Ancient Olmec Civilization

The Olmecs had a unique political and social system that combined religion and inherited power. They formed a centralized government, unlike any other society at the time.

Olmec society was structured with divine rulers and common people. The rulers traced their lineage back through generations, using this ancestry to justify their authority and separate themselves from the general population.

Religion played a crucial role in reinforcing the rulers’ power. This ancient society is renowned for its early and influential political system, closely intertwined with religious beliefs, leading some to describe it as a theocratic civilization.

Despite its significance, the specific ethnicity of the Olmecs remains a mystery due to their ancient origins.

Despite the widespread influence of the Olmec culture throughout most of Mesoamerica, some of the clearest evidence of the presence of this culture is found in the southern part of the coastal plain of the Mexican Gulf.

Mexico covers the northern half of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. This territory corresponds to the southeastern part of Veracruz and the western part of Tabasco. It is characterized by a warm and extremely humid climate.

The heart of the Olmec civilization is fed by the mighty rivers that flow from the slopes of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca and the Sierra Madre Oriental, including the Coatzacoalcos, San Juan, and Tonala rivers.

During the monsoon season, the area experiences frequent river overflows due to the moisture and sources of these rivers.

This region was once covered with dense tropical forests that were home to numerous species, such as jaguars, colorfully plumaged birds such as macaws and quetzals, and various reptiles and mammals such as the tapir.

The region has humus-rich soils of considerable depth.

Crude oil seeps to the surface among the vegetation. However, many materials characteristic of Olmec-style artifacts found in this area and other parts of Mesoamerica are missing, including obsidian, jade, serpentine, and cinnabar.

To obtain hard stone for their materials, the region’s inhabitants turned to quarries in the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, also known as the Sierra de Santa Marta or San Andres, which supplied them with basalt and other volcanic rocks used in the construction of temples and sculpture.

These sources of stone are located more than a hundred kilometers from places like San Lorenzo and La Venta, which gives an idea of the level of organization required to transport monoliths weighing tens of tons without pack animals.

The self-name of those whom we call Olmec remains unknown.

The word “Olmec” means “inhabitants of the rubber region” and was used by the Aztecs to refer to the several ethnic and linguistic peoples who occupied the Veracruz and Tabasco regions for centuries.

The term “Olmec” covers two realities: a people from the Mexican Gulf region and an artistic style. The Olmec style is evident in boulders, caves, large and small sculptures, and clay objects scattered throughout Mesoamerica.

From Jalisco to Costa Rica, through Guerrero, Chiapas, Oaxaca, the Central Highlands, and the Gulf Coast, images of were-jaguars and other hallmarks of Olmec art have been found.

The spread of this artistic style is believed to have occurred because the peoples of the gulf established extensive networks of exchange with distant populations, integrating Olmec symbols and forms into artistic expressions in other regions of Mesoamerica.

The Olmecs are considered the “mother culture” of Mesoamerica.

It’s because these early societies initiated cultural practices that became fully integrated into Mesoamerican culture, such as the use of an urban settlement pattern, the creation of a theocratic society, and the development of the ball game, among others.

The earliest evidence of Olmec culture dates back to around 1200 BCE, with the most recent traces appearing around 400 BCE. The Olmecs centered around three main ceremonial centers: San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Tres Zapotes.

Additional manifestations are also found in places such as Laguna de los Cerros.

San Lorenzo

The oldest Olmec center is San Lorenzo (c. 1150 BCE), located in the municipality of Texistepec.

The Olmec culture at this site began to flourish around 1150 BCE, as evidenced by most of the sculptures and architectural elements characteristic of the Olmec culture, many of which survive at the site.

San Lorenzo was sacked around 900 BCE, and monumental sculptures were subject to attempts at destruction; some were buried and others were moved to the ceremonial center.

La Venta

La Venta was the most significant Olmec ceremonial center.

This ancient city is notable for representing the earliest planned architectural layout in ancient Mexico, featuring monumental clay architecture, an extensive collection of sculptures, jade offerings, and enormous offerings unique to the pre-Hispanic world.

Cultural remains around La Venta date back to 1750 BCE, although major occupation lasted from 1200 to 400 BCE.

It boasts the oldest pyramid in Mesoamerica and is famous for its colossal heads and thrones, which required the transportation of huge basalt blocks from the Sierra de los Tuxtlas, located tens of kilometers away.

At its peak, La Venta is estimated to have had up to 20,000 residents.

Tres Zapotes

Tres Zapotes was the last ceremonial center to be built. It is best known because it survived into a later period, although the Olmec civilization here experienced more decline than the splendor of earlier ceremonial centers.

These ceremonial centers functioned as cities with earthen and adobe buildings, of which few remains remain. Mounds with temples on them were built, considered the predecessors of the Mesoamerican pyramids.

Structures surrounding central courtyards, characteristic of later civilizations in the area, were also built. Evidence from around 900 BCE suggests drastic political changes, such as attempts to destroy some Olmec heads.

While most experts believe that the Olmec culture originates from the Gulf Coast, others consider the Olmec culture as a multiethnic and multilingual entity that spread across much of Mesoamerica from 1200 to 500 BCE.

Olmec presence is confirmed in Mexico (Gulf Coast, Pacific Coast, and Central Highlands), primarily along the Gulf Coastal area between the Papaloapan and Grijalva Rivers, and in places such as Chalcatzingo (Morelos) and Teopantecuanitlan (Guerrero).

