page_title: Tabasco
section_title: Pre-Columbian period
hierarchical_section_title: Tabasco / History / Pre-Columbian period
context_page_description: Tabasco, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tabasco, is one of the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa. It is located in the southeast of the country, bordering the states of Campeche to the northeast, Veracruz to the west, and Chiapas to the south and the Petén department of Guatemala to the southeast. It has a coastline to the north with the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the state is covered in rainforest as, unlike most other areas of Mexico, it has plentiful rainfall year-round. For this reason, it is also covered in small lakes, wetlands and rivers. The state is subject to major flooding events, with the last occurring in 2007, which affected eighty percent of the state. The state is also home to La Venta, the major site of the Olmec civilization, considered to be the origin of later Mesoamerican cultures. Even though it produces significant quantities of petroleum and natural gas, poverty is still a concern.
context_section_description: The origin of the name Tabasco is not definitively known, with a number of theories debated among linguists. The name appears in the chronicles of Bernal Díaz del Castillo during the conquest era, who mentions a river named after local ruler Tabscoob. Other possible etymology is that it comes from a Mayan phrase meaning "our lord of the eight tigers". Another states that it is from Nahuatl with two possible derivations: one meaning "place that has a lord" and the other "place where the land is moist". The state seal is that which was granted in 1598 to the town of Villahermosa, then called San Juan Bautista by Philip II of Spain. This is one of the oldest coats of arms in the Americas.
  The Olmec civilization dominated much of what is now Tabasco 3,000 years ago, with its height around 800 BC. They were the oldest Mesoamerican culture which dominated areas in what are now the states of Mexico, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Tabasco as well as parts of Central America, and considered to be the founding culture for all of Mesoamerica. The main Olmec site in Tabasco is La Venta. The site covers an area of 5.3 square kilometres (2.0 sq mi) surrounded by swamps and marshes linked to  the Tonalá River, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from the Gulf of Mexico. Around 300 AD, the Mayas began to dominate part of the state. Mayan sites include Comalcalco, Pomoná, El Tortuguero and Jonuta (Prehispanic). The Mayans in Tabasco reached their peak between the 6th and 7th centuries.
caption: Comalcalco
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