Sistema de comércio olmeca

Sistema de comércio olmeca
Os primeiros sinais de uma sociedade complexa na Mesoamérica eram os olmecas, uma antiga civilização pré-colombiana que vivia nas terras baixas tropicais do centro-sul do México, nos estados mais ou menos modernos de Veracruz e Tabasco. A área é de cerca de 125 quilômetros de comprimento e 50 quilômetros de largura (200 por 80 km), com o sistema do rio Coatzalcoalcos correndo pelo meio. Esses locais incluem San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, a Laguna de los Cerros, Tres Zapotes e La Venta, um dos maiores locais olmecas. La Venta é datada entre 1200 aC até 400 aC, que coloca o maior desenvolvimento da cidade no período formativo médio. Localizada em uma ilha em um pântano litorâneo com vista para o rio Rio Palma, então ativo, a cidade de La Venta provavelmente controlava uma região entre os rios Mezcalapa e Coatzacoalcos.
O domínio olmeca se estendia das montanhas Tuxtlas, no oeste, até as terras baixas do Chontalpa, no leste, uma região com variações significativas de geologia e ecologia. Mais de 170 monumentos olmecas foram encontrados dentro da área, e oitenta por cento deles ocorrem nos três maiores centros olmecas, La Venta, Tabasco (38%), San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, Veracruz (30%) e Laguna de los Cerros, Veracruz. (12%).
Esses três grandes centros olmecas estão espaçados de leste a oeste em todo o domínio para que cada centro possa explorar, controlar e fornecer um conjunto distinto de recursos naturais valiosos para a economia olmeca. La Venta, o centro a leste, fica perto dos ricos estuários da costa, e também poderia fornecer cacau, borracha e sal. San Lorenzo, no centro do domínio olmeca, controlava a vasta área de planície de inundação da bacia de Coatzacoalcos e as rotas comerciais do rio.
A Laguna de los Cerros, adjacente às montanhas de Tuxtlas, está posicionada perto de importantes fontes de basalto, uma pedra necessária para manufaturar manos, metates e monumentos. Talvez as alianças matrimoniais entre os centros olmecas ajudassem a manter essa rede de intercâmbio.
O coração olmeca é um termo arqueológico usado para descrever uma área nas terras baixas do Golfo, que é geralmente considerada o berço da cultura olmeca. Esta área é caracterizada por terras baixas pantanosas pontuadas por colinas baixas, cordilheiras e vulcões. As montanhas de Tuxtlas se elevam acentuadamente no norte, ao longo da Baía do Campeche, no Golfo do México. Ali, os olmecas construíram complexos permanentes de cidade-templo em San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, La Venta, Tres Zapotes e Laguna de los Cerros. Nesta região, a primeira civilização mesoamericana emergiria e reinaria de 1400-400 aC.
O olmeca floresceu durante o período formativo da Mesoamérica, datando aproximadamente de 1400 aC a cerca de 400 aC. Como a primeira civilização mesoamericana, eles colocaram muito do fundamento para as civilizações que se seguiriam. Sua influência foi além do coração - de Chalcatzingo, a oeste nas terras altas do México, até Izapa, na costa do Pacífico, perto do que hoje é a Guatemala, foram encontrados produtos olmecas em toda a Mesoamérica durante esse período.
O que hoje chamamos olmeca aparece pela primeira vez na cidade de San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, onde características olmecas distintas aparecem por volta de 1400 aC. A ascensão da civilização aqui foi assistida pela ecologia local de solos aluviais bem irrigados, bem como pela rede de transporte que a bacia do rio Coatzacoalcos forneceu.
Esse ambiente pode ser comparado ao de outros centros antigos da civilização: os vales do Nilo, do Indo e do Rio Amarelo e a Mesopotâmia. Esse ambiente altamente produtivo estimulou uma população concentrada e densa, que por sua vez desencadeou o surgimento de uma classe de elite.
Foi essa classe de elite que forneceu a base social para a produção dos artefatos de luxo simbólicos e sofisticados que definem a cultura olmeca. Muitos desses artefatos de luxo, como jade, obsidiana e magnetita, vieram de locais distantes e sugerem que as primeiras elites olmecas tinham acesso a uma extensa rede comercial na Mesoamérica. A fonte do jade mais valorizado, por exemplo, é encontrada no vale do rio Motagua, no leste da Guatemala, e a obsidiana olmeca foi atribuída a fontes nas terras altas da Guatemala, como El Chayal e San Martin Jilotepeque, ou em Puebla, distâncias variadas. de 200 a 400 km de distância (120 - 250 milhas de distância), respectivamente.
O primeiro centro olmeca, San Lorenzo, foi praticamente abandonado por volta de 900 aC, aproximadamente na mesma época em que La Venta ganhou proeminência. Uma destruição por atacado de muitos monumentos de San Lorenzo também ocorreu por volta de 950 aC, o que pode indicar uma insurreição interna ou, menos provavelmente, uma invasão. O pensamento mais recente, no entanto, é que as mudanças ambientais podem ter sido responsáveis ​​por essa mudança nos centros olmecas, com certos rios importantes mudando de rumo.
Após o declínio de San Lorenzo, La Venta se tornou o mais importante centro olmeca, com duração de 900 aC até seu abandono por volta de 400 aC. La Venta sustentou as tradições culturais olmecas, mas com demonstrações espetaculares de poder e riqueza. A Grande Pirâmide foi a maior estrutura mesoamericana do seu tempo. Mesmo hoje, depois de 2500 anos de erosão, eleva-se 34 metros acima da paisagem naturalmente plana. Enterrados dentro de La Venta, colocam-se opulentas e intensivas ofertas de trabalho: 1000 toneladas de blocos de serpentina lisos, grandes pavimentos de mosaicos e pelo menos 48 depósitos separados de celeiros de jade polidos, cerâmica, estatuetas e espelhos de hematita.
Não se sabe com clareza o que causou a eventual extinção da cultura olmeca. Sabe-se que entre 400 e 350 aC, a população na metade oriental do coração olmeca caiu precipitadamente, e a área permaneceria esparsamente habitada até o século XIX.
Este despovoamento foi provavelmente o resultado de "mudanças ambientais muito sérias que tornaram a região inadequada para grandes grupos de agricultores", em particular mudanças no ambiente ribeirinho de que os olmecas dependiam para a agricultura, caça e coleta e transporte. Arqueólogos propõem que essas mudanças foram provocadas por convulsões tectônicas ou subsidência, ou pelo assoreamento de rios devido a práticas agrícolas.
Uma teoria para a queda populacional considerável durante o período de formação terminal é sugerida por Santley e seus colegas (Santley et al. 1997) e propõe mudanças no local de assentamento [realocação] devido ao vulcanismo em vez de extinção. As erupções vulcânicas durante os períodos de formação inicial, tardia e terminal teriam coberto as terras e forçado os olmecas a mover seus assentamentos.
Qualquer que tenha sido a causa, dentro de algumas centenas de anos após o abandono das últimas cidades olmecas, as culturas sucessoras haviam se estabelecido firmemente. O sítio de Tres Zapotes, na extremidade ocidental do coração olmeca, continuou a ser ocupado bem depois de 400 aC, mas sem as marcas da cultura olmeca. Essa cultura pós-olmeca, muitas vezes chamada de Epi-olmeca, tem características semelhantes às encontradas em Izapa, a cerca de 550 quilômetros a sudeste.
As formas de arte olmecas enfatizam tanto a estatuária monumental como as pequenas esculturas de jade e jóias. Muita arte Olmeca é altamente estilizada e usa uma iconografia reflexiva do significado religioso das obras de arte. Algumas artes olmecas, no entanto, são surpreendentemente naturalistas, exibindo uma precisão da representação da anatomia humana talvez igualada no Novo Mundo Pré-colombiano apenas pela melhor arte da era maia clássica.
Motivos comuns incluem bocas viradas para baixo e olhos oblíquos parecidos com fendas, ambos os quais podem ser vistos na maioria das representações de "jaguares-jaguares" ou deuses jaquares. O motivo da onça-pintada é caracterizado por olhos amendoados, boca aberta virada para baixo e fenda na cabeça. O sobrenatural do jaguar-incorpóreo incorpora o tema do jaguar-de-sátira bem como outras características, embora vários acadêmicos definam diferentemente o sobrenatural do jaguar-do-ser.
O aspecto mais conhecido do xamanismo na religião mesoamericana e em todo o xamanismo nativo americano é a capacidade de assumir os poderes dos animais associados ao xamã. Tais animais são chamados nahuales, e na arte olmeca o mais comum deles é o jaguar. Em certo sentido, o espírito ideal teria a espiritualidade e intelecto do homem e a ferocidade e força da onça, tudo isso combinado no xamã e seu jaguar nahuale. O Jaguar Child pode exemplificar essa combinação. Esta é uma representação muito comum na arte olmeca, e muitas vezes inclui os olhos e a boca curvos pronunciados neste close-up.
Olmec tem um bebê meio jaguar meio humano.
A cultura olmeca foi definida pela primeira vez como um estilo de arte, e isso continua a ser a marca da cultura. Forjado em um grande número de médiuns - jade, argila, basalto e greenstone, entre outros - muita arte olmeca, como o Wrestler, é surpreendentemente naturalista.
