First elaborate pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica.
The Olmec lived in the lowland gulf coast of what is now southern Mexico. Developing a wide trading network, their cultural influence spread north to the Valley of Mexico and south to Central America; later native religions and iconography throughout Mesoamerica have Olmec roots. Their oldest known building site, San Lorenzo, which dates to с 1150 BC, is remarkable for its colossal stone sculptures of human heads. The dominant motif in Olmec art is the figure of a god that is a hybrid of a jaguar and a human infant. Olmec buildings, monuments, and art style all indicate a complex and nonegalitarian society.