellow gravel. Large numbers of pottery and clay figurines have also been
found in San Lorenzo, and it is assumed that these were constructed here.
However, similar pottery and figurines have been found in many sites, some
far distant from the city. For example, more than 1,000 items from San
Lorenzo were found during the excavation of a site at Canton Corralito in
the present-day Mexican state of Chiapas. This suggests that items produced
in San Lorenzo were exported to other parts of Mesoamerica, which in turn
suggests the existence of sophisticated trade and trade routes. The
existence of trade in Mesoamerica has been confirmed by the discovery in
San Lorenzo of luxury items made from materials including jade, obsidian,
and magnetite which must have originated in locations far from the city.
Analysis of obsidian artifacts from San Lorenzo shows that it was
originally mined in present-day Guatemala and in the Highlands of
present-day Mexico.

Several mirrors have been discovered at San Lorenzo and other Olmec sites.
These are high-quality concave mirrors painstakingly made from iron-ore
minerals. We don’t know precisely what they were for—anthropologists have
speculated that they may have been used during religious ceremonies to
focus the sun’s rays, but this is not certain. Several dozen of these
superbly crafted items have been found, and all were produced by the Olmecs
during the height of their powers.

We know very little about the people who lived in San Lorenzo, but one fact
which has emerged from archaeological excavations is that they appear to
have enjoyed chocolate. Analysis of items of pottery including bowls, cups,
and bottles on this site has revealed the presence of theobromine, the
active ingredient in chocolate. This is the earliest discovery of the
consumption of chocolate in Mesoamerica.

However, the excavation of the ruins at San Lorenzo does not otherwise
provide any real clues as to the lives of the people who lived here. Some
of the buildings on this site are large, and it is assumed that at least
some were residences, presumably homes for high-status Olmecs. There is
debate amongst historians and anthropologists as to whether this city was
the home to a king or a local chief. Some people believe that the Olmecs
ruled at least some adjacent lands outside the Coatzacoalcos River Basin,
which would make this the center of the first empire in America.

Chapter Four

The Fall of San Lorenzo

“Technological skills that should have taken hundreds or even thousands of
years to evolve were brought into use almost overnight—and with no apparent
antecedents whatever.”

—Graham Hancock, The Mystery of the Olmecs

Some historians take the view that there wasn’t such a thing as a
distinctive Olmec society or ethnicity. They claim that a number of
disparate but similar cultures arose at about the same time and that these
have mistakenly been classed as Olmec. This view is summarized in a 2004
book by American anthropologist and archaeologist Richard A. Diehl, The Olmecs: America’s First Civilization. In this, Diehl states:
“We do not know what these people called themselves, or if they even had a
term that encompassed all the inhabitants of Olman. There is no evidence
that they formed a single unified ethnic group, and almost certainly no
Olmec considered people living more than a few hours’ walk away as members
of his or her own group.”

However, other equally respected academics take the opposite view, claiming
that there was a specifically Olmec culture and society and that this was
the first to spread across Mesoamerica. The latter view received support in
2007 when a new Olmec city was discovered by archaeologists at Zazacatla in
Cuernavaca, near Mexico City and hundreds of miles from San Lorenzo. This
is a great deal further than “a few hours walk,” and it lends credence to
the view that the Olmecs not only represented a distinct and separate
culture but that this culture spread across much larger areas of
Mesoamerica than had been previously understood.

The debate is really about whether San Lorenzo was the hub of a new culture
which spread to other areas or whether it was simply one of several similar
cultures which arose at around the same time. These competing ideas are
sometimes called the mother culture theory, where the Olmecs are regarded
as the first complex Mesoamerican culture, and the sister culture theory,
where the Olmecs were one of several cultures which appeared at roughly the
same time.

The most recent detailed study, completed in 2005, used archaeological
finds including pottery to look at this question. Archaeologists and
scientists from George Washington University in Washington D.C. led by Dr.
Jeffrey P. Blomster analyzed over 700 pieces of Olmec-style pottery
collected from a range of locations in Mexico. Researchers compared these
ceramics with the chemical composition of clays from various areas to
determine where these pieces of pottery had originated.