Outra arte, no entanto, revela fantásticas criaturas antropomórficas, muitas vezes altamente estilizadas, usando uma iconografia reflexiva de um significado religioso. Os motivos comuns incluem bocas viradas para baixo e uma cabeça fissurada, ambas as quais são vistas em representações de onças-jaguares.
Além de seres humanos, os artesãos olmecas eram adeptos de representações de animais, por exemplo, a cerâmica antiga Olmec "Bird Vessel" e "Fish Vessel" datando de cerca de 1000 aC. Cerâmicas são produzidas em fornos capazes de exceder aproximadamente 900 & deg; C. A única outra cultura pré-histórica conhecida por ter alcançado temperaturas tão altas é a do Egito Antigo. Pássaro dirigido seres.
Máscaras de Jade.
Outro tipo de artefato é muito menor; esculturas de hardstone em jade de um rosto em forma de máscara. Os curadores e estudiosos referem-se às máscaras faciais "ao estilo olmeca", apesar de serem olmecas em grande estilo, até hoje nenhum exemplo foi recuperado em um contexto olmeca arqueologicamente controlado. No entanto, eles foram recuperados de locais de outras culturas, incluindo um deliberadamente depositado no recinto cerimonial de Tenochtitlan (Cidade do México), que presumivelmente tinha cerca de 2.000 anos quando os astecas o enterraram, sugerindo que estes eram valorizados e coletados como antiguidades romanas. estavam na Europa.
Outra máscara olmeca.
As pequenas figuras nesta cena foram restauradas para o original.
posições em que haviam sido encontrados em La Venta, Tabasco.
Não há resposta definitiva para o que esta cena está encenando.
Deformação craniana iniciada em uma idade precoce.
Figuras Olmecas.
Uma figura rara de uma mulher na arte olmeca, esta figura sentada também é incomum para o seu ornamento de espelho de hematita. Sua pose sentada e espelho, um emblema de autoridade política e religiosa, transmitem seu status de elite. Os espelhos funcionavam como ferramentas de adivinhação, fornecendo acesso simbólico a outros reinos.
Este artigo sobre a estatueta olmeca descreve uma série de figuras arquetípicas produzidas pelos habitantes do período formador da Mesoamérica. Embora muitas dessas figuras possam ou não ter sido produzidas diretamente pelo povo do centro olmeca, elas ostentam as marcas e os motivos da cultura olmeca.
Estas figuras são normalmente encontradas em lixo doméstico, em construções antigas, e (fora do coração olmeca) em sepulturas, embora muitas figuras de estilo olmeca, particularmente aquelas rotuladas como Las Bocas ou Xochipala, foram recuperadas por saqueadores e são, portanto, sem proveniência.
A grande maioria das figuras tem um design simples, muitas vezes nua ou com um mínimo de roupas, e feita de terracota local. A maioria dessas recuperações são meros fragmentos: uma cabeça, um braço, um tronco ou uma perna. Acredita-se que, com base em bustos de madeira recuperados do local aquático de El Manati, as figuras também foram esculpidas em madeira, mas, em caso afirmativo, nenhuma delas sobreviveu.
Mais duráveis ​​e mais conhecidas pelo público em geral são aquelas figuras esculpidas, geralmente com um grau de habilidade, de jade, serpentina, pedra verde, basalto e outros minerais e pedras.
Em março de 2005, uma equipe de arqueólogos usou NAA (análise de ativação de nêutrons) para comparar mais de 1000 artefatos cerâmicos antigos de estilo olmeca mesoamericano com 275 amostras de argila, de modo a "impressão digital" da origem da cerâmica. Eles descobriram que "o Olmec empacotou e exportou suas crenças em toda a região na forma de desenhos e formas cerâmicas especializadas, que rapidamente se tornaram marcas do status de elite em várias regiões do México antigo.
Em agosto de 2005, outro estudo, desta vez utilizando a petrografia, descobriu que as "trocas de navios entre as terras altas e as terras baixas, principalmente os centros, eram recíprocas, ou de duas vias". Cinco das amostras desenterradas em San Lorenzo foram "inequivocamente" de Oaxaca. De acordo com um dos arqueólogos que realizou o estudo, isso "contradiz as recentes afirmações de que a costa do Golfo era a única fonte de cerâmica" na Mesoamérica.
Os resultados do estudo do INAA foram posteriormente defendidos em março de 2006 em dois artigos na Antigüidade da América Latina. Como a amostra do INAA é muito maior que a amostra petrográfica (um total de mais de 1600 análises de matérias-primas e argilas versus aproximadamente 20 seções finas de cerâmica no estudo petrográfico), os autores dos artigos da Latin American Antiquity argumentam que o estudo petrográfico não pode possivelmente derrubar o estudo do INAA.
Cabeças colossais.
Embora as figuras olmecas sejam encontradas abundantemente em locais ao longo do período de formação, são os monumentos de pedra, como as cabeças colossais, que são a característica mais reconhecível da cultura olmeca. Estes monumentos podem ser divididos em quatro classes:
Cabeças colossais "altares" retangulares (tronos mais prováveis) Esculturas em pé livre, como os gêmeos do Monumento El Azuzul ou San Martin Pajapan 1. Estelas, como o Monumento a La Venta 19 acima. A forma das estelas foi geralmente introduzida mais tarde do que as cabeças colossais, altares ou esculturas autônomas. Ao longo do tempo, as estelas passaram da simples representação de figuras, como o Monumento 19 ou La Venta Stela 1, para representações de eventos históricos, particularmente atos de legitimação de governantes. Essa tendência culminaria em monumentos pós-olmecas como La Mojarra Stela 1, que combina imagens de governantes com roteiro e datas do calendário.
O aspecto mais reconhecido da civilização olmeca são as enormes cabeças de capacetes. Como nenhum texto pré-colombiano conhecido os explica, esses monumentos impressionantes têm sido objeto de muita especulação. Uma vez teorizado como jogador de bola, agora é geralmente aceito que essas cabeças são retratos de governantes, talvez vestidos como jogadores de bola. Infundido com a individualidade, não há duas cabeças iguais e os toucados parecidos com capacetes são adornados com elementos distintos, sugerindo alguns símbolos pessoais ou de grupo.
Em 1939, uma escultura foi descoberta perto da cabeça gigantesca com um desenho olmeca característico de um lado e um símbolo de data do outro. Isso revelou uma verdade chocante: os olmecas tinham um direito muito maior de serem considerados a cultura materna. Centenas de anos antes do que se imaginava, aldeias simples haviam dado lugar a uma sociedade complexa governada por reis e padres, com impressionantes centros cerimoniais e obras de arte. Hoje muitos acham o termo "cultura mãe" enganoso, mas claramente os olmecas vieram primeiro.
Outras cabeças megalíticas foram descobertas nos anos seguintes, todas com características faciais africanas. Isso não necessariamente sugere que os fundadores ou líderes da civilização olmeca vieram diretamente da África, já que muitas populações originais de países como o Camboja e as Filipinas têm características semelhantes. Estes podem ter sido trazidos quando os primeiros humanos entraram nas Américas da Ásia.
Muitas cabeças olmecas tinham o símbolo da onça em diferentes headpieces. O jaguar é um símbolo potente que representa as culturas mesoamericanas. O olmec usou o xamã durante um ritual sagrado para se transformar em um jaguar. Eles acreditam que o jaguar era o vivo e o morto. Também achavam que o olmeca claramente imaginava que seus xamãs se transformavam em ocasiões rituais em uma estrutura perfeita que era muito importante para eles. Eles achavam que isso era importante para os deuses, rituais e mitos.
Houve 17 cabeças colossais desenterradas até o momento.
As cabeças variam em tamanho desde a cabeça de Rancho La Cobata, a 3,4 m de altura, até o par em Tres Zapotes, a 1,47 m. Calculou-se que as maiores cabeças pesam entre 25 e 55 toneladas curtas (50 t).
As cabeças eram esculpidas em blocos únicos ou pedregulhos de basalto vulcânico, encontrados nas montanhas de Tuxtlas. As cabeças dos Tres Zapotes, por exemplo, foram esculpidas em basalto, encontradas no cume do Cerro el Vigia, no extremo oeste dos tuxtlas. As cabeças de San Lorenzo e La Venta, por outro lado, provavelmente foram esculpidas no basalto de Cerro Cintepec, no lado sudeste, talvez na oficina próxima de Llano del Jicaro, e arrastadas ou flutuadas até seu destino final a dezenas de quilômetros de distância. Estima-se que mover uma cabeça colossal exigiu os esforços de 1.500 pessoas por três a quatro meses.
Algumas das cabeças, e muitos outros monumentos, foram mutiladas, enterradas e desenterradas, redefinidas em novos locais e / ou reutilizadas. Sabe-se que alguns monumentos, e pelo menos duas cabeças, foram reciclados ou rebocados, mas não se sabe se isso ocorreu simplesmente devido à escassez de pedra ou se essas ações tinham conotações rituais ou outras. Suspeita-se também que alguma mutilação tenha significado além da mera destruição, mas alguns estudiosos ainda não descartam conflitos internos ou, menos provavelmente, invasão como um fator.
