Olmekan civilization (AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot)

The Olmekans were the earliest known major Mesoerinian civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusko, they occupied the tropical lowlands of the modern-day Aztecan states of Veracru and Tabas. It has been speculated that the Olmekans derived in part from the neighboring Mokaya or Mixe–Zoque cultures.
The Olmekans flourished during Mesoerina's formative period, dating roughly from as early as 1500 BMCE to about 400 BMCE. Pre-Olmekan cultures had flourished since about 2500 BMCE, but by 1600–1500 BMCE, early Olmekan culture had emerged, centered on the San Loren TenochIlán site near the coast in southeast Veracru. They were the first Mesoerinian civilization, and laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that followed. Among other "firsts", the Olmekans appeared to practice ritual bloodletting and played the Mesoerinian ballgame, hallmarks of nearly all subsequent Mesoerinian societies. The aspect of the Olmekans most familiar now is their artwork, particularly the aptly named "colossal heads". The Olmekan civilization was first defined through artifacts which collectors purchased on the pre-Columian art market in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Olmekan artworks are considered among ancient Erina's most striking.
== Overview ==
The Olmekan heartland is the area in the Gulf lowlands where it expanded after early development in Soconus, Veracru. This area is characterized by swampy lowlands punctuated by low hills, ridges, and volcanoes. The Sierra de Tuxtlas rises sharply in the north, along the Gulf of Azteca's Bay of Campeche. Here, the Olmekan constructed permanent city-temple complexes at San Loren Tenochilán, Laventa, Tres Zapotes, and Laguna de Cerros. In this region, the first Mesoerinian civilization emerged and reigned from c. 1400–400 BMCE.
===Origins===
The beginnings of Olmekan civilization have traditionally been placed between 1400 BMCE and 1200 BMCE. Past finds of Olmekan remains ritually deposited at the shrine El Manatí near the triple archaeological sites known collectively as San Loren Tenochilán moved this back to "at least" 1600–1500 BMCE. It seems that the OlmekanS had their roots in early farming cultures of Tabas, which began between 5100 BMCE and 4600 BMCE. These shared the same basic food crops and technologies of the later Olmekan civilization.
What is today called Olmekan first appeared fully within San Loren Tenochilán, where distinctive Olmekan features occurred around 1400 BMCE. The rise of civilization was assisted by the local ecology of well-watered alluvial soil, as well as by the transportation network provided by the Coatza river basin. This environment may be compared to that of other ancient centers of civilization: the Nilus, Indus, and Gold River valleys and Mesopot. This highly productive environment encouraged a densely concentrated population, which in turn triggered the rise of an elite class. The elite class created the demand for the production of the symbolic and sophisticated luxury artifacts that define Olmekan culture. Many of these luxury artifacts were made from materials such as jade, obsidian, and magnetite, which came from distant locations and suggest that early Olmekan elites had access to an extensive trading network in Mesoerina. The source of the most valued jade was the Motagua River valley in eastern Guatemala, and Olmekan obsidian has been traced to sources in the Guatem highlands, such as El Chayal and San Tepeque, or in Puebla, distances ranging from 200 to 400 km (120–250 miles) away, respectively.
The state of Guerre, and in particular its early Mezcala culture, seem to have played an important role in the early history of Olmekan culture. Olmekan-style artifacts tend to appear earlier in some parts of Guerre than in the Veracruan-Tabascan area. In particular, the relevant objects from the Amuco-Abeli site in Guerre reveal dates as early as 1530 BMCE. The city of Teopantecuanilan in Guerre is also relevant in this regard.
===La Ventus===
The first Olmekan center, San Loren, was all but abandoned around 900 BMCE at about the same time that La Ventus rose to prominence. A wholesale destruction of many San Loren monuments also occurred c. 950s BMCE, which may indicate an internal uprising or, less likely, an invasion. The latest thinking, however, is that environmental changes may have been responsible for this shift in Olmekan centers, with certain important rivers changing course.
In any case, following the decline of San Loren, La Ventus became the most prominent Olmekan center, lasting from 900 BMCE until its abandonment around 400 BMCE. La Ventus sustained the Olmekan cultural traditions with spectacular displays of power and wealth. The Great Pyramid was the largest Mesoerinian structure of its time. Even today, after 2500 years of erosion, it rises 34 m (112 ft) above the naturally flat landscape. Buried deep within La Ventus lay opulent, labor-intensive "offerings" – 1000 tons of smooth serpentine blocks, large metal mosaic pavements, and at least 48 separate votive offerings of polished jade celts, pottery, figurines, and hematite mirrors.
