![San Andres Cylinder Seal print 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/San_Andres_Cylinder_Seal_print_1.svg)
San Andrés is an
Olmec
The Olmecs () were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they occupied the tropical lowlands of the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that ...
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...
in the present-day
Mexican state
The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which is officially named Mexico, United Mexican States. There are 32 federal entities in Mexico (31 states and the capital, Mexico City, as a sepa ...
of
Tabasco
Tabasco (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tabasco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tabasco), is one of the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa.
It is located in ...
. Located 5 km (3 miles) northeast of the Olmec ceremonial center of
La Venta
La Venta is a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Olmec civilization located in the present-day Mexican state of Tabasco. Some of the artifacts have been moved to the museum "Parque - Museo de La Venta", which is in nearby Villahermosa, t ...
in the Grijalva river delta section of the Tabasco Coastal Plain, San Andrés is considered one of its elite satellite communities, with evidence of elite residences and other elite activities. Several important archaeological finds have been made at San Andrés, including the oldest evidence of the domesticated
sunflower, insight into Olmec feasting rituals, didactic miniatures, and possible evidence of an Olmec
writing system
A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable form ...
.
Mary Pohl, funded by The Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI), has been a crucial part of conducting ceramic analysis and collecting evidence of feasting vessels and early Olmec writing on greenstone plaques and ceramic roller stamps.
Overview
The earliest evidence of human activity at San Andrés –
maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
(''Zea'' species) pollen and extensive
charcoal deposits from
swidden (slash-and-burn) agriculture – has been dated to 5300 BCE. At that time, the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
was further inland and San Andrés was the site of beach ridges and barrier lagoons, features that are today some 15 km to the north.
Later evidence of human habitation includes pollen dated to 4600 BCE, seeds from 2600 BCE, and evidence of maize cultivation from 2000 BCE.
![Olmec Heartland Overview 4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Olmec_Heartland_Overview_4.svg)
The first evidence of Olmec occupation has been dated to 1350 BCE, an occupation that lasted some 150 years (until 1200 BCE), with an ensuing hiatus lasting until roughly 900 BCE. Continuously occupied over the following 550 years, San Andrés was finally abandoned some time before 350 BCE. This date roughly coincides with the abandonment of the La Venta and the dissolution of the Olmec culture.
Early traces of domesticated plants
San Andrés is notable for the ancient pollen and seeds recovered there. Although the humid rainy tropical lowlands have made quick work of organic substances, including Olmec skeletal remains, the multi-disciplinary research team delved below the
water table
The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated.
T ...
, hoping that the preservative nature of water-logged soil would enable them to retrieve ancient samples.
Their findings include:
*Early maize (''Zea'' species) pollen from as early as 5100 BCE.
*A single
manioc
''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated ...
pollen grain dated to roughly 4600 BCE. Since manioc pollen is rare in sediments, its discovery was either "fortuitous, or abundant stands of manioc were growing close to the site".
*A domesticated sunflower seed and fruit dated to roughly 2650 BCE and 2550 BCE respectively. This is the earliest record yet of the domesticated sunflower.
*Cotton (''
Gossypium
''Gossypium'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Gossypieae of the mallow family, Malvaceae, from which cotton is harvested. It is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Old and New Worlds. There are about 50 ''Gossypiu ...
'') pollen from roughly 2500 BCE. The researchers suggest that this cotton was domesticated, although wild cotton does occur naturally along the Gulf Coast to the east.
