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Partly because the Olmecs developed the first Mesoamerican civilization, and partly because little is known of them compared to later Mesoamerican civilizations such as the Maya or Aztec, a number of Olmec alternative origin speculations have been put forth.
It has been suggested that this Isthmian or Epi-Olmec script is the direct predecessor of the Maya script, thus giving the Maya script a non-Maya origin. Another artifact with Epi-Olmec script is the Chiapa de Corzo stela which is the oldest monument of the Americas inscribed with its own date: the Long Count on the stela dates it to 36 BCE.
The oldest texts date to approximately 1000 BCE (namely Olmec and Zapotec), though most texts in the indigenous scripts (such as Maya) date to c. 600–900 CE. Following the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, and continuing up until the 19th century, most Mesoamerican languages were written in Latin script .
Specifics concerning Olmec religion are a matter of some conjecture. Early researchers found religious beliefs to be centered upon a jaguar god. [4] This view was challenged in the 1970s by Peter David Joralemon, whose Ph.D. paper [citation needed] and subsequent article posited what are now considered to be 8 different supernaturals.
During the Preclassic period, 2000 BCE – 250 CE, Maya skull modification imitated the head form of Olmec gods depicted throughout Olmec artwork. [12] With the use of new and different techniques emerging in the Classic period, 250-900 CE, new cranial modification styles were endured, possibly as an indicator of membership within a kin group ...
Data collected from the air with lasers led to the discovery of hundreds of ancient sites in Mexico, dating back to the Olmec and Maya civilizations.
Kʼawiil (Maya) - Some similarities with Tezcatlipoca, but also connected with lightning and agriculture, and exhibits serpentine features. Huītzilōpōchtli (Aztec) - Preeminent god and tutelary deity of the Aztecs in Tenochtitlan, where his temple with adjoined Tlaloc's atop a great pyramid constituting the dual Templo Mayor. Deity of the ...
Very little Olmec or other Early Formative era art shows war or sacrifice. [20] No stelae have been found extolling rulers' victories, unlike the later Maya or the contemporaneous Egyptian or Hittite cultures. Olmec colonization, that is the founding of new settlements by Olmec emigrants outside of the Olmec heartland, is unlikely.