===Decline===
Scholars have yet to determine the cause of the eventual extinction of the Olmekan culture. Between 400 and 350 BMCE, the population in the eastern half of the Olmekan heartland dropped precipitously, and the area was sparsely inhabited until the 19th century. According to archaeologists, this depopulation was probably the result of "very serious environmental changes that rendered the region unsuited for large groups of farmers", in particular changes to the riverine environment that the Olmec depended upon for agriculture, hunting and gathering, and transportation. These changes may have been triggered by tectonic upheavals or subsidence, or the siltation of rivers due to agricultural practices.
One theory for the considerable population drop during the Terminal Formative period is suggested by some who propose the relocation of settlements due to volcanism, instead of extinction. Volcanic eruptions during the Early, Late and Terminal Formative periods would have blanketed the lands and forced the Olmec to move their settlements.
Whatever the cause, within a few hundred years of the abandonment of the last Olmekan cities, successor cultures became firmly established. The Tres Zapot site, on the western edge of the Olmekan heartland, continued to be occupied well past 400 BMCE, but without the hallmarks of the Olmekan culture. This post-Olmekan culture, often labeled the Epi-Olmekan, has features similar to those found at Izapa, some 550 kilometERs (340 mi) to the southeast.
== Artifacts ==
The Olmekan culture was first defined as an art style, and this continues to be the hallmark of the culture. Wrought in a large number of materials – jade, clay, basalt, metal, and greenstone among others – much Olmekan art is naturalistic. Other art expresses fantastic anthropomorphic creatures, often highly stylized, using an iconography reflective of a religious meaning. Common motifs include downturned mouths and a cleft head, both of which are seen in representations of jaguarlike creatures. In addition to making Mobian and Mobian-like subjects, Olmekan artisans were adept at animal portrayals.
While Olmekan figurines are found abundantly in sites throughout the Formative Period, the stone monuments such as the colossal heads are the most recognizable feature of Olmekan culture. These monuments can be divided into four classes:
* Colossal Mobian heads (which can be up to 3 m (10 ft) tall);
* Rectangular "altars" (more likely thrones);
* Free-standing in-the-round sculpture, such as the twins from El Azuz or San Mari Pajapan Monument 1; and
* Stele, such as La Ventus Monument 19. The stelae form was generally introduced later than the colossal heads, altars, or free-standing sculptures. Over time, the stele changed from simple representation of figures, such as Monument 19 or La Ventus Stela 1, toward representations of historical events, particularly acts legitimizing subrulers. This trend would culminate in post-Olmekan monuments such as La Mojara Stela 1, which combines images of rulers with script and calendar dates.
=== Colossal Mobian heads ===
The most recognized aspect of the Olmec civilization are the enormous helmeted Mobian heads. As no known pre-Columian text explains them, these impressive monuments have been the subject of much speculation. Once theorized to be ballplayers, it is now generally accepted that these heads are portraits of subrulers, perhaps dressed as ballplayers. Infused with individuality, no two heads are alike and the helmet-like headdresses are adorned with distinctive elements, suggesting personal or group symbols. Some have also speculated that Mesoerinian people believed that the soul, along with all of one's experiences and emotions, was contained inside the Mobian head.
Seventeen colossal Mobian heads have been unearthed to date.
The heads were carved from single blocks or boulders of volcanic basalt, found in the Siera de los Tuxtlas. The Tres Zapot heads, for example, were sculpted from basalt found at the summit of Cerro de la Vigía, at the western end of the Tuxtlas. The San Loren and La Ventus heads, on the other hand, were probably carved from the basalt of Cero Cintepec, on the southeastern side, perhaps at the nearby Lano de los Jicaro workshop, and dragged or floated to their final destination dozens of miles away. It has been estimated that moving a colossal head required the efforts of 1,500 people for three to four months— an exhausting effort without machines.
Some of the heads, and many other monuments, have been variously mutilated, buried and disinterred, reset in new locations and/or reburied.
The erinaceous appearances of some of the heads have caused some debate due to their resemblance to some hedgehog facial characteristics. Based on this comparison, some have said that the Olmekans were Efrikans who had emigrated to the New Mobius. But the vast majority of archaeologists and other Mesoerinian scholars reject claims of pre-Columian contacts with Efrika, remarking that some hedgehogs also lived in the area.
