The Olmec heartland is the southern portion of Mexico's Gulf Coast region between the

Tuxtla mountains The Sierra de Los Tuxtlas (Tuxtlas Mountains) are a volcanic belt and mountain range along the southeastern Veracruz Gulf coast in Eastern Mexico. The Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve (Biósfera Los Tuxtlas) includes the coastal and higher elevation ...

and the

Olmec The Olmecs () or Olmec were an early known major Mesoamerican civilization, flourishing in the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco from roughly 1200 to 400 Before the Common Era, BCE during Mesoamerica's Mesoamerican chronolog ...

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

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 Villaherm ...

, extending roughly 80 km (50 mi) inland from the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

coastline at its deepest. It is today, as it was during the height of the

civilization, a tropical lowland forest environment, crossed by meandering rivers. Most researchers consider the Olmec heartland to be the home of the Olmec culture which became widespread over

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

from 1400

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the o ...

until roughly 400 BCE. The area is also referred to as Olman or the Olmec Metropolitan Zone.See Diehl. The major heartland sites are: *

San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán or San Lorenzo is the collective name for three related archaeological sites—San Lorenzo, Tenochtitlán and Potrero Nuevo—located in the southeast portion of the Mexican state of Veracruz. Along with La Venta and Tre ...

Tres Zapotes Tres Zapotes is a Mesoamerican archaeological site located in the south-central Gulf Lowlands of Mexico in the Papaloapan River plain. Tres Zapotes is sometimes referred to as the third major Olmec capital (after San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán and La ...

Laguna de los Cerros Laguna de los Cerros is a little-excavated Olmec and Classical era archaeological site, located in the vicinity of Corral Nuevo, within the municipality of Acayucan, in the Mexican state of Veracruz, in the southern foothills of the Tuxtla Mount ...

- the least researched and least important of the major sites. Smaller sites include: *

El Manatí El Manatí is an archaeological site located approximately 60 km south of Coatzacoalcos, in the municipality of Hidalgotitlán, Veracruz, Hidalgotitlán 27 kilometers southeast of Minatitlán, Veracruz, Minatitlán in the Administrative divis ...

, an Olmec sacrificial bog. *

El Azuzul El Azuzul is an Olmec archaeological site in Veracruz, Mexico, a few kilometers south of the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán complex and generally considered contemporary with it (perhaps 1100 to 800 BCE). Named for the ranch on which it is located, ...

, on the southern edge of the San Lorenzo area. * San Andrés, near La Venta. Important heartland finds not associated with any archaeological site include: *"The Wrestler", a

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

statue found at Arroyo Sonso (see photo). *

Las Limas Monument 1 Las Limas Monument 1, also known as the Las Limas figure or the Señor de las Limas, is a greenstone figure of a youth holding a limp were-jaguar baby. Found in the State of Veracruz, Mexico, in the Olmec heartland, the statue is famous for i ...

, found by two children looking for somewhere to crack nuts. *

San Martín Pajapan Monument 1 San Martín Pajapan Monument 1 is a large Olmec basalt sculpture found on top of the San Martin Pajapan volcano, in the Tuxtla Mountains of the Mexican state of Veracruz. It is notable for its original location and its Olmec iconography. Descri ...

, found high on the slopes of San Martin Pajapan.

References

Literature

* (1989). "The Olmec Heartland: Evolution of Ideology" in Robert J. Sharer and David Grove (eds.), ''Regional Perspectives on the Olmec''. Cambridge University Press. . * (2004). ''The Olmecs: America's First Civilization''. Thames & Hudson, London. . * (1984). ''The Art and Architecture of Ancient America: The Mexican, Maya and Andean Peoples''. Pelican History of Art, Yale University Press. .

Notes

{{coord, 17, 50, N, 94, 38, W, source:kolossus-nowiki, display=title *Olmec Heartland Geography of Mesoamerica

See also

References

Literature

Notes