These agricultural villages grew larger and developed a more sophisticated material culture. By roughly 1500 BC, there emerged a cultural area known as Mesoamerica, covering some 392,000 square miles. This area extended from the rugged snow-capped volcanoes of central Mexico south to present-day Nicaragua and included the mountains of Guatemala and the limestone plains of Yucatan. Mesoamerican cultures shared a religious tradition and had complex social, economic, and political organizations. Urban centers typically had public buildings arranged around a formal, open plaza adjacent to pyramidal temples. Another shared trait was human sacrifice. All of the Mesoamerican cultures relied on an agricultural surplus generated by cultivating corn. In Mesoamerican cultures, men would typically cultivate the corn, and women would grind the kernels and prepare tortillas—a division of labor that has persisted to the present. Corn was an ideal crop since it has a high yield per unit of land and is easily stored.6
The creation myth of the Quiche Maya indicates the intimate relationship between corn and the Mesoamerican societies that bred it. The Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Quiche, describes how Xmucane, one of the divine grandparents, ground yellow corn and white corn nine times and then fashioned the flesh of the first human from the mixture.7
There are two theories concerning the origin of corn. One holds that early agriculturists bred a weed, teosinte, for a sufficiently long period to convert it into a greatly improved food source. Others think that the teosinte was crossbred with another plant to produce corn. In any case, in 7000 BC, an ear of corn only measured an inch long. After six millennia of cultivation, the ear attained a length of four inches. As a result of this transformation, the corn plant could no longer propagate itself without human intervention.8
Complex Mesoamerican cultures flourished between 2000 BC and ad 1519. Archeologists have divided this 3,500-year span into three time periods, each with its own characteristics. The earliest period, known as the Pre-Classic, lasted from roughly 2000 BC to ad 250. The Pre-Classic is distinguished from earlier village cultures by the emergence of large political entities that demanded that its inhabitants contribute material goods and labor. Entrance into and emergence from the Pre-Classic was a gradual evolutionary process that occurred at varying times in varying locations.9
The outstanding culture of the Pre-Classic period is known as the Olmec, a name given to its inhabitants by archeologists, since no one knows what they called themselves. The term means “dweller in the land of rubber,” since rubber is a major export of the 125-by-50-mile area they inhabited in the steamy swamplands of coastal Tabasco. Between 1500 BC and 400 BC, the Olmec created one of the six pristine civilizations in human history. A pristine civilization is the earliest civilization in its respective region. The other pristine civilizations were the Chavin culture in Peru, China’s Shang culture, the Indus civilization in modern Indian and Pakistan, and the Egyptian and Sumerian cultures in the Near East.10
Between 1500 BC and 1200 BC, the Olmec settled San Lorenzo, which was perhaps the first urban center in the Americas. San Lorenzo was a hilltop ceremonial center overlooking the Coatzacoalcos River. The site was several times larger than any other Mesoamerican urban center existing at the time. It covered roughly two square miles and had several thousand permanent residents. At San Lorenzo, highly skilled craftspeople produced planned public architecture and a variety of artistic works. Extensive interregional trade networks supplied these craftspeople with materials. Around 900 BC, San Lorenzo declined for reasons unknown.11
Radiocarbon dates indicate that a subsequent Olmec urban center, La Venta, flourished between 1200 BC and 400 BC. At its apogee, around 500 BC, its population was perhaps 2,000. It contained several plazas and the largest Mesoamerican structure yet built, whose original shape is still a matter of controversy. There the Olmec created awe-inspiring sculptures, finished without the benefit of metal tools. Much of the basalt they carved was quarried fifty miles away and presumably floated to La Venta on rafts. Today the most recognizable Olmec works are the magnificent stone heads representing their rulers. These sculptures measure as much as nine feet high and weigh up to forty tons.12
Even though they constructed San Lorenzo and later La Venta, most of the Olmec lived in small villages, fished, and raised corn, beans, squash, sweet potatoes, cotton, and various tree crops. Linking these villages was an elite that oversaw large-scale projects such as earthen and stone monument construction.13
Between 1300 bc and 500 bc, the Olmec culture influenced others throughout and beyond Mesoamerica. Trade routes, which connected areas of different resource endowments, were one of the main channels through which this influence spread. Recent archeological investigation has indicated that the Olmec influence in Mesoamerica was by no means unidirectional. Various other centers were developing and innovating at the same time and passing their knowledge to the Olmec. Major centers of this cultural network include the Valley of Mexico, the Valley of Oaxaca, and the area to the east of the Olmec where the classic Maya civilization would emerge.14
For reasons that are poorly understood, the Olmec centers collapsed. At La Venta, the altars and stone heads were systematically defaced and ceremoniously interred. Artisans ceased producing distinctive Olmec artistic works, and the extensive trade networks uniting the Olmec with surrounding regions no longer functioned. The causes for this decline have yet to be determined. Various explanations have been offered for this decline, including peasant revolt, disease, invasion, and agricultural exhaustion.15
World History
