The Settled Landscape

Mesoamerica is a geographically diverse region in which a mosaic of early polities and regional populations participated in inter-regional connections manifested by the exchange of goods and spread of representational systems and political-economic structures embodied in the appearance of Early Horizon style and later Middle Formative, motifs, icons, and design conceptualizations. These early polities and centers of population are frequently associated With riverine floodplains, valley floors, and other landscape zones of relatively high natural productivity and fertile soils that could support the emergent agricultural economy. In lowland coastal Mesoamerica, Early Formative sedentary populations are often associated with swamp and estuary environments where resource availability was relatively high. In Chiapas along the Pacific Coast, for instance, archaeological settlement, macrobotanical, ground stone, iconograph-ic, and isotopic evidence indicate that the rise of sedent-ism and the formation of small polities were associated with these high productivity ecozones. Only later during the Middle Formative period did the subsistence economy begin to assume its classic Mesoamerican form. Current research in the Olmec region strongly supports the implications of this historical model.

The Olmec inhabited a diverse and enormously productive natural landscape, a mosaic of landforms, soil types, and risk factors comprising seasonally flooded, subsiding deltaic and river floodplain lowlands, generally lateritic rolling coastal plain interfluve and upland, and the volcanic highlands of the Tuxtla Mountains. A diversity of resources and challenges characterize the region. Current settlement data demonstrate that during the Early Formative period most of the region’s population was probably concentrated along river corridors where the combination of rich, annually renewed soils, migratory birds, floodplain and delta-inhabiting mammals, and, importantly, seasonally and annually available fisheries resources made these ideal locations for a population pursuing a mixed economy based on a variety of crops, fisheries, and other resources. Later, during the Middle Formative period, population appears to have expanded onto adjacent upland areas.

A series of major rivers disgorges waters from highland and coastal plain watersheds across the Gulf Coastal plain. North to south these rivers include the Papaloapan, the San Juan, the Coatzacoalcos, the Uspanapa, the Tonalii, the Grijalva, and far to the east beyond Olmec territory, the Usumacinta. In Veracruz, rivers cut through a rolling terrain of laterized uplands forming interfluve-demarcated river floodplains with complex riverine depositional features that, towards the coast, are of late Holocene date and correlate with the stabilization of sea-level rise. The Tabasco Coastal plain is a vast low lying deltaic plain composed primarily of Late Holocene deposits of the Grijalva and Usumacinta rivers, along with a series of smaller rivers such as the Tonalii.

Documented Olmec settlements are present within the western portion of this delta in a region of surface-exposed, relatively undisturbed palaeodistributaries of the Grijalva delta of second through first millennium BC dates. Fragments of settlement systems that escaped later erosion through active channel meandering document Olmec settlement configurations at various points in time. Conspicuous by its absence is a robust sample of Olmec households. Little is known about the density of houses on or off of well-documented sites in the many small ‘tells’, or accretions of settlement, of the Coatzacoalcos floodplain and Tabasco Coastal Plain.

San Lorenzo and the Coatzacoalcos Floodplain

The major polity capital of San Lorenzo is embedded in a landscape composed of Holocene floodplain features, in particular, palaeochannels with attendant meanders, cut-offs, and other typical river floodplain landforms. Archaeologist Stacy Symonds conducted extensive survey of the sustaining area of San Lorenzo, documenting surviving components of the settlement system. Settled localities include the San Lorenzo plateau and points along the boundaries of the floodplain, as well as numerous locations along levees. Many hamlets were raised above nominal flood stage either through accretion of the house lot or hamlet mound or through the deliberate construction of raised flood platforms, palafitos in local parlance. By the apogee of San Lorenzo, a three - to four-tiered settlement hierarchy evolved in the area. Sculpture is associated with the primate center, as well as with second-tier settlements, such as Loma del Zapote. San Lorenzo spreads some 500 ha across the plateau with a central core of dense occupation approximately 300 ha in area. Within this core were palaces such as the Red Palace and ritual areas. Loma del Zapote may have encompassed an area of as much as 400 ha.

Work around San Lorenzo has revealed some data on Olmec households. Ann Cyphers’ work on the main plateau documented the development of terracing associated with Olmec domestic architecture. Within the hinterland, individual houselot locations associated with artificial platforms on palaeolevees were common in some areas. These small artificial or accretional mounds range from 18-40 m across and probably represent the accumulated deposits of single successive households. Unfortunately, little is known about the structure of Olmec houselots and households in these lowlands. Augering and excavation of a handful of houselots suggests that a central house structure may have been surrounded by a cleared lot of up to 50 m in width. Large, shallow excavated hearths are a feature, perhaps common, of such households.

La Venta and the Tabasco Coastal Plain

La Venta is embedded in a dynamic deltaic environment constructed over the course of Late Holocene following the deceleration and stabilization of sea-level rise. Cyclically deposited delta distribution channels, upland margins, salt-dome rises, and estuary flanks served as focal points of settlement. In Tabasco, the dominant site form is a low tell, locally known as an isla, comprised of successive midden, house floor, house collapse, and platform deposits. A three to four tier settlement system around La Venta focused on the Bari and Blasillo palaeodis-tributaries. San Andriis is one of the larger sites in this system. The presence of sugar and other extensive cultivation to the east of La Venta in the Plan Chon-talpa area allowed for a detailed study of tell density and distribution along a single major distibutary channel. Archaeologist Christopher von Nagy demonstrated a high density of slightly clustered tells along this channel. These tells range in height from tens of centimeters to meters above the crest of channel levees. A significant proportion of occupations is shown to be embedded in the matrix of the levee and are invisible in surface survey, however. Buried sites are common, as are zones were channel activity that postdates the formation of sites has largely obliterated traces of occupation.

Data from San Andres, near La Venta, suggest that houses may have been placed on low earthen foundations as high as several tens of centimeters. They may also have had floors raised slightly over the exterior. Shallow, excavated hearths are present in the floors at this site. Also present at San Andreis are a series of deep, large pits. These may have been used for storage, although some evidence suggests their use for the creation of high temperature fires. Large pits similar to those at San Andreis are also present at La Venta. Small pavements of extensively reburned sherds are also a feature at San Andreis.

Tuxtlas Settlement

Settlement in the Tuxtlas paints a different picture from that associated with major lowland polities. Here, a settlement hierarchy was lacking until the Late Formative period. Amber VanDerwarker has shown that the nature of the broad-based subsistence system was a significant factor in the lack of development of hierarchy in the Tuxtlas. Hierarchy developed in conjunction with emergence of a strongly maize-focused subsistence economy and after recovery from a series of Early and Late Formative volcanic eruptions that devastated the region.