The results were interesting; many pieces of Olmec-style pottery found in
distant locations had actually been made from clays which originated in or
close to San Lorenzo. This suggests that these pieces had been made in the
Olmec capital and then exported to other areas. However, the pottery found
at San Lorenzo was all discovered to have originated there. If San Lorenzo
were just one of several centers of growing civilization in the area, it
would be reasonable to find that these centers had exchanged artifacts. But
in this case, it is clear that San Lorenzo was exporting to other areas,
but importing nothing in return. There also appears to have been very
limited trade between other towns. For example, excavation shows that there
was almost no trade between several towns in the Valley of Oaxaca which
were less than 40 miles apart. Yet all these towns show evidence of
receiving imports from San Lorenzo, 200 miles away. This supports the idea
that San Lorenzo and the Olmecs were the main hub of regional culture and
not just one of several such hubs.

This notion is also supported by the discovery of large, ornate buildings
in San Lorenzo which were presumed to have been the residences of leaders.
In contemporary towns and villages in other areas, nothing similar has been
found. At the time when the Olmec leaders were living in opulent palaces
decorated with massive statues made from imported stone, other chiefs were
living in wattle and daub huts. It seems very likely that the Olmecs and
San Lorenzo were not only the most advanced civilization in Mesoamerica by
around 1100 BCE, but they may also have been the only culture to develop
advanced engineering and architectural skills. In general, archaeologists
and anthropologists agree that Olmecs did represent the original mother
culture in Mesoamerica. If they were not actively colonizing other areas,
they were certainly exporting their art and most likely also their ideas.

Compared with modern societies, the Olmecs weren’t particularly numerous.
It has been estimated that there were never more than around 30,000 Olmecs
in all locations. However, these people seem to have been notably more
advanced in many ways than their contemporaries. Olmec sculptures have been
found that contain complex glyphs. We don’t know what these mean, but they
may be the first example of an attempt to record information in writing in
Mesoamerica. Olmecs also produced cylinder seals which were used to
identify a particular person or group, usually when concluding agreements.
Some Olmec sculptures appear to show scrolls, so it is also possible that
these people had some form of conventional writing, though none have
survived. There are indications that the Olmecs developed a calendar (also
a first in Mesoamerica), and a strange magnetic box discovered near San
Lorenzo suggests that they may even have understood the principle of the
compass.

It appears, then, that an advanced Olmec society centered in San Lorenzo
gradually spread its influence to other parts of Mesoamerica from around
1150 to 900 BCE. Next, something dramatic happened. Like so many other
aspects of the Olmec story, we aren’t sure why, but in around 900 BCE, San
Lorenzo was suddenly abandoned and most of its buildings destroyed. It is
just possible that this was due to an invasion or attack from the outside,
though no-one has found evidence of another culture at the time comparable
to the Olmecs nor capable of successfully attacking them. It is also
notable that some aspects of the destruction of San Lorenzo seem to have
involved planning—for example, many of the colossal stone heads there were
carefully buried. This seems to suggest that it is more likely that the
city was deliberately abandoned by the Olmecs, but what could have caused
them to leave their most important cultural center?

Archaeologists and historians have speculated about the possibility of some
kind of internal uprising, possibly with an alternative ruler making a bid
for power, but we can’t be certain. Another theory is that there were
environmental changes, possibly involving the Coatzacoalcos River, which
caused the Olmecs to abandon San Lorenzo. This river floods during the
rainy season, and this regular inundation is part of what made the lands
close to San Lorenzo so fertile.

It has been speculated that some large-scale environmental change, or
possibly silting-up of parts of the river which may have caused it to
change its course, meant that the agricultural land close to San Lorenzo
became less productive and unable to support the people living in the city.
All we can be certain about is that for some reason, between approximately
950 BCE and 900 BCE, the city of San Lorenzo was abandoned, its colossal
stone heads were carefully buried, and many of the statues and buildings
were destroyed.

However, this didn’t mark the end of the Olmecs. Instead, they seem to have
relocated from San Lorenzo to a new capital some 65 miles to the northeast.