Quase todas essas cabeças colossais carregam as mesmas características, nariz achatado, lábios largos e gorro tampando, possíveis características dos reis-guerreiros olmecas. Estas características causaram algum debate devido à sua aparente semelhança com as características faciais africanas. Com base nessa comparação, alguns insistiram que os olmecas eram africanos que haviam emigrado para o Novo Mundo. No entanto, as alegações de contatos pré-colombianos com a África são rejeitadas pela grande maioria dos arqueólogos e outros estudiosos da Mesoamérica.
Explicações para as características faciais das cabeças colossais incluem a possibilidade de que as cabeças foram esculpidas dessa maneira devido ao espaço superficial permitido nos pedregulhos de basalto. Outros observam que, além dos narizes largos e dos lábios grossos, as cabeças têm a dobra de olhos asiática e que todas essas características ainda podem ser encontradas nos modernos índios mesoamericanos. Para apoiar isso, na década de 1940, o artista / historiador de arte Miguel Covarrubias publicou uma série de fotos de obras de arte olmecas e dos rostos dos índios mexicanos modernos com características faciais muito semelhantes. Além disso, a hipótese da origem africana pressupõe que o entalhe olmeca foi concebido para ser realista, uma suposição que é difícil de justificar dado o corpus completo de representação na escultura Olmeca.
Cabeças olmecas.
"The Grandmother", Monumento 5 em La Venta.
Monumento 1, uma das quatro cabeças colossais olmecas em.
Museu de Antropologia de Xalapa em Xalapa, Veracruz.
e tem 2,9 metros de altura e 2,1 metros de largura.
Monumentos também eram uma característica importante dos centros olmecas. Hoje eles nos dão uma ideia da natureza da ideologia olmeca. As cabeças colossais estão comandando retratos de governantes olmecas individuais, e o grande símbolo exibido no "capacete" de cada cabeça colossal parece ser um motivo de identificação para essa pessoa. Cabeças colossais glorificavam os governantes enquanto eles estavam vivos, e os comemoravam como reverenciados ancestrais após a morte deles.
Altar no La Venta.
Altar 5, La Venta. O bebê inerte-onça-pintada, segurado pela figura central, é visto por alguns como uma indicação de sacrifício infantil.
Os altares eram na verdade os tronos dos governantes olmecas. A escultura na frente do trono mostra o governante identificado sentado em um nicho que simboliza a entrada de uma caverna aos poderes sobrenaturais do submundo. Essa cena comunicou ao povo a associação de seu governante com o poder cosmológico.
Inovações notáveis.
Além de sua influência com culturas mesoamericanas contemporâneas, como a primeira civilização na Mesoamérica, os olmecas são creditados, ou especulativamente creditados, com muitos "primeiros", incluindo a sangria e talvez sacrifício humano, escrita e epigrafia, e a invenção de zero e o calendário mesoamericano e o jogo de bola mesoamericano, assim como talvez a bússola. Alguns pesquisadores, incluindo o artista e historiador de arte Miguel Covarrubias, até postulam que os olmecas formularam os precursores de muitas das últimas divindades mesoamericanas.
Sangria e Sacrifício.
Embora não exista uma representação explícita do derramamento de sangue olmeca no registro arqueológico, há, ainda assim, um forte argumento de que os olmecas praticaram ritualisticamente. Numerosos espinhos de arraias naturais e cerâmicas e espinhos de maguey, por exemplo, foram encontrados em locais olmecas, e certos artefatos foram identificados como soro de sangue.
O argumento de que os olmecas instituíram o sacrifício humano é significativamente mais especulativo. Ainda não foram descobertos artefatos sacrificiais olmecas ou olmecas e não há obras de arte olmecas ou olmecas que mostrem inequivocamente vítimas sacrificiais (semelhante, por exemplo, às figuras danzantes de Monte Albán) ou cenas de sacrifícios humanos (tais como ser visto no famoso mural de quadra de bola de El Tajin).
No entanto, no local de El Manati, crânios desarticulados e fêmures, bem como esqueletos completos de crianças recém-nascidas ou não nascidas foram descobertos em meio a outras ofertas, levando a especulações sobre o sacrifício infantil. Ainda não se sabe, porém, como as crianças encontraram suas mortes. Alguns autores também associaram o sacrifício infantil à arte ritual olmeca, mostrando os bebês flácido-jaguar, mais notoriamente no Altar 5 de La Venta (à esquerda) ou na figura de Las Limas. Qualquer resposta definitiva precisará aguardar novas descobertas.
Religião e Mitologia.
Monumento 19, de La Venta, a primeira representação conhecida de.
Antigamente pensava-se que os olmecas adoravam apenas um deus, uma divindade da chuva representada como um "jaguar", mas o estudo mostrou que havia pelo menos 10 deuses distintos representados na arte olmeca. No presente estavam várias divindades importantes do panteão Meso-americano, mais tarde estabelecido, como o deus do fogo, o deus da chuva, o deus milho / milho e a Serpente Emplumada.
As atividades religiosas olmecas foram realizadas por uma combinação de governantes, sacerdotes em tempo integral e xamãs. Os governantes parecem ter sido as figuras religiosas mais importantes, com suas ligações com as divindades olmecas ou sobrenaturais, dando legitimidade ao seu governo. Há também evidências consideráveis ​​para os xamãs no registro arqueológico olmeca, particularmente nas chamadas "figuras de transformação".
A mitologia olmeca não deixou documentos comparáveis ​​ao Popul Vuh da mitologia maia e, portanto, qualquer exposição da mitologia olmeca deve basear-se em interpretações de arte monumental e portátil sobrevivente e comparações com outras mitologias mesoamericanas. A arte olmeca mostra que divindades como a Serpente Emplumada e uma chuva sobrenatural já estavam no panteão mesoamericano nos tempos olmecas.
A serpente emplumada pode ser encontrada em toda a mitologia mesoamericana - também conhecida como Quetzalcoatl, Kukulcán, Viracocha, entre outros deuses desempenhados pela mesma alma em vários disfarces. Pirâmides da Mesoamérica.
Deus do milho, homem das colheitas.
A autoridade divinamente sancionada derivava da relação íntima entre a agricultura de milho e os rituais realizados para garantir sua abundância. Os primeiros reis foram retratados usando a regalia do Deus do milho, incorporando o poder sagrado que garantia colheitas abundantes. Esta figura ricamente vestida de um lorde olmeca é um dos primeiros retratos desse tipo. Acima de sua cabeça, ele usa a máscara de fenda do Deus Olmeca do milho.
O homem das colheitas é uma figura de fertilidade na mitologia mesoamericana. Entre os olmecas, os deuses são frequentemente descritos com uma fenda distinta na testa, talvez identificando essa característica como divina. Um celeiro esculpido de Veracruz mostra uma representação de Deus II, ou o deus do milho, cultivando milho de sua fenda, e também mostra este deus com a face rosnada associada à onça pintada (Coe 1972: 3). Ele era um homem ou menino humano que escolheu dar sua vida para que seu povo pudesse cultivar comida. O heróico Homem das Culturas é às vezes orientado ou auxiliado por uma figura divina do outro mundo.
Este rei está vestido como o deus do milho. Ele está sentado de pernas cruzadas, em uma posição de governante que remonta ao Olmeca, e o letreiro foliado em torno de sua boca pode designá-lo como um senhor ou governante. Ele segura um pacote aberto em suas mãos.
Este mascarado inciso revela um rosto de estilo olmeca coberto com padrões de rolagem na bochecha e um ícone de milho no centro da testa. O milho era um potente símbolo de riqueza para os olmecas.
Jaquar Deus do submundo.
Algumas pessoas acreditam que a divindade principal era fundamentalmente um deus da Terra, embora seu poder não estivesse limitado a questões terrestres, e assumisse a forma de um jaguar. Este Deus poderia ter uma persona terra-água. Como um jaguar englobando as forças da vida ou pelo menos um domínio em suas duas categorias mais fortes (com relação à vida olmeca), água e terra. Esta divindade supostamente tinha domínio sobre todas as coisas terrestres e celestes. Este Deus pode ter sido meio jaguar, meia serpente, "eram jaguares". O jaguar representa a Mãe Terra com a serpente representando a água, combinando-se assim para representar a vida.
A imagem olmeca do espírito da chuva aparece frequentemente na mitologia das culturas que se sucedem. Invariavelmente, o espírito da chuva é masculino, embora ele possa ter uma esposa que compartilhe autoridade sobre as águas. Muitas vezes ele é percebido como uma criança ou um jovem, às vezes como um anão. Ele também pode ser retratado como um poderoso deus da chuva, com muitos ajudantes.
Nas tradições asteca e maia, o senhor da chuva é um espírito mestre, assistido por vários ajudantes. Seu nome na língua asteca é Tlaloc e seus ajudantes são "tlaloque". Os maias do Yucatán reconhecem Chaac e os "chacs". Na área guatemalteca, esses espíritos são frequentemente associados a deuses de trovões e relâmpagos, bem como de chuva. Os espíritos da chuva são conhecidos como Mam e os "mams" entre os mopan de Belize. Em algumas tradições, como no caso do Pipil de El Salvador, a figura do mestre está faltando, e os mitos se concentram em "crianças da chuva" ou "meninos da chuva". Os nahua modernos consideram esses numerosos espíritos anões, ou "pessoas pequenas". No estado de Chiapas, as pessoas de Zoque relatam que os espíritos da chuva são muito antigos, mas parecem meninos.
