The Olmec Civilization

The exact location of the origins of the Olmec civilization differs among scholars. It was originally thought that the culture originated in Los Tuxtlas and Catemaco (Veracruz). Miguel Covarrubias thought it had originated in the state of Guerrero. His thesis was supported by Carlo Gay who studied ceramics found in the environs of Xochipala, a mountain village of the Mezcala region. The pottery was found at the sites of El Zacatoso, Las Mesas, Las Tejas and Llano Delgado. The decorated vessels were corroborated by Franz Feutchwanger as typically Olmec in style and iconography. In addition, four monoliths found within a ceremonial enclosure at El Rincón (whose pre-hispanic name seems to have been Teopanticuanitlán meaning “The place of the Temple of Tigers and Lions”), showed an inverted shape representing beings with typically Olmec feline features. Román Piña Chan maintained that the Olmec presence was located at the juncture of the states of Morelos, Puebla and Guerrero. Another view, held by Philip Drucker and William T. Sanders felt that the Olmec had originated in the Gulf coast region.

            There are two main schools of thought concerning Olmec history. One is labeled the Olmec centric school. This view holds that the Olmec created Mesoamerica’s first civilization and it is supported by Miguel Covarrubias, Alfonso Caso, Beatriz de la Fuente, Mathew Stirling and George Vaillant. The other school is labeled the Primus inter Pares and it denies the Olmec priority. These scholars claim that the culture traits called Olmec originated outside the gulf coast or were widely distributed. Among its proponents we find Eric S. Thompson, William R. Coe, Kent B. Flannery and Joyce Marcus.

            The Olmec lived in Southern Veracruz and Western Tabasco and disseminated through Mesoamerica. Their influence has been found in Chatcalzingo, Morelos; Teopantecuanitlán and San Miguel Amuco in Guerrero; Tlatilco, Las Bocas and Tlapacoya in central Mexico; the valley of Oaxaca and numerous sites in the Pacific Piedmont and coastal zones of Chiapas and Guatemala.

            We do not know what the Olmec called themselves. The name Olmeca meaning “people of the region of rubber”, was given to these people by the Aztecs and it is the name used by modern scholars.

            The culture existed during the Formative or Preclassic periods. Based on radiocarbon determinations and changes in the style of pottery their history can be divided into four phases:

     Formation stage (1700 – 1300 B.C.)

     Integration stage (1300 – 900 B.C.)

     Expansion stage: (900 – 300 B.C)

     Disintegration stage (300 B.C. – A.D 200)

Technological advances in architecture, surpluses of food, the appearance of an

 artisan class and a priest class created a hierarchical structure were religion was institutionalized and gave rise to a theocratic society. The ceremonial centers became the focal points of their society.

Their economy was based on farming, hunting, fishing, and gathering and supplemented by the trading of products and materials. The marsh and flood agriculture occurred along the rivers and they cleared the forest using the slash and burn system. The populations of the coastal regions consumed manioc (Manihot esculenta), sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas), jicama (Pachyrrizus erosus) and palm. Fishing activity is evidenced by the discovery of weights for nets, remains of canoes and fishbones.

            Some social aspects of the Olmec can be observed through their figurines. They represent short, obese men with deformed heads, slanted eyes and toothless mouths. The women are distinguished by their braids and headdresses. Cranial deformation, dental mutilation and scarring were also represented. The statuettes also show their clothing. They wore loincloths, kilts, short capes, blouses and shorts with tassels. The heads are decorated with hats; turbans or kerchiefs knotted under the chin and the faces may be concealed by masks or veils and adorned with earrings and necklaces. Ballplayers are represented with one hand gloved. Musicians are portrayed playing small drums, dancers wearing skirts and acrobats with arched bodies. This demonstrates the existence of festivities.

            Patrilineal and totemic clans may have been the early forms of social organization. Shamans probably exerted partial control since they were the intermediaries with supernatural beings and the repositories of knowledge. There may also have been councils of elders who decided the actions of the community.

            The Olmec perceived their cosmic universe as multileveled, living and interconnected. The Jaguar was their principal totemic animal and it was associated with the earth. The serpent symbolized the water of rivers and the two were merged into a supernatural monster. This form took over as a cult object and human sacrifices were made to ensure the communion of water and earth. Ponciano Ortíz and María del Carmen Rodriguez uncovered bones of children in El Manatí, a wet bog at the base of a hill twenty kilometers from San Lorenzo.

            Their iconography reveals a blend of myth and natural phenomena. The growth of maize, meteorological events, the motion of astral bodies and animal behavior generated symbolic metaphors that described their cosmic order. These metaphors took the form of zoomorphic super naturals that possessed the ability to cross cosmic boundaries. At Chalcatzingo there is a representation of a rattlesnake with a winged body and head with a bird’s beak and a forked tongue. This is a concept that is later seen in the plumed serpent of Teotihuacán. There’s also a bas-relief in monument 2, showing two masked individuals carrying tools, a third one touching a bundle of vegetation and a fourth one seated, naked, his hands tied and his male organ erect. The scene suggests a ceremonial fertility rite in which the penis of the victim was severed to propitiate the earth with blood.

            Their art was powerful, simple and realistic in their portrayal of humans or anthropomorphisms. They worked with stone, jade, basalt, andesite and serpentine. They developed an artistic style based on Jaguar symbolism, probably because of magical-religious motivations. There is a monument in Potrero Nuevo that shows a woman copulating with a Jaguar. Stirling interpreted this myth as the origin of a race part- human, part-feline resulting in infant were-jaguars. Typically the were-jaguar is portrayed as bald with a cleft at the top; with narrow or oval eyes above which they may be wide brows. The nose is flat; the corners of the mouth are drawn down in a snarl and the toothless gums have the alveolar ridge typical of human babies. Sometimes long feline canine tusks may curve down from the upper gums.

            In architecture we find monumental structures, pyramids with rectangular shapes, basalt columns, stone slabs, steles, and colossal heads that show a high skill of carving and sculpture.  

            The cult of the dead was widespread. People of high rank were buried in funeral mounds or in tombs dressed with jade, earrings and beads. Common folk were buried in holes dug in the ground. They were wrapped in mats and buried in a bent or extended position, sprinkled with cinnabar or red hematite powder and accompanied with figurines and other simple offerings.

            There is evidence of the use of abstract graphic symbols in their glyphs. Monument 13 of La Venta shows symbolic elements that could be interpreted as hieroglyphics.  Stela C at Tres Zapotes shows two columns of glyphs, one of which is a calendar inscription; and the famous Tuxtla statuette, exquisitely sculpted in nephrite, shows lines of glyphs and a calendar inscription that dates from A.D 162.

            It is not clear what caused the decline and disappearance of the Olmec civilization between 300 B.C and A.D 200. Theories include pressure from other populations, arrival of foreign invaders, peasant revolt and conflict over political supremacy. But the reality is that they were the first to develop a series of basic concepts adopted by posterior societies. Such as the idea of a religion based on a cult and ancestors; social distinction in the burial of important figures; the Mesoamerican ballgame; human sacrifices; the working of semi-precious stones; the creation of ceremonial centers; a theocratic form of government; an ordered division of space in their architectural concepts; an advanced technology in monumental sculpture designed for outdoor contemplation; and finally, hieroglyphic writing, numeration and the calendar.

Monumental Olmec Head

Sacred Ceiba Tree

Sacrificial God

The land: Green, Hot and Humid