Chapter Five

Were-Jaguars and Feathered Serpents

“Many later Mesoamerican civilizations trace their ultimate ancestry to the
Olmec.”

—John S. Henderson

What we know of Olmec religion comes entirely from archaeological
excavation. Many figures and statues have been recovered as well as
decorated pottery which seem to show supernatural beings, and these have
been assumed to be some kind of deities which were important to the Olmecs.
It appears that the Olmecs had many gods, though their religion has been
described as simplistic by some scholars because they seem to have had
relatively few deities compared to the later Maya (who worshipped more than
250 different gods) and the Aztecs (who believed in a pantheon of more than
1,000 gods).

One of the most often repeated deities in Olmec art is a being which shows
a combination of both human and jaguar features, often depicted as having a
human body and a jaguar head. This being is often called the “were-jaguar,”
and scholars have speculated that the Olmec were fascinated by the power
and strength of the jaguar and believed that some people could physically
transform themselves (at least partly) into jaguars. Alternatively, it
could be an allegorical attempt to suggest that some people could take on
certain aspects of the jaguar, perhaps including its courage, cunning, and
ability to see in the dark.

Some people have suggested that the were-jaguar figures represent Olmec
shamans who perhaps wore jaguar skins and heads as part of their ceremonial
costume or who were believed to be able to transform themselves into
jaguars. The motif of the were-jaguar is present in many forms of Olmec
art, and its presentation is generally very consistent—a human body is
attached to a head which has an elongated, cat-like snout and almond-shaped
cat-like eyes. However, there are exceptions. For example, most of the
colossal stone heads recovered from Olmec sites are presumed to be
portraits of actual people, most likely Olmec rulers. But one of the basalt
heads shows what seems to be the head of a man with the mouth of a jaguar.
This head also features a strange cross over the right eye—the cross is a
common glyph in Olmec art, but its meaning here is unknown. At least one
Olmec statue shows a keeling person holding the body of what seems to be a
were-jaguar child (which also incorporates a large cross glyph on its
chest). There has been speculation that this depiction of a jaguar-human
hybrid is a representation of some royal lineage, where a particular family
was either presumed to have descended from a jaguar god, or who perhaps
were said to embody characteristics of the jaguar.

There are different versions of the were-jaguar in Olmec art—some show a
human body attached to an almost fully represented jaguar head while others
show a human form which incorporates the mouth and ears of a jaguar.
Notably, Olmec art which shows the were-jaguar does not include sexual
characteristics—the human part of these figures could be either male or
female, a feature of many Olmec creations which seem to show supernatural
beings. Many incorporate the cross glyph, but we don’t know what these
differences signify, other than that this was clearly an important figure
to the Olmecs.

The were-jaguar wasn’t the only supernatural being of interest to the
Olmecs. A large number of other artifacts have been discovered which seem
to portray deities of some kind. These range from enormous basalt statues
to small carved figurines, but in addition to the were-jaguar, most seem to
show seven other distinct entities. One of the most significant of these
was the Earth Monster, which appears to have been a creator god associated
with the sun and fertility. This god is depicted as a dragon-like creature,
often spouting flames. The Earth Monster is thought to be the predecessor
of other Mesoamerican gods, including the Maya sky-god Itzamna and
Xiuhtecuhtli, the Aztec Lord of Fire.

Another important figure to the Olmecs was one which has been called the
Maize God. This is often depicted as a human (sometimes a child) with
almond-shaped eyes and protruding lips and with a corn cob growing out of a
cleft in the top of its head. Many Mesoamerican cultures worshipped corn
gods, but the Olmec version appears to have been the first.

The Olmec Bird Monster is usually depicted as a figure which includes
features of both birds and reptiles, though generally with a large,
bird-like beak. This is thought to have been a deity associated with the
sun and sky and possibly also with agriculture.

The Olmec Rain God is often depicted as a figure wearing a headband and ear
ornaments and displaying some were-jaguar features (generally a jaguar-like
mouth). The coming of the rains and the flooding of the Coatzacoalcos River
were important events without which agriculture would not be successful, so
this must have been a very important deity to the Olmecs.

