Olmec Civilization

The colossal heads are their most famous work. Seventeen are known, from San Lorenzo, La Venta and Tres Zapotes. The largest is about 3.4 metres tall and weighs close to forty tons. Each face is different, and each wears its own headdress with its own markings, so they are understood as portraits of particular rulers. The basalt came from the Tuxtla Mountains, fifty to eighty kilometres away, and was moved across swamp and river without wheels or draft animals.

Several heads and other monuments were carefully buried. At San Lorenzo, monuments were broken, and some were set in rows and covered over. At La Venta, great offerings of serpentine blocks — hundreds of tons — were laid out in pits in the shape of jaguar masks and then buried, never meant to be seen again.

The were-jaguar is the Olmec image seen most often: a figure joining human and jaguar features, often an infant with a snarling, downturned mouth and a cleft head. Images like it appear in Mesoamerican art for the next two thousand years. The jaguar is the region's greatest predator, at home on land, in water and in the trees.

The book lists three accounts of where the Olmec came from. What excavation has found at their sites is the work of the Gulf Coast lowlands: basalt from the nearby mountains, clay figurines, maize and houses of local materials. The oldest rubber balls known anywhere, from about 1600 BC, were found at El Manatí, a sacred spring near San Lorenzo, with jade axes and wooden figures offered in the water.

The Olmec left no writing that can be read. The name "Olmec" is an Aztec word for the people who lived in that region long afterwards. Everything we know of them comes from what they made. They lived in the tropical lowlands of the Gulf Coast of southern Mexico, Their great centres flourished from about 1200 BC at San Lorenzo to about 400 BC at La Venta.

The colossal heads

The colossal heads are their most famous work. Seventeen are known, from San Lorenzo, La Venta and Tres Zapotes. The largest is about 3.4 metres tall and weighs close to forty tons. Each face is different, and each wears its own headdress with its own markings, so they are understood as portraits of particular rulers.

The heads are made of basalt, a hard, dark volcanic rock. It came from the Tuxtla Mountains, fifty to eighty kilometres away, and was moved across swamp and river without wheels or draft animals. The Olmec had no metal tools. The heads were shaped with harder stone hammers, sand and water.

Buried on purpose

Several heads and other monuments were carefully buried. At San Lorenzo, monuments were broken, and some were set in rows and covered over. At La Venta, great offerings of serpentine (a green stone) — hundreds of tons of blocks — were laid out in pits in the shape of jaguar masks and then buried. They were never meant to be seen again.

The were-jaguar

The were-jaguar is the Olmec image seen most often. It is a figure that joins human and jaguar features, often an infant with a snarling, downturned mouth and a cleft (split) head. Images like it appear in Mesoamerican art for the next two thousand years. The jaguar is the region's greatest predator, at home on land, in water and in the trees.

What the ground shows

The book lists three accounts of where the Olmec came from. What excavation has found at their sites is the work of the Gulf Coast lowlands: basalt from the nearby mountains, clay figurines, maize, and houses of local materials.

The oldest rubber balls known anywhere, from about 1600 BC, were found at El Manatí, a sacred spring near San Lorenzo. They lay with jade axes and wooden figures that had been offered in the water. Olmec jade was worked to great fineness, again without metal, and was carried from as far away as Guatemala.

La Venta's Great Pyramid is one of the earliest pyramids in Mesoamerica. It was built of earth rather than stone and is about 34 metres high.

A block of signs

The Cascajal Block, found in 2006, carries 62 carved signs. It is a single object, and the signs have not been read.

The Olmec lived in the hot, wet lowlands along the Gulf Coast of southern Mexico, more than 3,000 years ago. Their biggest towns were San Lorenzo, La Venta and Tres Zapotes. "Olmec" is not their own name. It is an Aztec word, given long afterwards to the people who lived in that region.

People in the Olmec world

• Rulers — the giant stone heads are understood as pictures of them. Each face is different.
• Sculptors — they carved hard basalt rock using harder stone hammers, sand and water. They had no metal tools at all.
• Stone movers — they brought huge blocks of basalt from mountains 50 to 80 kilometres away, across swamps and rivers, with no wheels and no animals to pull them.
• Jade carvers — they shaped green jade into axes, masks and small figures.
• Farmers — they grew maize.
• Builders — at La Venta they raised the Great Pyramid, made of earth.

Animals

• Jaguar — the biggest hunting cat in the region. It lives on land, swims in water and climbs trees. The Olmec carved many were-jaguars: figures that are part baby and part jaguar.
• Serpents and birds — they appear in Olmec carvings too.

Things they made

• Colossal heads — seventeen giant stone heads are known. The biggest is about 3.4 metres tall, about twice as tall as a grown-up, and weighs close to forty tons. Each wears its own headdress.
• Rubber balls — the oldest rubber balls known anywhere, from about 1600 BC, were found at El Manatí, a sacred spring, together with jade axes and wooden figures.
• Clay figurines — small figures of people.
• Great Pyramid — at La Venta, about 34 metres high, one of the earliest pyramids in Mesoamerica.
• Buried stone pictures — at La Venta, blocks of green serpentine stone were laid out in the shape of jaguar masks, then covered with earth.
• The Cascajal Block — a stone found in 2006 with 62 carved signs. No one can read them yet.

The Olmec did not leave any writing we can read. Everything we know about them comes from what they made.