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Olmec

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Ancient History,
Classical History and Mythology

   Monument 1, one of the four Olmec colossal heads at La Venta. This one
   is nearly 3 meters tall
   Enlarge
   Monument 1, one of the four Olmec colossal heads at La Venta. This one
   is nearly 3 meters tall

   The Olmec were an ancient Pre-Columbian people living in the tropical
   lowlands of south-central Mexico, roughly in what are the modern-day
   states of Veracruz and Tabasco on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Their
   immediate cultural influence went much further though, Olmec artwork
   being found as far afield as El Salvador. The Olmec predominated in
   their lands from about 1200 BC to about 400 BC and they are, in fact,
   claimed by many to be the progenitors and mother culture of every
   primary element common to later Mesoamerican civilizations.

Overview

   The Olmec Heartland is characterized by swampy lowlands punctuated by
   low hill ridges and volcanoes. The Tuxtlas Mountains rise sharply in
   the north, along the Gulf of Mexico's Bay of Campeche. Here the Olmecs
   constructed permanent city-temple complexes at several locations, among
   them San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, La Venta, Tres Zapotes, Laguna de los
   Cerros, and La Mojarra. They also had great influence beyond the
   heartland: from Chalcatzingo, far to the west in the highlands of
   Mexico, to Izapa, on the Pacific coast near what is now Guatemala,
   Olmec goods have been found throughout Mesoamerica during this period.
   In this heartland, the first Mesoamerican civilization would emerge and
   reign from 1200–400 BC.

   The Olmec are thought to be the first civilization in the Western
   Hemisphere to develop a writing system. Symbols found in 2002 and 2006
   date to 650 BC and 900 BC precede the oldest Zapotec writing, dated to
   about 500 BC. Some challenged the 2002 find, suggesting that it was not
   writing, however, the discovery of a stone inscription in 2006 mostly
   settled the dispute. There are other later hieroglyphs known as "
   Epi-Olmec", and while there are some who believe that Epi-Olmec may
   represent a transitional script between an earlier, unknown Olmec
   writing system and Maya writing, the matter remains unsettled.

   The Olmec, whose name means "rubber people" (see below), were perhaps
   the originators of the Mesoamerican ballgame so prevalent among later
   cultures of the region and used for recreational and religious
   purposes—certainly they were playing it before anyone else has been
   documented doing so.
   Olmec Heartland
   Enlarge
   Olmec Heartland

   Their religion developed all the important themes (an obsession with
   mathematics and with calendars, and a spiritual focus on death
   expressed through human sacrifice) found in successor groups. Finally,
   their political arrangements of strongly hierarchical city-state
   kingdoms were repeated by nearly every other Mexican and Central
   American civilization that followed.

   While the actual ethnicity of the Olmec remains unknown speculations on
   the topic has been set forth. In 1976 Lyle Campbell and Terrence
   Kaufman published a paper which argued that the existence of a number
   of loanwords from a semantically very fundamental domain for
   mesoamerican cultures which have apparently spread from a Mixe-Zoquean
   language into many other Mesoamerican languages, can be seen as an
   indicator that the first "highly civilized society" of Mesoamerica
   spoke a language which is an ancestor of the Mixe-Zoquean languages,
   and that they spread their own vocabulary of terms particular for their
   culture to other peoples of Mesoamerica. Since the Mixe-Zoquean
   languages still are, and historically are known to have been, spoken in
   an area corresponding roughly to the "Olmec heartland", and since the
   Olmec culture is now generally regarded as the first "high culture" of
   Mesoamerica, it has generally been regarded as probable that the Olmec
   spoke a Mixe-Zoquean language.