One of the most mysterious Olmec gods was the Banded-Eye God. The only
known depictions of this deity are decorations carved on earthenware
containers. The Banded-Eye God is shown as a disembodied head with an open,
toothless mouth and one eye with a stripe across it.

The Olmec Feathered Serpent seems to be another deity, though what it was
associated with is unknown. It was depicted as a creature with the body of
a snake and the head and neck of a large bird. The similarities with the
Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and the Maya Kukulkan strongly suggest that these
later deities were inspired by the Olmec Feathered Serpent.

The Olmec Fish God (or Fish Monster) was generally depicted as having a
human-like head and the body of a large fish, often with a divided tail.

Very little is known about the final Olmec god which is generally depicted
as a figure with a cleft head which displays characteristics similar to the
were-jaguar, including a large (though toothless) mouth and almond-shaped
eyes. One thing which is notable about this deity is that most depictions
include a glyph similar to the figure eight which are carved inside its
nostrils. It is also notable that depictions of this god lack headbands,
ear ornaments, or other signifiers of stature, though whether this suggests
that this was a deity of lesser importance is not known.

Although most anthropologists now accept that these are distinct and
different deities, they are not always consistently portrayed. For example,
eyebrows which seem to emit flames are a feature of the Earth Monster, but
they also appear on some versions of the Bird Monster. Some historians
claim that what seem to be distinct and different deities are actually just
different depictions of the same god—for example, some people claim that
the Banded-Eye God is simply another depiction of the Maize God.

Part of the problem is that there are no surviving accounts of Olmec
religious practices, so what we know about these has been reconstructed
from archaeological finds and from the study of later, better documented
Mesoamerican societies which are believed to have derived from the Olmecs.

It is thought that Olmec religious ceremonies were conducted by their
rulers, priests, shamans, and healers. These ceremonies were conducted at
special religious sites such as those discovered at San Lorenzo, though we
know little about the form they took. It is generally accepted that the
Olmecs, like most subsequent Mesoamerican cultures, believed in three
separate but interconnected realms—the Earth upon which the Olmec lived and
farmed, the sky inhabited by the gods, and a watery underworld accessible
only through secret caves.

The discovery of what appear to be small offerings at ceremonial sites
suggests that the Olmecs may have given material objects to the gods. The
discovery of sharp blades made from stingray spines at the same sites
indicates that these ceremonies may have involved some form of
bloodletting. The finding of the bones of children and infants has caused
some anthropologists to wonder whether Olmec religion also involved human
sacrifice. The bones of small toads which, when consumed, cause intense and
vivid hallucination have also been discovered at Olmec religious sites,
leading to speculation that shamans may have used such things to attain
states of altered consciousness during ceremonies.

It is thought that some mountains were regarded as sacred by the Olmecs.
Olmec carvings and sculptures have been found at the peak of the volcano
San Martín Pajapan, for example, and it is believed that earth pyramids
amongst religious buildings in later Olmec cities were created to act as
symbolic sacred mountains during ceremonies.

There may be a final aspect to Olmec religion which seems rather odd
today—they may have played ball games as part of these ceremonies. The
Olmecs were amongst the first people to harvest latex from Panama rubber
trees growing in the area and to mix this with juice from a local vine to
produce rubber. Small rubber balls have been found in several Olmec sites.
There is solid evidence that the Olmecs played some sort of ballgame and
that they even played this game within specially constructed courts (some
Olmec sculptures are portrayals of ballplayers). These courts seem to have
been placed close to religious buildings, leading to speculation that the
playing of a ballgame formed part of religious ceremonies.

The Olmecs buried their dead, and in the case of significant people, this
appears to have been an elaborate process. The body was placed in a shallow
grave in the center of a ceremonial court, wearing ear decorations,
headbands, amulets, and other signifiers of status. The body was covered
with red clay which was then studded with 37 jade celts (axe-heads). The
grave was further decorated with precious stones and other valuable items
before being covered in a large mound of earth.

The artifacts that have been discovered allow us to make certain
assumptions about Olmec religion and gods but, like so many aspects of this
mysterious and little understood people, we cannot be certain that these
assumptions are correct. Olmec religion is as unknown to us as most other
aspects of Olmec life.

