Nexus - 1501 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

highly desirable—just as European engineers decided they needed a canal across a narrow area of Central America 200 years ago. The land of Olman highly desirable—just as European engineers decided they needed The Olmecs are said to have occupied "the land of Olman", a —_a canal across a narrow area of Central America 200 years ago. designation that the Aztecs used to describe the jungle areas of the nearby coast. The Olmec heartland is thought to have been an Ole art and architecture area of the Gulf of Mexico on the coastal plain of southern Stone monuments and engravings attributed to the Olmecs have Veracruz and Tabasco states—an area that boasts the greatest been found in lower Central America, central Mexico and the number of Olmec sites and monuments. It is considered to be the — Gulf Coast. Ignacio Bernal has this to say in The Olmec World: most northerly area of the Mayan realms, with such sites as "...In the central depression and, generally speaking, in the Comacalco being among the northernmost Mayan settlements entire state of Chiapas, Olmec remains or others related to it along the Gulf Coast of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. appear constantly, though—as in other regions of Central This Olmec heartland area is about 125 miles (201.2 kilometres) | America—they do not constitute the basis or majority of long and 50 miles (80.5 km) wide, with the Coatzalcoalcos river _ archaeological finds. We are dealing with a culture related to the system running through the middle. It is characterised by swampy — Olmec, though with its own peculiar features. lowlands punctuated by low hill ridges and volcanoes. The Tuxtla "Black ceramics with white rims or spots appear quite frequently. Mountains rise sharply to the north, along the Bay of Campeche. At other sites such as San Agustin and on the Pacific coast of Here the Olmecs constructed permanent city-temple complexes at Chiapas the same ware has been found in scientific explorations. At several locations: San Lorenzo - Santa Cruz it is clearly associated Tenochtitlan (usually referred to with other types belonging to the as just San Lorenzo), Laguna de Olmec complex. At Mirador los Cerros, Tres Zapotes, La abundant Olmec figurines have Mojarra and La Venta. been unearthed. The Olmecs also had great "Even more obviously Olmec influence beyond the heartland, is the stela of Padre Piedra, as Olmec goods have been found which bears a representation of a from Chalcatzingo, far to the standing personage; another man west in the highlands of Mexico, seems to be kneeling in front of to Izapa, on the Pacific coast him. It stands seven feet tall in near what is now Guatemala. In its present state and originally fact, they have been found was even larger. It can be of throughout Mesoamerica, only local fabrication. This stela including south along the Pacific may have been associated with coast of Guatemala and El ceramics corresponding to Salvador and as far away as Periods I and II of Chiapa de Costa Rica and even Panama. Corzo, which are Olmecoid. Over 170 Olmec monuments Another low relief on a rock near have been found within the Batehaton is also markedly heartland area, with 80 per cent Olmec in style, and other Olmec of those occurring at the three objects are to found at numerous largest Olmec centres—La sites such as Simojovel and Venta in Tabasco State plus San Ocozocuautla." Lorenzo and Laguna de los What Bernal is trying to Cerros, both in Veracruz State. establish here is that Olmecs These three major centres are were not just on the Atlantic spaced from east to west across coast but also on the Pacific the domain so that each could 4+ coast of Chiapas. He also says exploit the distinct set of natural An Olmec statue at the Museum of Anthropology, Xalapa, that the Pacific sites may be resources of each area. La Mexico. older than the Atlantic Venta is near the rich estuaries of the coast and could have "heartland" sites and that some Mayan sites in the area, such as provided cacao, rubber and salt. San Lorenzo, at the centre of the Izapa, were originally Olmec. Olmec domain, controlled the vast flood plain area of the One of the most famous statues in the National Museum of Coatzacoalcos basin and riverline trade routes, while the Costa Rica in San José is an Olmec hunchback figure with an westernmost Laguna de los Cerros, adjacent to the Tuxtla elongated cranium and Oriental-type Olmec eyes. Costa Rica is Mountains, is near the important basalt quarries used in the also the site of the perfectly formed granite balls that defy manufacture of metates (corn grinders) and the megalithic statues, explanation. Were they made by the Olmecs in a similar manner prismatic logs and monuments. as the colossal heads? The Olmec heartland is part of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the Given that sites like Tonald and Izapa were early Olmec sites narrowest land area in Mexico, between the Gulf of Mexico and that were later occupied by the Maya, other sites such as Monte the Pacific Ocean. It would have been extremely important if an | Alban, further north towards the Valley of Mexico, can be ocean-to-ocean trade route had been established. Diffusionists assumed to have been first inhabited by the Olmecs and then by (who advocate transoceanic contact between the Americas and later cultures. Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands) maintain that In the 1940s, once they had been established as the oldest important ports were used by ancient seafarers, and an overland culture in Mesoamerica, the Olmecs by default were regarded as trade link between the Pacific and Atlantic ports would have been _ the founders of many of the ancient cities. Essentially, if it could 60 + NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2007 — JANUARY 2008