2561 AM · 1200 BCE · world history
The Olmecs
On the Gulf coast of Mexico the Olmec culture takes shape, with colossal stone heads and the first cities.
In the swampy lowlands by the Gulf of Mexico rise the centres of San Lorenzo and La Venta, with earthen platforms and plazas. The Olmecs carve heads of human height and greater from basalt boulders, hauling the stone tens of kilometres without draft animals or the wheel. Here appear the first counting signs in Mesoamerica and the ritual ball game, along with images of deities that the Maya and other peoples would later repeat. The Olmec tradition is often called the mother culture of the whole region.
Sources
Documents of the period
- the colossal heads and monuments of San Lorenzo and La Venta — the basalt heads themselves and the raised platforms
Scholarship
- archaeology of pre-Columbian America — the Olmec as the “mother culture” of Mesoamerica
Basis: documents and evidence.