Chapter Six

The Rise of La Venta

“Olmec artists were revolutionary for their time, establishing the first
major widespread styles in Mesoamerica.”

—James Doyle

During the period when San Lorenzo was the most significant Olmec city,
there was another, smaller, settlement around 65 miles away at La Venta, on
a ridge beside the Palma River and close to the Gulf of Mexico in the
present-day state of Tabasco. When San Lorenzo was suddenly abandoned
around 900 BCE, La Venta seems to have expanded to become the new capital
of the Olmec world. We have no idea why this relocation happened, but
excavations support the theory that, as San Lorenzo declined in importance,
La Venta increased. By 900 BCE, San Lorenzo seems to have been left to
return to the jungle while Olmec culture became centered on the new city.

La Venta was discovered in the 1920s by archaeologists Frans Blom and
Oliver La Farge. It was later excavated by Matthew Williams Stirling, the
same person who explored the Olmec sites at San Lorenzo. Because it was
located in dense rainforest, the first archaeologists believed that they
had found several separate sites, and it was only later realized that all
the elements discovered at La Venta were part of a single large city.
Stirling found a series of three linked complexes on the crest of the ridge
at La Venta. These are collectively referred to as the Royal Compound
(because it is believed that the Olmec ruler had a residence there) and are
described as Complexes A, B, and C.

The city was dominated by Complex C which incorporated a huge, man-made
pyramid constructed of clay. This Great Pyramid is one of the first, or
perhaps even the first, in Mesoamerica. It is built on a platform and rises
around 34 meters (110 feet) above the top of the ridge. Building this using
human muscle must have been a massive enterprise—it has been estimated that
the pyramid, which is visible from a considerable distance, contains up to
100,000 cubic meters (3.5 million cubic feet) of earth fill. The pyramid
was originally rectangular in shape with clearly defined edges, but erosion
and oil exploration in the 1960s has reduced it now to little more than a
shapeless mound. Scans with modern imaging equipment have revealed the
presence of several anomalies within the pyramid. It is believed that these
may be the location for royal tombs. However, the oil exploration which
destroyed parts of the site also means that no further excavation has taken
place.

On the northern side of the ridge at La Venta is Complex A, which appears
to be a necropolis where several large and very ornate tombs have been
discovered. Numerous statues and what appear to be small offerings have
been found in this complex which also featured buildings which are thought
to have had a religious function. Three giant basalt heads were discovered
around 150 meters (500 feet) north of Complex A, all facing north. The
heads discovered at La Venta all date from after 900 BCE, and none were
transported to this site from San Lorenzo. This fact has led to speculation
that the heads were portraits of past and present rulers of the city rather
than deities. Excavations have shown that Complex A was built, demolished,
and rebuilt in the period 900-400 BCE.

Complex B featured a vast plaza adjacent to the Great Pyramid on its south
side, and it is believed that it would have been possible for large numbers
of people to gather here, perhaps to observe ceremonies taking place on the
pyramid. It has also been suggested that platforms surrounding the main
plaza may have been used as stages, with priests or other officials
conducting rituals in sight of large numbers of people. At least one of the
large basalt heads was placed close to this area, and a large colonnaded
building known as the Stirling Acropolis was nearby—this was thought to
have been some form of royal residence or palace.

One of the most fascinating finds at La Venta is known as Offering 4.
Offering 4 consists of 17 small stone figurines and 6 highly polished jade
celts. This collection of artifacts was discovered undisturbed as it had
been placed by the Olmecs to form a diorama. The figures were found buried
in a small pit which had been filled with clean white sand before being
covered with a large platform. It is thought that the figures were
originally placed there around 600 BCE, though there is evidence that
someone dug down through the sand in which they were buried around 100
years later. This only seems to have been done to the level of the figures’
heads, as though someone wanted to check that they were still in place.

The figures are executed in classic Olmec style with smooth faces,
elongated heads, and almost no indication of sex. Thirteen of the figures
are carved from greenstone (green serpentine), two are jade, and two are
granite. Offering 4 is not a single set of figures produced by one
artist—they are all slightly different, and the assumption is that the
figures were created by different people and collected here to commemorate
some important event which happened close to the pyramid. The figures have
holes which would have allowed them to be adorned with headdresses and ear
decorations, and they may even have worn clothes, though no trace of these
now remain.