Acredita-se que os olmecas sejam uma das primeiras tribos a se envolver em rituais xamanísticos. A tribo olmeca acreditava que o jaquar era uma divindade da chuva e da fertilidade. O jaquar foi escolhido porque os olmecas acreditavam que era o animal mais poderoso e temido. Eles também acreditavam que o Jaquar era um Avatar dos vivos e dos mortos. Os homens sacrificariam sangue para a onça, usariam máscaras, dançariam e estalariam chicotes para imitar o som do trovão. Este ritual foi feito em maio. O olmeca também fazia oferendas de figuras de jade ao jaguar. Os olmecas fizeram numerosas estátuas representando os homens "eram, Jaquar". Estes homens são normalmente mostrados com caretas faciais Jaquar com corpos humanos. Acredita-se que sejam homens da tribo olmeca, que estão se transformando no Jaquar. Um desses Xamãs transformadores pode ser visto na estátua "Figura Agachada de um Homem-Jaquar".
É uma figurinha quase preta de um homem que se ergue de um joelho no êxtase da transformação. A figura de transformação mostra as características humanas e felinas brilhantemente fundidas. A cabeça e as orelhas permanecem humanas, mas a coroa da cabeça é lisa, como se estivesse raspada. As características do seu rosto parecem fluir umas para as outras e as órbitas oculares são largas e profundamente entediadas. Estendido por linhas incisas acima dos olhos, as sobrancelhas esculpidas são semelhantes às sobrancelhas de chama e significam o derramamento da pele.
Na figura da figura em pé de um Were-Jaquar, outro Xamã é visto no processo de transformação. Esta figura está com uma perna para a frente para contrabalançar a ligeira torção do corpo. Os braços são estendidos e cada mão é enrolada em um punho, semelhante a uma postura de boxe. Esta figura tem quase exatamente as mesmas características da "figura agachada" que representa o êxtase da transformação. Suas mãos e pés estão superdimensionados para antecipar as patas do Jaquar.
Em ambas as figuras, as características faciais torturadas têm a intenção de transmitir, não ferocidade e agressividade, mas estresse emocional além da tolerância. É precisamente o tipo de crise fisicamente e mentalmente desgastante, a travessia do limiar entre dois mundos, a espécie de realidade, se você quiser, isso é parte e prática do xamanismo extático em toda parte. O cruzamento e transformação no mais poderoso predador da floresta tropical e do Cerrado.
A transformação foi provocada por uma série de atividades que poderiam incorporar cantando ou cantando para a divindade Jaguar. O xamã dançaria e cantaria um mantra para o mundo espiritual e também usaria o ritmo de uma surra. Acredita-se também que o olmeca também ingeriria uma droga "alteradora da mente" que intoxicaria o xamã e o tornaria tonto. O tabaco em pó, que também era usado para conseguir a transformação, podia ser inalado diretamente pelo nariz ou moído com cal para fazer um chumaço de mascar. A evidência para apoiar isto pode ser vista na Figura Oca nesta estátua que um homem é visto usando um cachimbo de cachimbo feito de pequenas cabaças.
Os xamãs "jaguar-jaguar" também eram associados e representados em poses acrobáticas, o que representa a agilidade do felino. Acreditava-se que os xamãs tinham a capacidade de virar para trás e se transformar antes de aterrissarem. Houve um número de figuras encontradas, que incorporam poses acrobáticas. Na figura das estátuas, com os pés na cabeça e o vaso na forma de um contorcionista. Os xamãs são mostrados em poses complexas e complicadas. Os xamãs parecem muito confortáveis ​​e conseguem cada pose com facilidade.
Árvore do mundo, árvore da vida.
Glifo Olmeca 900-500 aC: Museu de Dallas.
Há cerca de 3.000 anos, os anciãos e líderes das comunidades agrícolas da Mesoamérica estabeleceram uma visão compartilhada de seu mundo. Esses sábios da civilização olmeca gravaram seu credo em artefatos de pedra polida e depois esfregaram tinta vermelha nos padrões. Este é um código que poderia ser lido por qualquer sábio que conhecesse a religião. Esta placa reina a história da criação. Ele mostra a Árvore do Mundo brotando da Montanha da Criação, no Lugar das Três Pedras, o centro do céu noturno, o céu renovado, o mountian e a terra renovada, e o Três-Pedra-Coloque o lar, o lugar do Primeiro Pai. Renascimento como milho.
Estela de Izapa, o olmeca reconheceu a Árvore da Vida.
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Frei Diego de Landa que o povo olmeca fez doze migrações para o Novo Mundo. O famoso historiador maia Ixtlixochitl, que os olmecas chegaram ao México em "barcos de latidos" e desembarcaram em Pontochan, que começaram a povoar. Esses negros são freqüentemente retratados nos livros / escritos maias que transportam mercadorias comerciais. A árvore representa sete ramos e doze raízes. Os sete ramos provavelmente representam os sete maiores clãs do povo olmeca. As doze raízes que se estendem para dentro da água do barco provavelmente significam as "doze estradas através do mar", mencionadas por Frei Diego Landa.
Another Version of the Tree of Life.
The Olmec may have been the first civilization in the Western Hemisphere to develop a writing system. Symbols found in 2002 and 2006 date to 650 BCE and 900 BCE respectively, preceding the oldest Zapotec writing dated to about 500 BCE.
The 2002 find at the San Andres site shows a bird, speech scrolls, and glyphs that are similar to the later Mayan hieroglyphs. Known as the Cascajal Block, the 2006 find from a site near San Lorenzo, shows a set of 62 symbols, 28 of which are unique, carved on a serpentine block. A large number of prominent archaeologists have hailed this find as the "earliest pre-Columbian writing". Others are skeptical because of the stone's singularity, the fact that it had been removed from any archaeological context, and because it bears no apparent resemblance to any other Mesoamerican writing system.
There are also well-documented later hieroglyphs known as "Epi-Olmec," and while there are some who believe that Epi-Olmec may represent a transitional script between an earlier Olmec writing system and Mayan writing, the matter remains unsettled.
Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar and Invention of the Zero Concept.
The Olmecs were clever mathematicians and astronomers who made accurate calendars.
The back of Stela C from Tres Zapotes.
This is the second oldest Long Count date yet discovered. The numerals 7.16.6.16.18 translate to September 3, 32 BCE (Julian). The glyphs surrounding the date are one of the few surviving examples of Epi-Olmec script. This is one of the earliest uses of the zero concept in history.
The Long Count calendar used by many subsequent Mesoamerican civilizations, as well as the concept of zero, may have been devised by the Olmecs. Because the six artifacts with the earliest Long Count calendar dates were all discovered outside the immediate Maya homeland, it is likely that this calendar predated the Maya and was possibly the invention of the Olmecs. Three of these six artifacts were found within the Olmec heartland. But an argument against an Olmec origin is the fact that the Olmec civilization had ended by the 4th century BCE, several centuries before the earliest known Long Count date artifact.
The Epi-Olmec who unhabited the same land, and were probably descended at least in part from the Olmec, seem to have been the earliest users of the 'bar and dot' system of recording time.
Detail of Long Count Date.
The low relief on this stone shows the detail from a four-digit numerical recording, read as 15.6.16.18. The vigesimal (or base-20) counting system has been used across Mesoamerica. A value of 5 is represented by a bar, and a value of 1 is represented by a dot, such that the three bars and single dot here stands for 16. The Maya would later adopt this counting system for their Long Count calendar.
Mesoamerican Ballgame.
The Olmec, whose name means "rubber people" in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs, are strong candidates for originating the Mesoamerican ballgame so prevalent among later cultures of the region and used for recreational and religious purposes. A dozen rubber balls dating to 1600 BCE or earlier have been found in El Manati, an Olmec sacrificial bog 10 kilometres east of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan. These balls predate the earliest ballcourt yet discovered at Paso de la Amada, circa 1400 BCE, although there is no certainty that they were used in the ballgame.
Ethnicity and Language.
While the actual ethno-linguistic affiliation of the Olmec remain unknown, various hypotheses have been put forward. For example, in 1968 Michael D. Coe speculated that the Olmec were Mayan predecessors.
In 1976 linguists Lyle Campbell and Terrence Kaufman published a paper in which they argued a core number of loanwords had apparently spread from a Mixe-Zoquean language into many other Mesoamerican languages.
Campbell and Kaufman proposed that the presence of these core loanwords indicated that the Olmec generally regarded as the first "highly civilized" Mesoamerican society - spoke a language ancestral to Mixe-Zoquean. The spread of this vocabulary particular to their culture accompanied the diffusion of other Olmec cultural and artistic traits that appears in the archaeological record of other Mesoamerican societies.
Mixe-Zoque specialist Soren Wichmann first critiqued this theory on the basis that most of the Mixe-Zoquean loans seemed to originate from the Zoquean branch of the family only. This implied the loanword transmission occurred in the period after the two branches of the language family split, placing the time of the borrowings outside of the Olmec period. However new evidence has pushed back the proposed date for the split of Mixean and Zoquean languages to a period within the Olmec era.
Based on this dating, the architectural and archaeological patterns and the particulars of the vocabulary loaned to other Mesoamerican languages from Mixe-Zoquean, Wichmann now suggests that the Olmecs of San Lorenzo spoke proto-Mixe and the Olmecs of La Venta spoke proto-Zoque.