Etymology of the name "Olmec"

   The name "Olmec" means "rubber people" in Nahuatl, the language of the
   Mexica ("Aztec") people. It was the Aztec name for the people who lived
   in this area at the much later time of Aztec dominance. Ancient
   Mesoamericans, spanning from ancient Olmecs to Aztecs, extracted latex
   from Castilla elastica, a type of rubber tree in the area. The juice of
   a local vine, Ipomoea alba, was then mixed with this latex to create
   rubber as early as 1600 BC . The word "Olmec" also refers to the rubber
   balls used for their ancient ball game. Early modern explorers applied
   the name "Olmec" to the rediscovered ruins and art from this area
   before it was understood that these had been already abandoned more
   than a thousand years before the time of the people the Aztecs knew as
   the "Olmec". It is not known what name the ancient Olmec used for
   themselves; some later Mesoamerican accounts seem to refer to the
   ancient Olmec as "Tamoanchan".

History

Early history

   Olmec culture originated at its base in San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, where
   distinctively Olmec features begin to emerge around 1150 BC. The rise
   of civilization here was probably assisted by the local ecology of
   well-watered rich alluvial soil, encouraging high maize production.
   This ecology may be compared to that of other ancient centers of
   civilization: Mesopotamia and the Nile valley. It is speculated that
   the dense population concentration at San Lorenzo encouraged the rise
   of an elite class that eventually ensured Olmec dominance and provided
   the social basis for the production of the symbolic and sophisticated
   luxury artifacts that define Olmec culture. Many of these luxury
   artifacts, for example jade and magnetite, must have come from distant
   locations and suggests that early Olmec elites had access to an
   extensive trading network in Mesoamerica.

La Venta

   The first Olmec centre, San Lorenzo, was all but abandoned around 900
   BC at about the same time that La Venta rose to prominence.
   Environmental changes may have been responsible for this move, with
   certain important rivers changing course. A wholesale destruction of
   many San Lorenzo monuments also occurred around this time, circa 950
   BC, which may point to an internal uprising or, less likely, an
   invasion.

   In any case, La Venta was the most prominent Olmec centre from 900 BC
   until its abandonment around 400 BC. During this period, the Great
   Pyramid and various ceremonial complexes were created at La Venta, and
   the baffling Massive Offerings and mosaics were buried. Around 400 BCE,
   La Venta also came to an end, although the importance of the ceremonial
   complexes apparently outlasted the Olmec state or culture.

Decline

   It is not known with any clarity what happened to the Olmec culture.
   The Tres Zapotes site continued to be occupied well past 400 BC, but
   without the hallmarks of the Olmec culture. Some researchers have
   labelled this period the "Epi-Olmec" culture. This post-Olmec culture
   has features similar to those found at Izapa, some distance to the
   southeast.

   Within a few hundred years of the abandonment of the last Olmec cities,
   successor cultures had become firmly established, most notably the Maya
   to the east and the Zapotec to the southwest.

Beyond the heartland

   Olmec-style artifacts, designs, figurines, monuments and motifs have
   been found in the archaeological records of sites hundreds of miles (or
   kilometers) outside the Olmec heartland. These sites include:
     * Tlatilco and Tlapacoya, major centers of the Tlatilco culture in
       the Valley of Mexico, where artifacts include hollow baby-face
       motif figurines and Olmec designs on ceramics.
     * Chalcatzingo, in Valley of Morelos, which features Olmec-style
       monumental art and rock art with Olmec-style figures.
     * Teopantecuanitlan, in Guerrero, which features Olmec-style
       monumental art as well as city plans with distinctive Olmec
       features.

   Other sites showing possible Olmec influence include Abaj Takalik in
   Guatemala, and the Juxtlahuaca and Oxtotitlan cave paintings are
   attributed by many researchersto the Olmecs.

   Many theories have been advanced to account for the occurrence of Olmec
   influence far outside the heartland. Some such theories include
   long-range trade by Olmec merchants, Olmec colonization of other
   regions, Olmec artisans travelling to other cities, conscious imitation
   of Olmec artistical styles by developing towns -- and some also suggest
   Olmec military domination outside of their heartland.