It seems likely that the six celts in the diorama represent six stelae
(standing stones which once marked the north face of the Great Pyramid) and
that the diorama represents something that happened here. The scene in
which the figures were arranged involved most of the characters facing one
which stood with its back to the celts. Was this showing the ascension of a
new ruler? A royal wedding? A religious ceremony? As with so many aspects
of the Olmecs, this find is fascinating but gives us little concrete
information about these people.

Seven other unique items recovered from La Venta are usually described as
altars, though most anthropologists and archaeologists now believe that
these were actually some form of throne, possibly used during important
ceremonies. These seven items take the form of large, rectangular blocks of
basalt carved with motifs and glyphs. Each is around two meters (six feet)
high and four meters (thirteen feet) long, and all incorporate a large
opening on one side from which a carved stone figure is emerging. This is
thought to represent a ruler emerging from a cave—most of the figures wear
elaborate head-dresses which seem to signify rank, and on at least one
altar, this figure is holding a carved stone rope which extends around the
base of the altar to the sides and back of the block where it is seen to
secure bound captives.

One of the altars shows a figure emerging from a cave holding in its arms
what appears to be an inert (or possibly dead) were-jaguar child. This
latter carving has led to speculation that the altars were used for some
form of ritual sacrifice, though there is no general agreement on this and
it seems more likely that rulers or other important people sat or stood on
these platforms during ceremonies.

There is also another complex at La Venta, generally called Complex E,
which is slightly further down the ridge from the Royal Compound. No
buildings or other artifacts have been found there, but chemical analysis
of the earth suggests that this may have been a residential area, perhaps
featuring smaller, less elaborate buildings. Just like San Lorenzo, it
seems that La Venta wasn’t just a city; it was an important religious and
ceremonial site for the Olmecs. To support the population of the city, it
has been estimated that anything up to 18,000 people would have been
required as agricultural workers in the surrounding area.

Just like San Lorenzo, La Venta was set in very productive agricultural
land, sustained by regular flooding of the Palma River. This allowed
twice-yearly harvest of maize as well as the growing of cacao and other
crops. Excavations have shown that the people of La Venta supplemented
their diet with wild plants and berries in addition to seafood and wild
game including deer. They also seem to have consumed a mildly alcoholic
beverage made from maize. The only domesticated animals in or around the
city appear to have been dogs.

We know almost nothing about the society of the people who lived in La
Venta, but it is possible to draw some conclusions. These people were very
successful agriculturalists who produced sufficient food surpluses to
support a large segment of the population which was not directly involved
in food production. These included priests and a ruling class. The use of
labor on large construction projects implies strongly that Olmec society
was nonegalitarian; there was very likely a clearly defined social
structure with authority emanating from a single ruler or a small ruling
class.

Olmec engineering, agriculture, and their production of carved stone and
ceramic items were more advanced than any other in the region. During the
period when La Venta was the most important Olmec center, their cultural
influence and trade network spread to the Valley of Mexico and to the
southeast parts of present-day Central America. This is evidenced by the
discovery of Olmec artifacts in these locations. Almost no imported
artifacts have been found in La Venta, though the raw materials used to
manufacture many items were brought in from the outside. This suggests that
La Venta was the center of the most powerful and influential culture in America from around 900 to 400 BCE.

Chapter Seven

Tres Zapotes

“Some scholars think the Olmec civilization was the first anywhere in
America.”

—John Noble Wilford

In addition to San Lorenzo and La Venta, there was one more important Olmec
city—Tres Zapotes (meaning “three sapodillas,” sapodilla being an evergreen
tree native to this part of Mesoamerica). Tres Zapotes is located in the
western foothills of the Tuxtlas Mountains and close to a small river, the
Rio Hueyapan. Conveniently placed between the forested mountain uplands and
the swampy flatlands of the Papaloapan River delta, this settlement gave
its inhabitants access to good agricultural land and sources of wild game.
Tres Zapotes was also less than five miles from an Olmec workshop complex
on the slopes of Cerro El Vigía, an extinct volcano and a source of basalt
used in Olmec monumental sculpture.