At least the fact that the Mixe-Zoquean languages still are, and are historically known to have been, spoken in an area corresponding roughly to the Olmec heartland, leads most scholars to assume that the Olmec spoke one or more Mixe-Zoquean languages.
Social and Political Organization.
Little is directly known about the societal or political structure of Olmec society. Although it is assumed by most researchers that the colossal heads and several other sculptures represent rulers, nothing has been found like the Maya stelae which name specific rulers and provide the dates of their rule.
Instead, archaeologists relied on the data that they had, such as large - and small-scale site surveys. These provided evidence of considerable centralization within the Olmec region, first at San Lorenzo and then at La Venta - no other Olmec sites come close to these in terms of area or in the quantity and quality of architecture and sculpture.
This evidence of geographic and demographic centralization leads archaeologists to propose that Olmec society itself was hierarchial, concentrated first at San Lorenzo and then at La Venta, with an elite that was able to use their control over materials such as water and monumental stone to exert command and legitimize their regime.
Nonetheless, Olmec society is thought to lack many of the institutions of later civilizations, such as a standing army or priestly caste. And there is no evidence that San Lorenzo or La Venta controlled, even during their heyday, all of the Olmec heartland. There is some doubt, for example, that La Venta controlled even Arroyo Sonso, only some 35 km away. Studies of the Tuxtla Mountain settlements, some 60 km away, indicate that this area was composed of more or less egalitarian communities outside the control of lowland centers.
The wide diffusion of Olmec artifacts and "Olmecoid" iconography throughout much of Mesoamerica indicates the existence of extensive long-distance trade networks. Exotic, prestigious and high-value materials such as greenstone and marine shell were moved in significant quantities across large distances. While the Olmec were not the first in Mesoamerica to organise long-distance exchanges of goods, the Olmec period saw a significant expansion in interregional trade routes, more variety in material goods exchanged and a greater diversity in the sources from which the base materials were obtained.
Village Life and Diet.
Despite their size, San Lorenzo and La Venta were largely ceremonial centers, and the majority of the Olmec lived in villages similar to present-day villages and hamlets in Tabasco and Veracruz.
These villages were located on higher ground and consisted of several scattered houses. A modest temple may have been associated with the larger villages. The individual dwellings would consist of a house, an associated lean-to, and one or more storage pits (similar in function to a root cellar). A nearby garden was used for medicinal and cooking herbs and for smaller crops such as the domesticated sunflower. Fruit trees, such as avocado or cacao, were likely available nearby.
Although the river banks were used to plant crops between flooding periods, the Olmecs also likely practiced swidden (or slash-and-burn) agriculture to clear the forests and shrubs, and to provide new fields once the old fields were exhausted.
Fields were located outside the village, and were used for maize, beans, squash, manioc, sweet potato, as well as cotton. Based on archaeological studies of two villages in the Tuxtlas Mountains, it is known that maize cultivation became increasingly important to the Olmec over time, although the diet remained fairly diverse.
The fruits and vegetables were supplemented with fish, turtle, snake, and mollusks from the nearby rivers, and crabs and shellfish in the coastal areas. Birds were available as food sources, as were game including peccary, opossum, raccoon, rabbit, and in particular deer. Despite the wide range of hunting and fishing available, midden surveys in San Lorenzo have found that the domesticated dog was the single most plentiful source of animal protein.
The name "Olmec" means "rubber people" in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec, and was the Aztec name for the people who lived in the Gulf Lowlands in the 15th and 16th centuries, some 2000 years after the Olmec culture died out. The term "rubber people" refers to the ancient practice, spanning from ancient Olmecs to Aztecs, of extracting latex from Castilla elastica, a rubber tree in the area. The juice of a local vine, Ipomoea alba, was then mixed with this latex to create rubber as early as 1600 BCE.
Early modern explorers and archaeologists, however, mistakenly applied the name "Olmec" to the rediscovered ruins and artifacts in the heartland decades before it was understood that these were not created by people the Aztecs knew as the "Olmec", but rather a culture that was 2000 years older. Despite the mistaken identity, the name has stuck.
It is not known what name the ancient Olmec used for themselves; some later Mesoamerican accounts seem to refer to the ancient Olmec as "Tamoanchan". A contemporary term sometimes used to describe the Olmec culture is tenocelome, meaning "mouth of the jaguar".
History of Scholarly Research.
Olmec culture was unknown to historians until the mid-19th century. In 1869 the Mexican antiquarian traveller JosЋ Melgar y Serrano published a description of the first Olmec monument to have been found in situ. This monument - the colossal head now labelled Tres Zapotes Monument A - had been discovered in the late 1850s by a farm worker clearing forested land on a hacienda in Veracruz.
Hearing about the curious find while traveling through the region, Melgar y Serrano first visited the site in 1862 to see for himself and complete partially exposed sculpture's excavation. His description of the object, published several years later after further visits to the site, represents the earliest documented report of an artifact of what is now known as the Olmec culture.
In the latter half of the 19th century, Olmec artifacts such as the Kunz Axe (right) came to light and were subsequently recognized as belonging to a unique artistic tradition.
Frans Blom and Oliver La Farge made the first detailed descriptions of La Venta and San Martin Pajapan Monument 1 during their 1925 expedition. However, at this time most archaeologists assumed the Olmec were contemporaneous with the Maya - even Blom and La Farge were, in their own words, "inclined to ascribe them to the Maya culture".
Matthew Stirling of the Smithsonian Institution conducted the first detailed scientific excavations of Olmec sites in the 1930s and 1940s. Stirling, along with art historian Miguel Covarrubias, became convinced that the Olmec predated most other known Mesoamerican civilizations.
In counterpoint to Stirling, Covarrubias, and Alfonso Caso, however, Mayanists Eric Thompson and Sylvanus Morley argued for Classic-era dates for the Olmec artifacts. The question of Olmec chronology came to a head at a 1942 Tuxtla Gutierrez conference, where Alfonso Caso declared that the Olmecs were the "mother culture" ("cultura madre") of Mesoamerica.
Shortly after the conference, radiocarbon dating proved the antiquity of the Olmec civilization, although the "mother culture" question generates much debate even 60 years later.
Olmecs in the News .
This photo and drawing illustrate a recently discovered 3,000-year-old Olmec-style stone monument from Ojo de Agua, the site of an early planned settlement in what is now the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. The carved monument provides information about Olmec culture in the area and includes symbols of maize, deities or other important figures, and possible features of the natural world. With one arm raised and a determined scowl, the figure looks ready to march right off his carved tablet and into the history books. If only we knew who he was - corn god? Tribal chief? Sacred priest?
Archaeologist Lynneth Lowe and a worker clean the skull of an elite individual found in a tomb atop a three-story-tall pyramid in Chiapa de Corzo (map), Mexico. The 2,700-year-old site is the oldest known pyramid tomb in Mesoamerica, which roughly encompasses modern-day Mexico and Central America, according to archaeologists who announced the discovery today. The pyramid is a window into how and when the unique culture called the Zoque emerged from the Olmec, one of the oldest civilizations in the New World, said excavation leader Bruce Bachand. The Olmec began fanning out from their Gulf of Mexico homeland around 1200 B. C. The culture influenced many Mesoamerican civilizations to come - although to what extent is a long-standing debate among archaeologists.
Archaeologists in southern Mexico say they have discovered a 2,700-year-old tomb of a dignitary inside a pyramid that may be the oldest such burial documented in Mesoamerica. The tomb held a man aged around 50, who was buried with jade collars, pyrite and obsidian artifacts and ceramic vessels. Archaeologist Emiliano Gallaga said the tomb dates to between 500 and 700 B. C.
A 2,500-year-old city influenced by the Olmecs often referred to as the Mother Culture of Mesoamerica has been discovered hundreds of miles away from the Olmecs' Gulf coast territory, archaeologists said. Located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Mexico City, the ruins, called Zazacatla, are hundreds of miles from the Gulf of Mexico coast region generally associated with the Olmec.
Mexico monolith may cast new light on Mesoamerica CNN - May 8, 2006, Mexico City.

Olmec Civilization.
Definição.
published on 30 August 2013.
The mysterious Olmec civilization prospered in Pre-Classical (Formative) Mesoamerica from c. 1200 BCE to c. 400 BCE and is generally considered the forerunner of all subsequent Mesoamerican cultures such as the Maya and Aztecs. Centred in the Gulf of Mexico (now the states of Veracruz and Tabasco) their influence and trade activity spread from 1200 BCE, even reaching as far south as present-day Nicaragua. Monumental sacred complexes, massive stone sculpture, ball games, chocolate drinking and animal gods were features of Olmec culture which would be passed on to all those who followed this first great Mesoamerican civilization.
The Olmec civilization presents something of a mystery, indeed, we do not even know what they called themselves, as ‘Olmec’ was their Aztec name and meant ‘rubber people’. Due to a lack of archaeological evidence their ethnic origins and the location and extent of many of their settlements are not known. The Olmecs did, however, codify and record their gods and religious practices using symbols. The precise significance of this record is much debated but, at the very least, its complexity does suggest some sort of organised religion involving a priesthood. The Olmec religious practices of sacrifice, cave rituals, pilgrimages, offerings, ball-courts, pyramids and a seeming awe of mirrors, was also passed on to all subsequent civilizations in Mesoamerica until the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century CE.