Outside of Mexico, traces of the Olmec presence are found in Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

The Olmec economy was primarily based on agriculture, with trade taking place both within Olmec communities and with neighboring peoples, especially nomadic groups. The Olmecs grew corn, as well as beans, squash, cocoa, and other crops.

They also built major urban centers such as San Lorenzo and La Venta.

The Olmec culture, probably the first civilization in Mesoamerica, is credited with many of the region’s initial advances. Among these achievements were the development of the calendar, writing, and epigraphy.

Until 2002, a dozen epigraphic texts dating from the period between 300 BCE and 530 CE.

In 2002, an inscription dating back to 650 BCE was discovered, and in 2007 another one was found, dating back to 900 BCE, which preceded the Zapotec writing and made the Olmec writing the oldest in the Americas.

Some steles with inscriptions containing glyphs have been discovered. According to some historians, one of these stelae narrates the life of the ruler, although this interpretation has no international consensus.

Between 1991 and 1994, linguists Terrence Kaufman and John Justeson deciphered Olmec inscriptions, identifying the language as Mixe-Soque, specifically the ancestor of Proto-Soque and distantly related to Proto-Mixe.

This decipherment showed that the glyphs functioned as part of a syllabary.

Olmec art style includes pear-shaped heads, broad noses, baby faces, large lips, drooping mouths, and occa­sionally jaguar fangs. Dwarfs, hunchbacks, and others with deformities were often artistic subject matter. Nude males were also common.

Olmec art refers to the artistic expressions of the Olmec culture, which developed during the Middle Preclassic period of Mesoamerica (flourished between 1200 and 500 BCE) and is considered the first of the great civilizations in the region.

The cultural influence of Olmecs extended far beyond these regions, reaching many parts of Mesoamerica. The Olmecs introduced various cultural elements that became widespread throughout various Mesoamerican societies.

Examples include the worship of mountains and high places (such as the conical pyramid of La Venta), the veneration of the Feathered Serpent and jaguar deities, the game of ball, and the religious symbolism of jade.

The Olmec culture, credited with the invention of writing using pictograms and ideograms as well as the calendar, was originally defined as an artistic style that remains its distinctive feature.

It became the standard and legacy for all subsequent cultures of Central America – the Toltecs, Zapotecs, and even the Aztecs – with the Maya writing based on the first hieroglyphic system developed by the Olmecs.

Olmec art is characterized by exceptional technical skill in sculpture and carving, unmatched by any other pre-Columbian civilization. Much Olmec art is naturalistic, filled with rich iconography reflecting religious significance, featuring highly stylized anthropomorphic creatures.

Along with some rock art, there is monumental or colossal art made from clay, stone (primarily basalt and andesite), and wood, and smaller or portable art often made from jadeite and other green stones (such as serpentine) and obsidian.

Stone monuments are divided into four categories:

• Colossal stone heads
• Rectangular “altars”
• Independent round sculptures
• Steles

Colossal stone heads (up to 3 meters in height and 10 tons in weight), exemplary monumental sculptures carved from distant quarried basalt, representing iconic Olmec art forms. Seventeen of these heads were found at various sites.

These stone heads are characterized by black features, prominent eyes, full lips, wide noses, and matching helmets, these heads are believed to depict gods, warriors, or chiefs – heads of ancestors – or even ball players.

Rectangular “altars” (probably thrones) with the front cavity representing the gateway to the underworld, with a mythological figure appearing holding a rope surrounding the entire altar as a border.

Independent round sculptures are a common motif in Olmec art.

Steles that appeared later than colossal heads, altars, or individual sculptures. Initially simple depictions of figures later developed into depictions of historical events, especially those that legitimize rulers.

This trend culminated in post-Olmec monuments which combined images of rulers with glyphs and dates from the Long Count calendar.

Another important type of artifact is small carvings of face masks made of jade and hard stone. Jade was a precious material that symbolized position among the ruling classes.

By 1500 BCE, early Olmec sculptors had mastered the human form.

Curators and scholars refer to “Olmec style” face masks – human heads disproportionately large compared to the body, with sunken eyes, flat nostrils, wide curved mouths (“Olmec mouth related to the mouth of the jaguar”) and a small chin, sometimes with a slit on the head.

However, no such example has been discovered archaeologically in an Olmec context. They have been found at other cultural sites, including one deliberately buried in a ceremonial site in Tenochtitlan.

The mask had likely lasted for about 2,000 years when the Aztecs buried it, suggesting that such masks were highly prized and collected like Roman antiquities in Europe.

Because Olmec art was deeply intertwined with their religion, which emphasized jaguars (believing that a race of “jaguar men” once existed from unions of jaguar women), the “Olmec style” combines human and jaguar facial features.

Also notable are the numerous clay and stone figurines known as Olmec miniatures, which were found in abundance in archaeological sites throughout the Formative Period.

Among them are “children’s faces,” small ceramic sculptures with children’s faces, large heads, almond-shaped eyes, thick lips, decorated with a helmet, and pear-shaped bodies. Other examples include figures representing “jaguar men” apparently used in rituals.

In most cases, the head makes up half the volume of the figure. All Kunz axes have flat noses and open mouths.

Other distinctive jades include the so-called “Olmec spoons.”

Ceramics also developed in the area of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where Barra, Locona, and Ocos reached artistic heights.

Major Olmec artifacts recovered from excavations are now housed in museums, with notable collections in the Museum of Anthropology of Xalapa and the La Venta Park Museum, as well as outstanding exhibits in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.