It seems that Tres Zapotes became an Olmec settlement at the time of the
formation of San Lorenzo, but that it increased in importance as a regional
center while La Venta was at the height of its power and influence. Two
colossal stone heads have been discovered at Tres Zapotes, and while these
are similar to the heads found at San Lorenzo and La Venta, they also have
sufficient differences to make them clearly distinct.

The identification of specifically Olmec remains at Tres Zapotes has,
however, proved a challenge to archaeologists—this site was occupied long
after the disappearance of the Olmecs and features many later (Epi-Olmec)
remains. There is less monumental and presumably public architecture
evident in this site—even the two colossal stone heads were discovered in
what appears to have been a residential area. It is also notable that many
of the larger structures which are assumed to have been religious buildings
or high-status residences are on the periphery rather than at the center,
which was the case in San Lorenzo and La Venta.

Even though the very first Olmec colossal head was discovered in Tres
Zapotes in the 1860s, major archaeological work on the site did not begin
until the 1930s and 1940s when the same American archaeologist who had
worked at San Lorenzo and La Venta, Matthew Williams Stirling, undertook
several expeditions to the area. Compared to the work done at the other two
major Olmec sits, there has been relatively little excavation at Tres
Zapotes.

Still, there have been several interesting discoveries at this site. For
example, Stirling unearthed a small carving of a creature resembling a ram,
mounted on four solid wheels. This was believed to have been a child’s toy,
but it was very significant because the wheel was thought to have been
unknown in pre-Columbian America. This find demonstrates that the
concept of the wheel was known to the Olmecs, but it is believed that the
technical challenges in making a larger version combined with a lack of
draft animals which could have been used to pull wheeled carts mean that it
was never used other than for children’s toys.

Another odd find at Tres Zapotes was a clay head of a man with a pointed
beard and mustache. The lifelike appearance of this representation suggests
that it was based on an actual person. However, most Native American people
were not able to grow sufficient facial hair to create a beard. It has been
suggested that this figure could be a representation of a shaman wearing a
false beard as part of a ceremony, but it does look like a real person with
real facial hair. Some anthropologists have speculated that this provides
evidence that Olmec society was multi-racial, though others disagree
vehemently.

There have been other discoveries of large towns that were, if not occupied
by the Olmecs, certainly strongly influenced by them. For example,
excavations in the 1980s at Teopantecuanitlan in the Mexican state of
Guerrero, hundreds of miles from San Lorenzo and La Venta, have revealed a
town which strongly resembles the main Olmec cities. Large monumental
sculptures have been found, some of which resemble jaguars as well as
Olmec-style ceramics. Some people have suggested that this town is the
original site from where the Olmecs later moved to San Lorenzo though
others are certain that this was no more than a trading partner which
imported Olmec artifacts and culture. Cuetlajuchitlán, also in the state of
Guerrero, was discovered during the construction of a highway in the 1990s.
Just like Teopantecuanitlan, this site displays features which are similar
to Olmec sites, but no-one is certain whether this was an Olmec city or
simply a trading destination.

Chapter Eight

The Disappearance of the Olmecs

“The Olmec religious practices of sacrifice, cave rituals, pilgrimages,
offerings, ball-courts, pyramids and a seeming awe of mirrors, was also
passed on to all subsequent civilizations in Mesoamerica until the Spanish
Conquest in the 16th century CE.”

—Mark Cartwright

Like almost every other aspect of these mysterious people, the fall of the
Olmecs appears to have been sudden, and scholars disagree on what caused
it. What is known is that around 400 BCE, the city of La Venta was suddenly
abandoned and many of its sculptures and buildings deliberately destroyed.
At that point, La Venta was close to the height of its power and influence,
and it was by far the largest city in Mesoamerica with a population of
close to 20,000 people.

There have been many suggestions as to why the abandonment happened; these
range from disease or famine due to some type of environmental change to an
internal revolt or insurrection which overthrew the existing ruling class
and destroyed Olmec society. It is also possible that La Venta was
destroyed by some invading force from outside, though this seems unlikely
simply because there does not seem to have been another civilization of
sufficient power to challenge the Olmecs.