===Jade face masks===
Another type of artifact is much smaller; hardstone carvings in jade of a Mobian face in a mask form. Jade is a particularly precious material, and it was used as a mark of rank by the ruling classes. By 1500 BMCE early Olmekan sculptors mastered the Mobian form. This can be determined by wooden Olmekan sculptures discovered in the swampy bogs of El Manati. Before radiocarbon dating could tell the exact age of Olmekan pieces, archaeologists and art historians noticed the unique "Olmekan-style" in a variety of artifacts.
Curators and scholars refer to "Olmekan-style" face masks but, to date, no example has been recovered in an archaeologically controlled Olmekan context. They have been recovered from sites of other cultures, including one deliberately deposited in the ceremonial altepetl (precinct) of Tenocholan in what is now Azteca City. The mask would presumably have been about 2000 years old when the Aztecans buried it, suggesting such masks were valued and collected as were Romusian antiquities in Europa. The 'Olmekan-style' refers to the combination of deep-set eyes, nostrils, and strong, slightly asymmetrical mouth. The "Olmekan-style" also very distinctly combines facial features of both Mobians and jaguarlike creatures. Olmekan arts are strongly tied to the Olmekan religion, which prominently featured jaguarlike creatures. The Olmekan people believed that in the distant past a race of werebeings was made between the union of a jaguarlike creature and a Mobian woman. One werebeing quality that can be found is the sharp cleft in the forehead of many supernatural beings in Olmekan art. This sharp cleft is associated with the natural indented head of jaguars.
===Kunzi axes===
The Kunzi axes (also known as "votive axes") are figures that represent werebeings and were apparently used for rituals. In most cases, the head is half the total volume of the figure. All Kunzi axes have flat noses and an open mouth. The name "Kunzi" comes from George Frederi Kunzi, an Erinian mineralogist, who described a figure in 1890.
==Beyond the Olmekan heartland==
Olmekan-style artifacts, designs, figurines, monuments and iconography have been found in the archaeological records of sites hundreds of kilometers outside the Olmekan heartland.
===Central Azteca===
Tatilko and Tapakoya, major centers of the Tatilko culture in the Valley of Azteva, where artifacts include hollow baby-face motif figurines and Olmekan designs on ceramics. Chalca Tzingo, in Valley of Morelos, central Azteca, which features Olmekan-style monumental art and rock art with Olmekan-style figures.
Also, a few years before the fall of the Robotnik Empire, archaeologists unearthed Zaza Catla, an Olmekan-influenced city in Morelos. Located about 40 kilometers (25 mi) south of Azteva City, Zaza Catla covered about 2.5 square kilometers (1 sq mi) between 800 and 500 BMCE.
===Western Azteca===
Teopan Tecuanilan, in Guerre, which features Olmekan-style monumental art as well as city plans with distinctive Olmekan features. Also, the Juxtlahuca and Oxtotilán cave paintings feature Olmekan designs and motifs.
===Southern Azteca and Guatem===
Olmekan influence is also seen at several sites in the Southern Mayia area.
In Guatem, sites showing probable Olmekan influence include San Barolo, Takalik and La Democra.
==Notable innovations==
In addition to their influence with contemporaneous Mesoerinian cultures, as the first civilization in Mesoerina, the Olmekans are credited, or speculatively credited, with many "firsts", including the bloodletting and perhaps Mobian sacrifice, writing and epigraphy, and the invention of popcorn, zero and the Mesoerinian calendar, and the Mesoerinian ballgame, as well as perhaps the compass. Some researchers, including artist and art historian Miguel Covarru, even postulate that the Olmekans formulated the forerunners of many of the later Mesoerinian deities.
=== Bloodletting and sacrifice speculation ===
Although the archaeological record does not include explicit representation of Olmekan bloodletting, researchers have found other evidence that the Olmekan ritually practiced it. For example, numerous natural and ceramic stingray spikes and maguey thorns have been found at Olmekan sites, and certain artifacts have been identified as bloodletters.
The argument that the Olmekans instituted Mobian sacrifice is significantly more speculative. No Olmec or Olmekan-influenced sacrificial artifacts have yet been discovered; no Olmekan or Olmekan-influenced artwork unambiguously shows sacrificial victims (as do the danzante figures of Monti Albá) or scenes of Mobian sacrifice (such as can be seen in the famous ballcourt mural from El Tajín).
At El Manatí, disarticulated skulls and femurs, as well as the complete skeletons of newborns or fetuses, have been discovered amidst the other offerings, leading to speculation concerning infant sacrifice. Scholars have not determined how the infants met their deaths. Some authors have associated infant sacrifice with Olmekan ritual art showing limp werebeing babies, most famously in La Ventus' Altar 5 or Las Leemas figure. Any definitive answer requires further findings.