   According to the school of thought promoted by Christine Niederberger
   and developed in particular by Caterina Magni , the Olmec culture was a
   multi-ethnic unit and pluri-linguistic culture covering a vast part of
   the Mesoamerica, in the period from 1200 BC to about 500 BC.Its
   presence is attested on old levels of occupation on the Coast of the
   Gulf, in the Valley of Mexico and along the Pacific coast in the States
   of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas. Beyond the Mexican borders, Olmec
   artifacts are found south to Costa Rica. Some major centers being San
   Lorenzo (Veracruz), La Venta (Tabasco), Chalcatzingo (Morelos),
   Teopantecuanitlán (Guerrero) and Abaj Takalik (or Takalik Abaj) in
   Guatemala.

   This is contrast to the more traditional view that recognizes a
   distinct Olmec heartland (see map).

Olmec art

   "The Grandmother", Monument 5 at La Venta (reproduction)
   Enlarge
   "The Grandmother", Monument 5 at La Venta (reproduction)

   Olmec artforms remain in works of both monumental statuary and small
   jadework. Much Olmec art is highly stylized and uses an iconography
   reflective of a religious meaning to the artworks. Some Olmec art,
   however, is surprisingly naturalistic, displaying an accuracy of
   depiction of human anatomy perhaps equaled in the pre-Columbian New
   World only by the best Maya Classic era art. Common motifs include
   downturned mouths and slit-like slanting eyes, both of which can be
   seen as representations of "were-jaguars". Olmec figurines are also
   found abundantly in sites throughout the Formative Period.

   In addition to human subjects, Olmec artisans were adept at animal
   portrayals, for example, this ceramic ancient Olmec "Bird Vessel",
   dating to circa 1000 BC. Ceramics are produced in kilns capable of
   exceeding approximately 900 ° C. The only other prehistoric culture
   known to have achieved such high temperatures is that of Ancient Egypt
   .

Olmec colossal heads

   Perhaps the best-recognized Olmec art are the enormous helmeted heads.
   As no known pre-Columbian text explains these, these impressive
   monuments have been the subject of much speculation. Given the
   individuality of each, these heads seem to be portraits of famous ball
   players or perhaps kings rigged out in the accoutrements of the game.

   According to Grove, the unique elements in the headgear can also be
   recognized in headdresses of human figures on other Gulf Coast
   monuments, suggesting that these are personal or group symbols.

   The heads range in size from the Rancho La Corbata head, at 3.4 m high,
   to the pair at Tres Zapotes, at 1.47 m. Some sources estimate that the
   largest weighs as much as 40 tons, although most reports place the
   larger heads at 20 tons.

   The heads were carved from single blocks or boulders of volcanic
   basalt, quarried in the Tuxtlas Mountains. The Tres Zapotes heads were
   sculpted from basalt found on San Martin Volcano. The lowland heads
   were possibly carved from the Cerro Cintepec, now known as Cerro San
   Martin Pajapan. It is possible that the heads were carried on large
   balsa rafts from the Llano del Jicaro quarry to their final locations,
   or more likely dragged and rafted down rivers. To reach La Venta,
   roughly 80 km (50 miles) away, the rafts would have had to move out
   onto choppy waters of the Bay of Campeche.

   Some of the heads, and many other monuments, have been variously
   mutilated, buried and disinterred, reset in new locations and/or
   reburied. Whether these actions were undertaken as a ritual or as a
   result of a conflict or conflicts is yet to be decided.

   There have been 17 colossal heads unearthed to date.
         Site        Count        Designations
   San Lorenzo        10   Colossal Heads 1 through 10
   La Venta            4   Monuments 1 through 4
   Tres Zapotes        2   Monuments A & Q
   Rancho la Corbata   1   Monument 1

Pottery and trade

   In March 2005, a team of archaeologists used NAA (neutron activation
   analysis) to compare over 1000 ancient Mesoamerican Olmec-style ceramic
   artifacts with 275 samples of clay so as to "fingerprint" pottery
   origination. They found that "the Olmec packaged and exported their
   beliefs throughout the region in the form of specialized ceramic
   designs and forms, which quickly became hallmarks of elite status in
   various regions of ancient Mexico".