The abandonment of La Venta did not quite mark the end of the Olmecs—the
city at Tres Zapotes continued to be occupied for a very long time (perhaps
until as late as 500 CE), and Olmec culture continued there before
gradually being supplanted by newer cultures. However, though the Olmecs
might have disappeared, their influence cast a long shadow over subsequent
Mesoamerican civilizations.

The Maya, for example, began their rise to prominence while Olmec culture
still flourished, and many aspects of Maya religion and culture appear to
have their roots in the Olmecs. Many Maya gods are clearly based on Olmec
deities, and the development of an accurate calendar by the Maya is thought
by some people to be based on concepts first developed by the Olmecs. Even
the most important sport of the Maya, the Mesoamerican ballgame, originated
with the Olmecs. This involved two teams attempting to maneuver a small
rubber ball through hoops without using their heads, hands, or feet. This
became part of Maya religious ceremonies (occasionally, losing players were
sacrificed) but the idea of the game came from the Olmecs.

Many anthropologists who study Mesoamerica have adopted the continuity
hypothesis, which suggests that many Mesoamerican cultures shared the same
religious, cultural, and societal norms. Many of these seem to have
originated with the Olmecs, and this is how many assumptions about the
Olmec way of life are derived. By looking at later cultures like the Maya,
which took many ideas from the Olmecs, and combining these with information
from excavation and archaeology, scholars have built a picture of this
ancient, advanced, and very mysterious culture.

However, almost everything we think we know about the Olmecs is based on
conjecture and assumption. Although these people are amongst the most
significant ancient civilizations, we know almost nothing directly about
their lives, beliefs, or society. Less than 100 years ago, most historians
did not even accept that there had been a significant Mesoamerican culture
before the Maya. We now know that there was such a culture and that it
pre-dated every other significant culture in the region. Still, we have no
idea where these people came from, how or why they developed so quickly and
dramatically, nor why they disappeared so suddenly.

The Olmecs are one of the most baffling enigmas of the ancient world and,
unless some dramatic new discoveries are made, it seems likely that they
will remain a major source of fascination and debate for historians and
scholars.

Conclusion

Few cultures have had such a dramatic effect on a continent as the Olmecs,
yet few important civilizations are as little understood. The Olmecs seemed
to arrive as a fully formed society around 1100 BCE, creating the mighty
city and religious center of San Lorenzo. They were able to use advanced
technology to control the landscape through irrigation and agriculture, and
they developed new methods of ceramic production and architecture.

We have no idea how they did these things. For example, it is generally
believed that the colossal stone heads associated with the Olmecs were
quarried in distant mountains and transported to Olmec cities on rafts. Yet
in 2002, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) attempted to recreate
the transport of a large basalt boulder from the Tuxtlas Mountains using
the same technology available to the Olmecs. They failed, and when a
sculptor attempted to carve the boulder into a head using tools similar to
those used by the Olmec, he too failed. Excavations show what the Olmecs
were capable of achieving, but they cannot tell us how or why these things
were done.

Likewise, we know almost nothing about the beliefs, society, or culture of
these people and only a tiny amount about their daily lives. The Olmecs
appeared suddenly, dominated Mesoamerica for more than 600 years, and then
vanished as suddenly as they had come. They left behind huge stone
sculptures and ideas about religion and life which linger even today. Most
of all, the Olmecs left behind questions, many of which are still the
subject of heated debate amongst historians and scholars.

Many ancient cultures are described as mysterious, but probably none
deserves this title as much as the truly baffling Olmecs.

Can I Ask a Favor?

If you enjoyed this book, found it useful or otherwise, then I’d appreciate if you would post a short review on Amazon. I read all your feedback personally and use it to guide my future endeavors.

If you’d like to help out, please visit the link below:

Click Here to Leave a Review

Thanks for your support!

Your Free eBooks!

As a way of saying thank you, I'm offering you a free copy of the below eBooks. Happy reading!

>> Click Here <<
>> To Get Your FREE eBooks <<