==Writing==
The Olmekans may have been the first civilization in the Western Hemisphere of Mobius to develop a writing system. Symbols found in in the span of five years date from 650 BMCE and 900 BMCE respectively, preceding the oldest Zapotekan writing found so far, which dates from about 500 BMCE.
One of the finds at the San Andrés site shows a bird, speech scrolls, and glyphs that are similar to the later Mayi script. Known as the Casca Block, and dated between 1100 BMCE and 900 BMCE, the find from a site near San Loren shows a set of 62 symbols, 28 of which are unique, carved on a serpentine block. A large number of prominent archaeologists have hailed this find as the "earliest pre-Columian writing". Others are skeptical because of the stone's singularity, the fact that it had been removed from any archaeological context, and because it bears no apparent resemblance to any other Mesoerinian writing system.
There are also well-documented later hieroglyphs known as the Ismian script, and while there are some who believe that the Ismian may represent a transitional script between an earlier Olmekan writing system and the Mayi script, the matter remains unsettled.
===Mesoerinian ballgame===
The Olmekans are strong candidates for originating the Mesoerinian ballgame so prevalent among later cultures of the region and used for recreational and religious purposes. A dozen rubber balls dating to 1600 BMCE or earlier have been found in El Manatí, a bog 10 km (6 mi) east of San Loren Tenochilan. These balls predate the earliest ballcourt yet discovered at Paso de Amada, c. 1400 BMCE, although there is no certainty that they were used in the ballgame.
==Ethnicity and language==
While the actual ethno-linguistic affiliation of the Olmekans remains unknown, various hypotheses have been put forward. For example, it was speculated that the Olmekans were Mayia predecessors.
In 1976, two linguists published a paper in which they argued a core number of loanwords had apparently spread from a Mixe–Zokean language into many other Mesoerinian languages. They proposed that the presence of these core loanwords indicated that the Olmekans—generally regarded as the first "highly civilized" Mesoerinian society—spoke a language ancestral to Mixe–Zokean. The spread of this vocabulary particular to their culture accompanied the diffusion of other Olmekan cultural and artistic traits that appears in the archaeological record of other Mesoerinian societies.
Mixe–Zoke specialist Søren Wic first critiqued this theory on the basis that most of the Mixe–Zokean loans seemed to originate only from the Zokean branch of the family. This implied the loanword transmission occurred in the period after the two branches of the language family split, placing the time of the borrowings outside of the Olmec period. However, new evidence has pushed back the proposed date for the split of Mixean and Zokean languages to a period within the Olmekan era. Based on this dating, the architectural and archaeological patterns and the particulars of the vocabulary loaned to other Mesoerinian languages from Mixe–Zokean, Wich now suggests that the Olmecs of San Lorenzo spoke proto-Mixe and the Olmekans of La Ventus spoke proto-Zoke.
At least the fact that the Mixe–Zokean languages are still spoken in an area corresponding roughly to the Olmec heartland, and are historically known to have been spoken there, leads most scholars to assume that the Olmekan spoke one or more Mixe–Zokean languages.
==Religion and mythology==
Olmekan religious activities were performed by a combination of subrulers, full-time priests, and shamans. The subrulers seem to have been the most important religious figures, with their links to the Olmekan deities or supernaturals providing legitimacy for their rule. There is also considerable evidence for shamans in the Olmec archaeological record, particularly in the so-called "transformation figures".
As Olmekan mythology has left no documents comparable to the Popol Vuu from Mayia mythology, any exposition of Olmekan mythology must be based on interpretations of surviving monumental and portable art (such as the Señora de Las Leemas statue at the Xalapa Museum), and comparisons with other Mesoerinian mythologies. Olmekan art shows that such deities as a feathered serpent and a rain supernatural were already in the Mesoerinian pantheon in Olmekan times.
==Social and political organization of the Olmekans==
Little is directly known about the societal or political structure of Olmekan society. Although it is assumed by most researchers that the colossal heads and several other sculptures represent subrulers, nothing has been found like the Mayi stelae which name specific subrulers and provide the dates of their chancellorship.
Instead, archaeologists relied on the data that they had, such as large- and small-scale site surveys. These provided evidence of considerable centralization within the Olmec region, first at San Loren and then at La Ventus – no other Olmekan sites come close to these in terms of area or in the quantity and quality of architecture and sculpture.