Propaganda.
Major Centres.
Olmec prosperity was initially based on exploiting the fertile and well-watered coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico to grow such crops as corn and beans (often twice-yearly) which allowed for an agricultural surplus. They also, no doubt, gathered the plentiful local supply of plant food, palm nuts and sea-life, including turtles and clams. By c. 1200 BCE significant urban centres developed at San Lorenzo (the earliest), La Venta, Laguna de los Cerros, Tres Zapotes and Las Limas. San Lorenzo reached its peak of prosperity and influence between 1200 and 900 BCE when its strategic position safe from flooding allowed it to control local trade. Typical Olmec trade goods included obsidian, jade, serpentine, mica, rubber, pottery, feathers and polished mirrors of ilmenite and magnetite.
Evidence of San Lorenzo’s high culture includes the presence of mound structures, possibly an early ball court, carved basalt drains through one of the man-made mounds and the Red Palace structure with painted red floors and workshops. Around 900 BCE the site of San Lorenzo displays evidence of systematic destruction whilst La Venta, conversely, began to flourish, and becoming the new capital, it eventually supported a population of some 18,000.
The three sites of San Lorenzo, La Venta and Laguna de los Cerros all had a bilateral symmetry in their planning and at La Venta the first pyramid in Mesoamerica was constructed. It is the pre-meditated architectural layout of the religious centres of these settlements that is most striking, for example, at La Venta the buildings are placed symmetrically along a north-south axis with four colossal heads facing outwards at key points, seemingly acting as guardians to the complex. A huge ceremonial step pyramid (now a shapeless mound), sunken plaza once lined with 2 metre high basalt columns, and two smaller pyramids/mounds provide features that would be copied time and again at the major sites of later Mesoamerican cultures with whom equal attention was paid to the precise alignment of buildings. La Venta, as with San Lorenzo, suffered systematic and deliberate destruction of its monuments sometime between 400 and 300 BCE.
Propaganda.
As with other areas of Olmec culture, details of their religion are sketchy. Nevertheless, with an ever-increasing archaeological record it is possible to piece together some of the most important features of Olmec religion. The Olmecs seem to have had a particular reverence for natural places which connected with the important junctions of sky, earth and the underworld. For example, caves could lead to the underworld and mountains which had both springs and caves could offer access to all three planes. Important Olmec mountain sites were El Manatί, Chalcatzingo and Oxtotitlan.
The names of the gods of the Olmec are not known other than that they often represented phenomena such as rain, the earth and especially maize. For this reason, identifiable gods from Olmec art have been given numbers instead of names (e. g. God VI). The Olmecs gave special significance to the animals present in their environment, especially those at the top of the food chain such as jaguars, eagles, caimans, snakes and even sharks, identifying them with divine beings and perhaps also believing that powerful rulers could transform themselves at will into such fearsome creatures. The Olmecs also liked to mix animals to create weird and wonderful creatures such as the were-jaguar, a cross between a human and a jaguar, which may have been their supreme deity. We also know that they worshipped a sky-dragon and that they believed four dwarves held up the sky, possibly representing the four cardinal directions which, along with other Olmec gods, became so important in later Mesoamerican religions.
Propaganda.
The most striking legacy of the Olmec civilization must be the colossal stone heads they produced. These were carved in basalt and all display unique facial features so that they may be considered portraits of actual rulers. The heads can be nearly 3 m high and 8 tons in weight and the stone from which they were worked was, in some cases, transported 80 km or more, presumably using huge balsa river rafts. 17 have been discovered, 10 of which are from San Lorenzo. The ruler often wears a protective helmet (from war or the ballgame) and sometimes show the subject with jaguar paws hanging over the forehead, perhaps representing a jaguar pelt worn as a symbol of political and religious power. The fact that these giant sculptures depict only the head may be explained by the belief in Mesoamerican culture that it was the head alone which bore the soul.
Another permanent record of the Olmecs is found in rock carvings and paintings. Often made around cave entrances they most typically depict seated rulers, as for example at Oxtotitlan, where a figure wears a green bird suit and at Chalcatzingo where another ruler sits on her throne surrounded by a maize landscape. At other sites there are also paintings of cave rituals, for example, at Cacahuazqui, Juxtlahuaca and Oxtotlan.
Jade and ceramic were other popular materials for sculpture and also wood, some examples of which were remarkably well preserved in the bogs of El Manati. One of the gods most commonly rendered in small sculpture was God IV, sometimes called the Rain Baby, who is a toothless human baby with an open-mouth, cleft head and headband, sometimes with the addition of strips of crinkled paper hanging at the side of his face (another feature seen in the gods of later cultures and representing the paper and rubber sap strips which were burnt during rites as the smoke was thought to propitiate rain).
Perhaps the most significant jade carving is the Kunz Axe, a ceremonial axe-head now in the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The jade has been worked to represent a were-jaguar creature using only jade tools and then polished, perhaps using a jade abrasive. Animals were a popular subject, especially those most powerful ones such as jaguars and eagles. Intriguingly, the Olmecs often buried their sculptures, even larger pieces, perhaps in a ritual act of memory.
The Olmecs influenced the civilizations they came into contact with across Mesoamerica, particularly in sculpture in ceramic and jade and objects featuring Olmec imagery have been found at Teopantecuanitlan, 650 km distant from the Olmec heartland. In addition, many deities featured in Olmec art and religion such as the sky-dragon (a sort of caiman creature with flaming eyebrows) and the feathered-snake god, would reappear in similar form in later religions. The snake-god especially, would be transformed into the major gods Kukulcan for the Maya and Quetzalcoatl for the Aztecs. This artistic and religious influence, along with the features of precisely aligned ceremonial precincts, monumental pyramids, sacrificial rituals and ball-courts, meant that all subsequent Mesoamerican cultures would owe a great deal to their mysterious forerunners, the Olmecs.
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Cartwright, M. (2013, August 30). Olmec Civilization. Enciclopédia da História Antiga. Retrieved from ancient. eu/Olmec_Civilization/
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Cartwright, Mark. "Olmec Civilization." Enciclopédia da História Antiga. Last modified August 30, 2013. ancient. eu/Olmec_Civilization/.
Cartwright, Mark. "Olmec Civilization." Enciclopédia da História Antiga. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 30 Aug 2013. Web. 16 de fevereiro de 2018.
Written by Mark Cartwright, published on 30 August 2013 under the following license: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Esta licença permite que outros remixem, ajustem e desenvolvam este conteúdo não comercialmente, desde que creditem o autor e licenciam suas novas criações sob termos idênticos.
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Olmec trade system

Since there were many different areas to the empire, it lead to different land types and ability of natural resources. Specifically, three central areas of the Olmec empire had access to different natural resources: San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Tres Zapotes. Notably, La Venta granted the Olmec civilization access to maritime resources such as seafood (fish and other animals), seaweed, and shells, as well as other unique assets such as cacao and rubber. The Olmec were able to find basalt from the Tuxtla Mountains and transport them between their various cities. As a noteworthy point, it’s strongly believed that the Olmec were the pioneers in tapping rubber trees to refine and use to produce various goods.
As previously acknowledged, the Olmec used their man-made goods as well as their natural resources to establish long-range trade relationships among all of Mesoamerica. On top of all these natural boons, the Olmec, like all Mesoamerican societies, developed a variety of agricultural crops to grow and use. This included gourds like squash, avocados, beans, yams, and various grains, however the primary crop nurtured and utilized by the Olmec was maize. Slash-and-burn agriculture and strategic usage of river levees were key in maximizing agricultural effectiveness, with the former used to bolster soil fertility and the latter used to drench fields to ensure the health of crops.

Olmec trade system

The Olmecs: An African Presence in Early America.
[Excerpt from a larger article]
By Paul A. Barton.
'According to an archeologist who recently participated in archeological work in Mexico, One of the most ancient civilizations in the Americas, the Black (Negritic) Olmecs developed a calendar that goes back to about 3,113 years Before Christ. The archeologist who appeared on the Art Bell show made that point.
The ancient "Olmecs" of Mexico and Mesoamerica are one of the most intriguing civilizations of the Americas . In fact, they are the first civilization in Mexico and it was from them that all other civilizations in Mesoamerica followed. Yet, the fact that the Olmecs were most likely a Black civilization of African origins has not been made public and the "Indian" elements in Mexico have gained more prominence to the extent that the Negroid substrata of the ancient Mexican/Mesoamerican civilizations has been kept hidden. Yet, over the past many years, various levels of proof have been found linking the "Olmecs" to Africans in the Western part of Africa .'
Studies done by researchers such as Ivan Van Sertima (They Came Before Columbus), Alexander Von Wuthenau (Unexpected Faces in Ancient America), Runoko Rashidi and others have presented evidence that clearly show that the Olmecs were not Indians with "baby faces," or Indians who looked like Blacks (although a few Olmecs did mix with the Native Americans). They were Africans no different from Africans found in the Mende regions of West Africa .
Studies done by Clyde Winters show that the Olmecs used the Mende script, a writing system used among the Mandinkas and other Africans in West Africa . When the writings on Olmec monuments were translated, it was found that the language spoken by the Olmecs was Mende.
