OLMEC

The Olmec lived in Mesoamerica. The Mesoamerican Culture Area, or Middle America, comprises much of present-day Mexico as well as the northern part of Central America. In the centuries before Europeans reached the Americas, Mesoamerica was the most densely populated region, with many different Indian cultures. Olmec (pronounced OL-mek), also written as Olmeca, is a term derived from the rubber trees growing in the area and applied by scholars to one culture.

Scholars believe the Olmec established the “mother civilization” of Mesoamerica. That is to say, their culture influenced other cultures that followed. From about 1200 B. C. to A. D. 300, Olmec culture dominated the region.

Sometimes the period when the Olmec dominated Mesoamerica is referred to as the Preclassic period. Then came the Classic period, when the MAYA flourished. Then followed the Postclassic period, when the TOLTEC and AZTEC flourished. (In the study of PREHISTORIC INDIANS north of Mesoamerica during the same time-span, however, these three periods together are usually called the Formative period.)

The Olmec homeland was situated mainly along the Gulf coast to the east of present-day Mexico City. Yet the Olmec had extensive trade contacts all over Mesoamerica. On finding Olmec objects at sites far from the Gulf coast, archaeologists are sometimes uncertain if the ancient inhabitants were actually Olmec or were other Indians who obtained Olmec objects in trade.

The Olmec carved giant heads from basalt, a type of volcanic rock. Some of these were as heavy as 20 tons, with helmet-like headdresses. The Olmec traveled far to obtain the basalt to make these mammoth sculptures. To transport the rock, they dragged it overland and floated it on rafts. The Olmec also traveled great distances to get jade to make statues, the mineral magnetite to make mirrors, and an ore called serpentine to make pavement.

Olmec mammoth basalt head-statue

Their statues, both large and small, were often representations of jaguars, which played an important part in Olmec religion. Another religious symbol frequently depicted, the great Plumed Serpent (Quetzalcoatl), persisted as a deity among many other later peoples in Mesoamerica, indicating Olmec influence far and wide.

Olmec jade Kunz Axe, depicting a man-jaguar

The Olmec also influenced later Mesoamerican peoples with their system of social organization. Unlike most Indian tribes, Olmec society had classes of priests, merchants, and craftsmen, with the priests having the most power. The social classes were fixed; members were born into them and could not change occupations.

The Olmec upper classes lived in finely built stone structures. The buildings, some of them temples on top of pyramids, were situated along paved streets. Aqueducts carried water to them. The Olmec population centers are not thought of as true cities, but rather as ceremonial, civic, and economic centers. True cities with large populations, some of them on the very same sites, would evolve among later Mesoamerican peoples.

In the countryside, surrounding the Olmec centers, lived a population of farmers who supported the upper classes through agriculture. They practiced a method of farming called slash-and-burn in which trees are cut down and burned to make fields. The main crop was corn.

Farming in Mesoamerica dates back as far as 7000 B. C. Cultivated beans, peppers, pumpkins, and gourds have been discovered in a dry cave. The earliest cultivated strain of corn ever found, also in Mesoamerica, dates back to 4000 B. C. These early Indians were perhaps the ancient ancestors of the Olmec. It was agriculture that allowed the development of cities, because, with farming, a large number of people could live in a small area and still have plenty to eat.

Another Olmec cultural development passed to later Mesoamericans was a ball game that was played with a ball made from rubber on a paved court. The Olmec also were the first Indians known to have number and calendar systems as well as hieroglyphic writing, with symbols representing words and ideas.

The most important Olmec population centers were San Lorenzo, dominant from about 1200 to 900 B. C.; La Venta, dominant from about 900 to 400 B. C.; and Tres Zapotes, dominant from about 100 B. C. to A. D. 300. La Venta was the location of the largest Olmec pyramid. At Copalillo, an Olmec site situated to the west of these sites, have been found the oldest stone buildings in North America, dating back as early as 600 B. C.

It is not known why the Olmec culture declined. Invading tribes could have been responsible, or drought and failing crops, or disease. Because the Olmec culture has much in common with the later Maya culture, some scholars have theorized that the Olmec migrated eastward and became the direct ancestors of the Maya. Whatever happened to them, the Olmec, with their remarkable cultural developments and their great influence, changed the course of Mesoamerican history.