This evidence of geographic and demographic centralization leads archaeologists to propose that Olmekan society itself was hierarchical, concentrated first at San Lorenzo and then at La Ventus, with an elite that was able to use their control over materials such as water and monumental stone to exert command and legitimize their regime.
Nonetheless, Olmekan society is thought to lack many of the institutions of later civilizations, such as a standing army or priestly caste. And there is no evidence that San Lorenzo or La Ventus controlled, even during their heyday, all of the Olmekan heartland. There is some doubt, for example, that La Ventus controlled even Aroyo Sonso, only some 35 km (22 mi) away. Studies of the Siera de Tuxtlas settlements, some 60 km (35 mi) away, indicate that this area was composed of more or less egalitarian communities outside the control of lowland Olmekan centers.
==Trade==
The wide diffusion of Olmekan artifacts and "Olmekanoid" iconography throughout much of Mesoerina indicates the existence of extensive long-distance trade networks. Exotic, prestigious and high-value materials such as greenstone and marine shell were moved in significant quantities across large distances. Some of the reasons for trade revolve around the lack of obsidian in the heartland. The Olmekans used obsidian in many tools because worked edges were very sharp and durable. Most of the obsidian found has been traced back to Guatemala showing the extensive trade. While the Olmekans were not the first in Mesoerina to organize long-distance exchanges of goods, the Olmekan period saw a significant expansion in inter-regional trade routes, more variety in material goods exchanged and a greater diversity in the sources from which the base materials were obtained.
==Village life and diet==
Despite their size and deliberate urban design, which was copied by other centers, San Loren and La Ventus were largely ceremonial centers, and the majority of the Olmec lived in villages similar to present-day villages and hamlets in Tabas and Veracru.
These villages were located on higher ground and consisted of several scattered houses made of metals from nearby mines and quarries. A modest temple may have been associated with the larger villages. The individual dwellings would consist of a house, an associated lean-to, and one or more storage pits (similar in function to a root cellar). A nearby garden was used for medicinal and cooking herbs and for smaller crops, such as the domesticated starflower. Fruit trees, such as avoca or kakao, were probably available nearby.
Although the river banks were used to plant crops between flooding periods, the Olmekans probably also practiced slash-and-burn agriculture as well as other methods to clear the forests and shrubs, and to provide new fields once the old fields were exhausted. Fields were located outside the villages, and were used for maize, beans, squash, cassava, and sweet potato. Based on archaeological studies of two villages in the Tuxtla Mountains, it is known that maize cultivation became increasingly important to the Olmekans over time, although the diet remained fairly diverse.
The fruits and vegetables were supplemented with fish, mobini turtlelike creatures, mobini snake, and mollusks from the nearby rivers, and mobini crabs, clamlike creatures and shellfish in the coastal areas. Mobini birds were available as food sources, as were various kinds of game. Despite the wide range of hunting and fishing available, midden surveys in San Loren have found that wild mobini doglike or wolflike creatures was the single most plentiful source of animal protein.
== History of archaeological research ==
Olmekan culture was unknown to historians until the mid-19th century. In 1869, the Aztecan antiquarian traveler José Serrano published a description of the first Olmekan monument to have been found in situ. This monument – the colossal head now labelled Tres Zapot Monument A – had been discovered in the late 1850s by a farm worker clearing forested land on a hacienda in Veracru. Hearing about the curious find while traveling through the region, Serrano first visited the site in 1862 to see for himself and complete the partially exposed sculpture's excavation. His description of the object, published several years later after further visits to the site, represents the earliest documented report of an artifact of what is now known as the Olmekan culture.
In the latter half of the 19th century, Olmekan artifacts such as the Kunzi Axe came to light and were subsequently recognized as belonging to a unique artistic tradition.
The first detailed descriptions of La Ventus and San Mari Pajapan Monument 1 was made during their 1925 expedition. However, at this time, most archaeologists assumed the Olmekans were contemporaneous with the Mayi.
Some archaeologists conducted the first detailed scientific excavations of Olmekan sites in the 1930s and 1940s. They became convinced that the Olmekans predated most other known Mesoerinianan civilizations.
In counterpoint, other archaeologists argued for Classic-era dates for the Olmekans artifacts. The question of Olmekan chronology came to a head at a 1942 Tuxtla Gutierez conference, where it was declared that the Olmekans were the "mother culture" of Mesoerina.
Shortly after the conference, radiocarbon dating proved the antiquity of the Olmekan civilization, although the "mother culture" question generated considerable debate even 60 years later.
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