The Olmecs practiced a religion and astronomical sciences identical to those practiced by Africans in the Mali region and Nigeria today. The Olmecs studied the Venus Complex in astronomy. Today, the Ono and Bambara who are famous sea and river travelers have studied that same complex for thousands of years. In fact, another group the Dogon is well known for their tracking and mapping of the Sirius star system and their accurate results.
The Olmecs also had a religious practice of Thunder worship where the ax was a prominent feature. In West Africa , the ax is also a prominent feature in connection with the Shango or Thunder God worship. Both the Olmecs and the Shango worshippers in West Africa placed an emphasis on the religious significance of children in their religious practices.
The Olmecs Were Related To Blacks Of The Mende Group Of West Africa.
Cinque the leader of the rebellion on the Amistad was a Mende]
The Olmecs carved about twenty-two colossal stone heads in the southern parts of Mexico and their influence have been found in Guatemala and further south. Olmec type sculptures have also been found in parts of the U. S. , (The Washitaw Nation of Louisiana ), where another prehistoric Black nation (who still has members and land today) existed.
Various cultural clues and traces unique to Africa as well as the living descendants of prehistoric and ancient African migrants to the Americas continue to exist to this very day. The Washitaw Nation of Louisiana, the Garifuna or Black Caribs of the Caribbean and Central America is another, the descendants of the Jamasse who live in Georgia and the surrounding states is another group. There are also others such as the Black Californian of Queen Calafia fame, the Black Amazon Queen mentioned in the book Journey to Esplandian, by Ordonez de Montalvo during the mid 1500's.
The Olmecs and Washitaw, Black Californians, Jamassee, Califunami and other pre-columbian Blacks of the Americas were part of a prehistoric trade network that began in Africa and spread worldwide over 100,000 years ago and at various periods afterwards. According to the book, Susu Economics The History of Pan-African Trade, Commerce, Money and Wealth, these Blacks found in the Americas , as well as remnants of their ancient civilizations are not a myth or fairytale.
The ancient Blacks of the Americas are the missing pieces of a large puzzle that would be solved if many of today's writers, scientists, historians and archeologists were not as biased or "embarrassed," like the Mexican archeologists who found out without a doubt, that the Olmecs of Mexico were Black Africans and they introduced the first astronomical calendar to Mexico about 3,113 years Before Christ.
Not only is there an ancient Black African presence and contribution to the creation of civilization and culture in prehistoric and ancient America, but there also is such a presence and contribution in Mesopotamia (Nimrod a son of Kush developed the region, it is said), Sabea/Arabia, India, Cambodia, Southern China and Melanesia/South Pacific region.
African Cultural Similarities.
The Olmecs used an African practice that is very common in Africa and to some extent in Melanesia . That practice is body scarification and specifically facial scarification as practiced in West Africa . Many of the facial scars seen on the Olmec terracotta faces, such as "dot" keloids and "lined" patterns are identical to Africans such as the Dinka of Sudan and the Yoruba and others of West Africa . (Dinka scarification can be found in old copies of National Geographic. Olmec scarification can be found in the text by "Alexander Von Wuthenau, Unexpected Faces in Ancient America."
African hairstyles such as cornrows are found on many of the Olmecs terracotta found in Mexico . Both kinky hair carved into one of the colossal stone heads of basalt, as well as the cornrowed style wearing tassels (see African Presence in Early America, by Ivan Van Sertima; Transaction Publishers), have been found.
The "cornrow" factor clearly shows that these Blacks who were in Mexico in prehistoric times most likely came from the West Africa/South Sahara region, rather than Melanesia . It is in West Africa that cornrows are very common and have been since prehistoric times.
Olmecs Introduced The First Aspects Of Meso-American Civilization.
The Great Pyramid - Mayan.
The Black Olmecs were the first to build "Pyramids" in Mexico , although these were built of mud and one was more cone-shaped then actually pyramidal. The Olmecs apart from carving 22 colossal stone heads dating to about 1100 B. C, also created thousands of work of art throughout Mesoamerica . Olmec terracotta art show people involved in a variety of activities from wrestling to pottery making.
According to author and historian Indus Khamit Cush in his book, ( what they never told you in history class ), a conpendeum of listed quotations.
'In his scholarly work, Mayan and Mexican origins, he contended that groups of nine [9] gods were frequently mentioned in the Pyramid Texts of ancient Egypt . E. in America we have nine[9] Lords of the night frequently recorded in Mexico .'
John G. Jackson, Man, God and Civilization.
The burial chamber of King Unas(2375-2345 BC)
the walls inscribed with the first ever 'Pyramid Texts'
the oldest religious literature in the world.
In wonderful Egypt , on the desert plateau of Saqqara 10 miles southeast of the Great Pyramid, five very similar pyramids have survived for some forty-two centuries. They are filled inside with over four thousand vertical columns of hieroglyphs, cut into their solid rock walls.
These are the Pyramid Texts which appear quite suddenly in just two centuries between 2356 BC and 2152 BC. They are found mostly in the 5th Dynasty pyramid of King Un-is and the 6th Dynasty pyramids of Teti, Pepi I, Merenr'a and Pepi II.
The writings in all five pyramids are clearly distributed in four matching instruction locations corresponding to the Great Pyramid Entrance Passage, Queen's Chamber, Grand Gallery and King's Chamber. The five Kings evidently wanted to have a kind of stenographic record of the words which must have been said countless times in each Great Pyramid location while facing in different directions.
Egyptologists are fond of saying that the Great Pyramid is mute, with no Hieroglyphs cut into its walls. But this is really not quite true. Every upper passage, chamber, gallery and shaft inside the Great Pyramid of Giza is an incredibly old, unmistakable, megalithic Hieroglyph for the words seba and rut for "Ensouling Star door" and "Tunnel Opening gate." They are unmistakably reproduced in the Pyramid Texts of Saqqara. Egyptologists should have told the world about these architectural hieroglyphs long ago. It might have removed much needless speculation about the Great Pyramid.
Soleb city in Nubia.
Among the many Black Nations of the U. S. before and after Columbus were and are:
The Washitaw of the Louisiana/Midwest.
The Black Californians (Calafians.
A number of other Black Negroid peoples mentioned in the works of I. Rafinesque ("Black Nations of America," Atlantic Journal and Friend Knowledge; Philadelphia 1832; p. 86: Also I. Rafinesque, pgs. 121, 186, 187, 194, 208, 209:
Rafinesque was a naturalist who explored and took accurate documentation of his works throughout the U. S. In mentioning Negroes, Blacks, Moors, Ethiopians. explorers such as Rafinesque referred to Negro Black Africans, not dark-skinned "Indians."
The Olmecs and China.
The Olmecs and their civilization is discussed throughout this great work. Olmec origins are in West Africa and Egypt-Nubia. Their arrival goes back before 3000 years B. C., when an Egyptian-Nubian calendar is introduced to Mexico . The Mende or Shi People form the dominant language and culture in Olmec Mexico. Their alphabet, language and religion dominates Olmec Mexico.
The many mysteries about Old World visits to the Americas has been thoroughly researched and is part of this well-written work. There are many facts that we have never learned in school. For example, the most ancient civilization in the Americas were the Black Mound-building "Giants" of the Mississippi Valley . They are still in existence today and are called the Washitaw Nation.
Indian of Panama.
Kneeling [Wasitaw] with helmet.
The earliest people in the Americas were people of the Negritic African race, who entered the Americas perhaps as early as 100,000 years ago, by way of the Bering straight and about thirty thousand years ago in a worldwide maritime undertaking that included journeys from the then wet and lake filled Sahara towards the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, and from West Africa across the Atlantic Ocean towards the Americas. According to the Gladwin Thesis, this ancient journey occurred, particularly about 75,000 years ago and included so called Black Pygmies, Black Negritic peoples and Black Australoids similar to the Aboriginal Black people of Australia and parts of Asia, including India .
This stone belt was used by the Olmec ballplayers to catch the impact of the rubber balls in their ball games. This face is typical Negritic, including the eyes which seem to "slant," a common racial characteristic in West Africa, the Sahara and in South Africa among the Kong-San (Bushmen) and other Africans.
Copy of information from:
Subject: Black Sailors Among the Ancient Mayans Black Sailors Among the Ancient Mayans.
A One Drop Middle Passage Message.
In what is now Southeastern Mexico, in 918 AD, artistic representations and hieroglyphs were painted on the walls of the Temple of the Warriors (Templo de Los Guerreros) in the ancient Mayan city of Chich n Itza depicting black skin men paddling, poling and sitting as passengers in river canoes. There are other brown skin men and women doing various things on land on these same walls, and there are light complexioned people doing various things also, such as paddling black skin warriors. Chich n Itza is in the Northernmost part of the State of Yucatan . It is served by a harbor island named Isla Cerritos, which though small (200 meter diameter) possessed a bustling town that functioned as a stopover and trading post for early boat traffic. It is situated between what is now the Mexican States of Vera Cruz, Tabasco , Campeche , and from the Southern side of the peninsula Honduras , Guatemala , Belize and the State of Quintana Roo .