Evidence of Elite Feasting
“In Formative period Mesoamerica, high-status goods were significant components of cultural practice and a source of social, political, and ideological power.” Seinfeld (2007) asserts that “early complex societies often used feasting as a way for individuals to gain followers and to assert their status” and that this occurred at San Andres. This study is particularly interesting because the researchers used sound and updated methods to determine social facts concerning feasting at a site where little is conclusively known about social structures. Maize and cacao were detected due to their distinctive biomarkers including C4 signature plant carbon for maize and nitrogen containing organic compounds for cacao. “Discoveries include patterns of maize use suggestive of its use as an elite feasting food and beverage rather than as a dietary staple. Further results suggest possible evidence of Olmec cacao use.” During the Middle Formative period
feasting allowed the elite to demonstrate their power and enhance their status and identity, as the consumption of alcohol had ritualistic and spiritual meaning among the elites. Cocoa, maize-alcohol, and “elite-foods” gave these gatherings special significance and provides definite proof that there was an elite class in San Andres, and, by extension, La Venta.
Didactic Miniatures
Pohl (2005) and her colleagues found plenty of evidence to suggest that miniature representations of everyday objects were used ritualistically. “These miniatures may have been crafted with the express purpose of composing didactic or ritual reenactments of crucial mythic or conventionalized historic events much in the same fashion as La Venta Offering 4.” Other elite-religious-status denoting objects (greenstone artifacts, jewelry, maskettes, iron-ore mirrors, etc.) were found at San Andres. “A contextual comparison suggests that, like the La Venta prestige artifacts, the San Andrés sumptuary items were significant components of ceremonial activity.”
Indications of an Olmec writing system
![Proposed Olmec glyphs (San Andres)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Proposed_Olmec_glyphs_%28San_Andres%29.svg)
Excavations at San Andrés in 1997 and 1998 produced three artifacts that many archaeologists contend demonstrate that the Olmec civilization used a true writing system. These artifacts, dated roughly to 650 BCE (the middle of the Olmec concentration at La Venta and San Andres), were found in a refuse dump, the remains from a festival or feast. “The fact that the artifacts with glyphs were found in the context of feasting refuse suggest that writing among the Olmec was sacred and was closely tied to ritual activities.”
The most important find was a fist-sized ceramic cylinder seal, likely used to print cloth. When rolled out, the seal shows two
speech scroll
In art history a speech scroll (also called a banderole or phylactery) is an illustrative device denoting speech, song, or other types of sound.
Developed independently on two continents, the device was in use by artists within Mesoamerican cult ...
s emanating from a bird, followed directly by a number of design elements enframing what has been interpreted as logograms for “king (sideways U shape),” "3 (three dots, according to the Mesoamerican bar and dots numbering system),” and “Ajaw (from the sacred 260-day calendar)", a designation used for both a calendar date and, in keeping with Mesoamerican custom, the name of an Olmec ruler.
In addition to the ceramic cylinder seal, two fingernail-sized fragments from a greenstone plaque have been recovered, each containing an incised glyph. Both these glyphs have been linked to well-documented glyphs in other Mesoamerican writing systems, including the Isthmian and Maya scripts.
[Pohl, et al. p. 1984-1985]
See also
*
El Manatí
El Manatí is an archaeological site located approximately 60 km south of Coatzacoalcos, in the municipality of Hidalgotitlán 27 kilometers southeast of Minatitlán in the Mexican state of Veracruz. El Manatí was the site of a sacred Olm ...
- an Olmec archaeological site where, like San Andrés, water-logged soil also preserved organic artifacts
Notes
References
* "Script Delivery: New World writing takes disputed turn" in ''Science News'', Vol. 162, No. 23, December 7, 2002, p. 355.
*
*
* , and (2004)
Olmec Civilization at San Andres, Tabasco, Mexico, Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. (FAMSI), accessed October 2007.
*
* , and ;
Origin and Environmental Setting of Ancient Agriculture in the Lowlands of Mesoamerica, ''
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
'', 18 May 2001:Vol. 292. no. 5520, pp. 1370–1373.
*
*
*
*
External links
A comprehensive catalogue of figurines (or rather figurine fragments)recovered at San Andrés, with fine photos. Books and articles focus on the more artistic and complete figurines, while this collection details the entire range of figurines (or more precisely figurine fragments).
{{DEFAULTSORT:San Andres
Olmec sites
Former populated places in Mexico