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The name "Olmec" means "rubber people" in Nahuatl, the language of the Nahuas, and was the Aztec term for the people who lived in the Gulf Lowlands in the 15th and 16th centuries, some 2,000 years after the Olmec culture died out.
It wasn't until more sophisticated radiocarbon techniques were developed in the 1950s that Olmec sites were irrefutably dated as preceding the Maya. [ 13 ] La Venta was first excavated by Matthew Stirling and Philip Drucker (assisted by Waldo Wedel in 1943, due to Drucker's military service during WWII) between 1940 and 1943, resulting in ...
La Venta was the last great Olmec centre. Olmec artisans sculpted jade and clay figurines of Jaguars and humans. Their iconic giant heads – believed to be of Olmec rulers – stood in every major city. The Olmec civilization ended in 400 BC, with the defacing and destruction of San Lorenzo and La Venta, two of the major cities.
Characterized by the unusual circular pyramid structure, a unique architectural form in Mesoamerica. Ichkabal. Mexico Structure E4 Maya: 46 Izamal. Mexico Kinich Kakmó Pyramid Maya: 34 400 to 600 CE La Venta. Mexico The Great Pyramid Olmec: 33 394 ± 30 BCE This is one of the earliest pyramids known in Mesoamerica.
What would become the Olmec civilization had its roots in early farming cultures of Tabasco, which began around 5100 to 4600 BC. [163] The emergence of the Olmec civilization has traditionally been dated to around 1600 to 1500 BC. Olmec features first emerged in the city of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, fully coalescing
San Lorenzo and the Olmec heartland.. Matthew Stirling was the first to begin excavations on the site after a visit in 1938. [12] Between 1946 and 1970, four archaeological projects were undertaken, including one Yale University study headed by Michael Coe and Richard Diehl conducted between 1966 and 1968, followed by a lull until 1990.
Structure 102 in Yarumela. In Central America, there were some Olmec influences, the archaeological sites of Los Naranjos and Yarumela in Honduras stand out, built by ancestors of the Lencas, which reflect an architectural influence of this culture on Central American soil.
The Olmec heartland.. Tres Zapotes is a Mesoamerican archaeological site located in the south-central Gulf Lowlands of Mexico in the Papaloapan River plain. Tres Zapotes is sometimes referred to as the third major Olmec capital (after San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán and La Venta), but the Olmec phase is only a portion of the site's history, [1] which continued through the Epi-Olmec and Classic ...