What is important to note about this little island on the top of the Yucatan Peninsula is the concept that the Olmecs might have been the original settlers, since legend has it that they came by ship and were traders. The Olmecs are represented by those African head statues in Tabasco and Vera Cruz. Amongst the products passed along this route were honey, cotton, corn, obsidian, jade, turquoise, spices, cacao and going in both directions were slaves. Because of this last word [slaves] no question is raised about the black warriors and sailors nor brown merchants. It is sort of like when you have eight African heads and one Phoenician carved representation Thor Heyerdahl tried to find how the Phoenician arrived in the " New World ". As a matter of fact, if you see Heyerdahl s possible pre-Columbian routes they circle Africa but does not touch it. So it seems that the black warriors being paddled by light skin Mayans are not important enough to investigate, I mean they were probably warrior slaves, right?
Even if they were warrior slaves wouldn t that be worth studying? These Mayan trade routes connected at trading posts to footpaths called sac-be to the cities on the interiors. Except for the trading posts on the coasts most cities were inland sot he coasts have not been seriously studied and until tourism took over from commerce these routes were utilized into the late 20th Century. This brings in the Garifuna, or Black Caribb of the late 18th Century and their 40-foot double masted sailing canoes and the thoroughly mixed and very independent Miskitos and their 30 to 50-foot sailing canoes. Nobody is specifically studying any of this maritime heritage. The term canoe is thought to be of Mayan origin yet the word seems one of those universal sounds that you hear everywhere. The design is basic with subtle features but generally a trunk is cut down of a particular type of tree. It is hollowed by first chopping at its center then burning and chopping at the burn weakened part, then turned over and shaped to fit the circumstance, such as lake, lagoon, bay, river, coastal ocean or deep sea. We were and are sailing in the Caribbean Basin , South America, Africa, India , Southeast Asia , Micronesia , Melanesia and Polynesia . We have designed vessels that have withstood the changes of time that are classics. We have invented, developed and refined much of what the sailing world keeps going back to. And yet we, collectively, think this important part of our history and an important career alternative belongs to another culture of a very different hue.
One Drop, H. E. Ross.
'That's my blood down there!' Neville Brothers.
The Maya connection:
Most of us are familiar with the Mayan civilization of Yucatan and Central America , since American archaeologists have devoted many years of intensive research to these territories. Among the speculations concerning the origin of this culture, those of LePlongeon and Raquena are the most valuable. Professor Rafael Requena, a Venezuelan archaeologist, holds that there was once an island in the Atlantic Ocean, of continental dimensions, known to the ancients as Atlantis, that this island was settled by Egyptians, who in turn established colonies in America before the submergence of Atlantis. The findings of Professor Augustus LePlongeon are of great interest.
This Franco-American archaeologist discovered the ruins of a palace in Chich n Itza in 1874. He found in this structure, known as Prince Coh's Palace , pictographs and inscriptions which he was able to decipher. The story, as unraveled by LePlongeon, may be read by the student in Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx, where the professor gives his interpretation of the inscriptions and reproductions of the pictographs. Mrs. LePlongeon's work, Queen Moo's Talisman, might also be consulted. The story runs roughly as follows:
The foregoing story sounds like a fable, but there is probably a core of fact in it. If the Sphinx, with its Ethiopian face, is a memorial to an ancient Mayan prince, it shows that the Mayas were of African origin.
Where flows the river Nile ,
Queen Moo's Daughters.
'The struggle for truth continues.
"When we will get tired of saying it's just a coincidence?"

Ancient Olmec Trade and Economy.
The Olmec culture thrived in the humid lowlands of Mexico's gulf coast from about 1200-400 B. C. They were great artists and talented engineers who had a complex religion and worldview. Although much information about the Olmecs has been lost to time, archaeologists have succeeded in learning much about their culture from several excavations in and around the Olmec homeland. Among the interesting things they have learned is the fact that the Olmec were diligent traders who had many contacts with contemporary Mesoamerican civilizations.
Mesoamerican Trade before the Olmec.
By 1200 B. C., the people of Mesoamerica – present-day Mexico and Central America – were developing a series of complex societies. Trade with neighboring clans and tribes was common, but these societies did not have long-distance trade routes, a merchant class, or a universally accepted form of currency, so they were limited to a down-the-line sort of trade network. Prized items, such as Guatemalan jadeite or a sharp obsidian knife, might well wind up far from where it was mined or created, but only after it had passed through the hands of several isolated cultures, traded from one to the next.
The Dawn of the Olmec.
One of the accomplishments of Olmec culture was the use of trade to enrich their society. Around 1200 B. C., the great Olmec city of San Lorenzo (its original name is unknown) began creating long-distance trade networks with other parts of Mesoamerica.
The Olmec were skilled artisans, whose pottery, celts, statues, and figurines proved popular for commerce. The Olmecs, in turn, were interested in many things that were not native to their part of the world. Their merchants traded for many things, including stones such as basalt, obsidian, serpentine and jadeite, commodities such as salt and animal products such as pelts, bright feathers, and seashells.
When San Lorenzo declined after 900 B. C., it was replaced in importance by La Venta, whose merchants re-invented many of the same trade routes their forebears had used.
Olmec Economy.
The Olmec needed basic goods, such as food and pottery, and luxury items such as jadeite and feathers for making ornaments for rulers or religious rituals. Most common Olmec “citizens” were involved in food production, tending fields of basic crops such as maize, beans, and squash, or fishing the rivers that flowed through the Olmec homelands. There is no clear evidence that the Olmecs traded for food, as no remains of foodstuffs not native to the region have been found at Olmec sites. The exceptions to this are salt and cacao, which were possibly obtained through trade. There appears to have been a brisk trade in luxury items such as obsidian, serpentine and animal skins, however.
The Olmec and the Mokaya.
The Mokaya civilization of the Soconusco region (southeastern Chiapas in present-day Mexico) was nearly as advanced as the Olmec. The Mokaya had developed Mesoamerica's first known chiefdoms and established the first permanent villages. The Mokaya and Olmec cultures were not too far apart geographically and were not separated by any insurmountable obstacles (such as an extremely high mountain range), so they made natural trade partners.
The Mokaya evidently respected the Olmec, as they adopted Olmec artistic styles in sculpture and pottery. Olmec ornaments were popular in Mokaya towns. Through their Mokaya trading partners, the Olmec had access to cacao, salt, feathers, crocodile skins, jaguar pelts and desirable stones from Guatemala such as jadeite and serpentine.
The Olmec in Central America.
Olmec commerce extended well into present-day Central America: there is evidence of local societies having contact with the Olmec in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. In Guatemala, the excavated village of El Mezak yielded many Olmec-style pieces, including jadeite axes, pottery with Olmec designs and motifs and figurines with the distinctive ferocious Olmec baby-face. There is even a piece of pottery with an Olmec were-jaguar design.
In El Salvador, many Olmec-style knick-knacks have been found and at least one local site erected a man-made pyramid mound similar to Complex C of La Venta. In Honduras, the first settlers of what would be the great Maya city-state of Copán showed signs of Olmec influence in their pottery.
The Olmec and the Tlatilco.
The Tlatilco culture began to develop about the same time as the Olmec. The Tlatilco civilization was located in central Mexico, in the area occupied by Mexico City today. The Olmec and Tlatilco cultures evidently were in contact with one another, most likely through some sort of trade, and the Tlatilco culture adopted many aspects of Olmec art and culture. This may have even included some of the Olmec gods, as images of the Olmec Dragon and Banded-eye god appear on Tlatilco objects.
The Olmec and Chalcatzingo.
The ancient city of Chalcatzingo, in present-day Morelos, had extensive contact with La Venta-era Olmecs. Located in a hilly region in the Amatzinac River valley, Chalcatzingo may have been considered a sacred place by the Olmec. From about 700-500 B. C., Chalcatzingo was a developing, influential culture with connections with other cultures from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The raised mounds and platforms show Olmec influence, but the most important connection is in the 30 or so carvings that are found on the cliffs that surround the city. These show a distinct Olmec influence in style and content.
Importance of Olmec Trade.
The Olmec were the most advanced civilization of their time, developing an early writing system, advanced stonework and complicated religious concepts before other contemporary societies.
For this reason, they had great influence on those cultures with which they came into contact.
The Olmec trade networks are of great interest to archaeologists and historians. One of the reasons the Olmec were so important and influential - to some, the "mother" culture of Mesoamerica - was the fact that they had extensive contact with other civilizations from the valley of Mexico well into Central America. These other groups, even if they did not all embrace Olmec culture, were at least in contact with it. This gave many disparate and widespread civilizations a common cultural reference.
Coe, Michael D and Rex Koontz. Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs. 6th Edition. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2008.
Diehl, Richard A. The Olmecs: America's First Civilization. London: Thames and Hudson, 2004.

Olmec trade system

Modern theory: elites and rulers descended from a few families that were able to increase their wealth by acquiring the best farmland, thus allowing them to take control. Once the power was in the hands of the select people, priests emerged.
In the the Olmec society following this change, priests and rulers were practically identical. Priests came from the powerful families and they themselves held the most wealth and best lands. Priests eventually became known as Shaman-Kings or Priest-Kings with supposed divine powers. A religion formed to justify the power of the Shaman-Kings, it described their power as something given to them by the gods.
Economic Structure.
San Lorenzo - the area for farmers. San Lorenzo had many rivers and flood plains with a lot of rain producing fertile soils. This allowed food production to increase. Not only did the rivers provide water for crops, they were also used as routes for trade.
These centers of economy shared their resources for the benefit of the entire society.