   In response, in August 2005 another study, this time using petrography,
   found that the "exchanges of vessels between highland and lowland
   chiefly centers were reciprocal, or two way." . Five of the samples dug
   up in San Lorenzo were "unambiguously" from Oaxaca. According to one of
   the archaeologists conducting the study, this "contradicts recent
   claims that the Gulf Coast was the sole source of pottery" in
   Mesoamerica.

   The results of the INAA study were later defended in March 2006 in two
   articles in Latin American Antiquity. Because the INAA sample is much
   larger than the petrographic sample (a total of over 1600 analyses of
   raw materials and clays vs. approximately 20 pottery thin sections in
   the petrographic study), the authors of the Latin American Antiquity
   papers argue that the petrographic study cannot possibly overturn the
   INAA study.

Religion

   The back of Stela C from Tres ZapotesThis is the second oldest Long
   Count date yet discovered. The numerals 7.16.6.16.18 translate to
   September 3, 32 BCE (Julian). The glyphs surrounding the date are what
   is thought to be one of the few surviving examples of Epi-Olmec script.
   Enlarge
   The back of Stela C from Tres Zapotes
   This is the second oldest Long Count date yet discovered. The numerals
   7.16.6.16.18 translate to September 3, 32 BCE (Julian). The glyphs
   surrounding the date are what is thought to be one of the few surviving
   examples of Epi-Olmec script.

   : See main article: Olmec mythology

   Olmec mythology has left no documents comparable to the Popul Vuh from
   Maya mythology, and therefore any exposition of Olmec mythology must
   rely on interpretations of surviving monumental and portable art and
   comparisons with other Mesoamerican mythologies. Olmec art shows that
   such deities as the Feathered Serpent and the Rain Spirit were already
   in the Mesoamerican pantheon in Olmec times.

Olmecs and the development of the zero

   There has been speculation that the Olmecs were the first culture in
   the Americas to develop the zero.

   The Long Count calendar used by the Maya required the use of zero as a
   place-holder within its vigesimal (base-20) positional numeral system.
   A shell glyph was used as a zero symbol for these Long Count dates, the
   earliest of which (on Stela 2 at Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas) has a date
   of 36 BCE. Since the eight earliest Long Count dates appear outside the
   Maya homeland, it is assumed that the use of zero in the Americas
   predated the Maya and was possibly the invention of the Olmecs. Indeed,
   many of the earliest Long Count dates were found within the Olmec
   heartland, although the fact that the Olmec civilization had come to an
   end by the 4th century BCE, several centuries before the earliest known
   Long Count dates, argues against the zero being an Olmec invention.

History of scholarly research on the Olmec

   Olmec culture was unknown to historians until the late 19th century. In
   1862 the fortuitous discovery of the first colossal head near Tres
   Zapotes, ( Veracruz) by José Melgar y Serrano marked the first
   significant rediscovery of Olmec artifacts.

   Frans Blom of Tulane University made the first detailed descriptions of
   a number of Olmec sites in the 1920s. However early Mesoamericanists at
   first assumed the Olmec were likely no earlier than the Classic era.
   Matthew Stirling of the Smithsonian Institution conducted the first
   detailed scientific excavations of Olmec sites in the 1930s and 1940s.
   Stirling, along with art historian Miguel Covarrubias, became convinced
   that the Olmec predated most other known Mesoamerican civilizations.
   This was confirmed with the development of radiocarbon dating.

   Other important archaeologists investigating the Olmec include Eduardo
   Conteras and Michael D. Coe.

Alternative origin speculations

   In part because the Olmecs developed the first Mesoamerican
   civilization and in part because so little is known of the Olmecs
   (relative, for example, to the Maya or Aztec), a wide number of Olmec
   alternative origin speculations have been put forth. Although several
   of these speculations, particularly the theory that the Olmecs were of
   African origin, have become well-known within popular culture, they are
   not considered credible by the vast majority of Mesoamerican
   researchers.

Gallery

   An Olmec Jade Mask

   An Olmec Were-jaguar

   Colossal Olmec head no. 6 from San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan

   One of the "twins" from El Azuzul

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec"
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