OLMEC

the first elaborate pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica, and one that is thought to have set many of the fundamental patterns evinced by later Indian cultures of Mexico and Central America. Olmec colossal basalt head in the Museo de la Venta, an outdoor museum near Villahermosa, Tabasco, The Olmec people lived in hot, humid lowlands along the Gulf Coast in what is now southern Veracruz and Tabasco states in southern Mexico. The first evidences of their remarkable art style appear at about 1150 BC in their oldest known building site, San Lorenzo. This site is remarkable for its many stone monuments, prominent among which are colossal carved heads that have characteristic flat faces, thickened lips, and helmetlike headgear (see photograph). A later Olmec ceremonial centre, La Venta (q.v.), is marked by great mounds, a narrow plaza, and several other ceremonial enclosures. The Olmecs developed a wide trading network, and between 1100 and 800 BC their cultural influence spread northwestward to the Valley of Mexico and southeastward to parts of Central America. It is clear that later Mesoamerican native religions and iconography, from all parts of the area, can be traced back to Olmec beginnings. Besides monumental architecture and sculpture, Olmec art is expressed in small jade carvings, pottery, and other media. Its dominant motif is the stylized figure of a god that is a hybrid between a jaguar and a human infant. From the Olmecs' constructions and monuments, as well as from the sophistication and power of their art style, it is evident that their society was complex and nonegalitarian. Olmec stylistic influence disappeared after about 800 BC. Not all of the Olmec sites were abandoned, but Olmec culture gradually changed, and the region ceased to be the cultural leader of Mesoamerica. See also Mesoamerican civilization.