Olmec tribe. Olmec

The Olmec civilization has undoubted confirmation of its existence in the form of archaeological finds. But the secrets of its origin and death have not been solved by scientists to this day. The name “Olmec” itself is conventionally taken from the historical chronicles of the Aztecs, where there are references to one of the tribes of this civilization with this name. The word "Olmec" translated from the Mayan language means "inhabitant of the land of rubber."

The Olmecs lived in what is now southern and central Mexico. More ancient traces of civilization date back to 1400 BC. e. In the city of San Lorenzo, the remains of a large (possibly the main) Olmec settlement were found. But there were other settlements, the largest of which were in the places of La Venta and Tres Zapotes.

Many researchers consider the Olmecs to be the ancestors of other Meso-American civilizations, which is confirmed in Indian legends. What is certain is that the Olmecs are one of the earliest cultures of Central America.

Artifacts discovered

Based on the discovered artifacts, it is possible to judge that the Olmecs developed construction, art, and trade. Their pyramids, palaces, tombs, temples, mounds, water supply systems and huge monuments in the form of stone heads have survived to this day. The first such head was discovered in 1862 near the settlement of Tres Zapotes, after which a research “boom” began regarding the Indian culture discovered in the forests of Mexico (although immediately after the discovery it was believed that this was the “head of an African,” or, as it is also called now, “the head of an Ethiopian”).

This famous head was completely dug up only in 1939–1940. As it turned out, the height of the stone head is 1.8 m, and the circumference is 5.4 m, and this huge monument is carved from a single piece of basalt. To this day, it remains a mystery how such a large piece of rock was delivered to the place where the statue is now located, if the nearest basalt deposit is located tens of kilometers from this place (the Olmecs, according to archaeologists, did not know wheels and did not have draft animals) .

Subsequently, 16 more such heads were discovered, up to 3 m high and weighing up to 20 tons each. Most scientists believe that these heads depicted the leaders of the Olmec tribes. But some modern researchers believe that the giant heads could not have been made by the Olmecs, but by representatives of earlier civilizations: for example, the legendary Atlanteans, while the Olmecs themselves were only the descendants of these civilizations and the “guardians” of huge statues.

In the first half of the 20th century, archaeologists from Mexico discovered the city of Sin Cabezas, which translates as “Headless”. The scientists themselves gave this name to the found city because of the many headless statues located in this ancient settlement. However, some stone giants have reached our time absolutely intact. In addition to heads and statues, Olmec sculpture is represented in stone altars and carved steles, as well as in small jade and clay (less often granite) figurines that depict people and animals.

Archaeological expeditions

Olmec altar

Various expeditions set out to search for and study artifacts in the first half of the 20th century led to numerous new discoveries, but some evidence of the existence of the Olmec culture was initially erroneously attributed to the Mayan culture due to the similarity of the faces.

Archaeologists made their way to the remains of ancient settlements and stone sculptures through impenetrable jungles, tropical rivers and swamps, and climb mountains: the traces of ancient civilization were by that time already quite cut off from modern settlements and roads. This complicated the research, but over time, based on new information, scientists discovered an increasingly clear picture of the existence of the Olmec civilization.

Stylized masks and human figures carved on steles and stone boxes are believed by researchers to be images of gods revered by the Olmecs. And in a luxurious tomb discovered in La Venta, presumably, the Olmec ruler, who lived 9-10 centuries before the Aztecs appeared in these places, is buried. Archaeologists have found jewelry, figurines, and unusual tools in sarcophagi and tombs.

Olmec pyramids

The pyramids may have served as temple complexes. They were arranged not in the “usual” pyramidal shape, but with a round base, from which several round “petals” “departed.” Researchers explain this shape by its resemblance to volcanic hills preserved after eruptions: the Olmecs believed that fire gods lived in volcanoes, and temple complexes in honor of the same gods were built in the likeness of extinct volcanoes. The Olmec pyramids themselves were made of clay and lined with lime mortar.

What the Olmecs looked like

The appearance of the Olmecs can presumably be reconstructed from the many sculptures found: Mongoloid-type eyes, a flattened nose, plump, flattened lips. The sculptures have purposefully deformed heads. More accurate information could be obtained from the remains of the Olmecs found in the tombs, but not a single complete skeleton was preserved.

Where did they come from?

According to Aztec legends, the Olmecs arrived in their habitat on boats from the northern shore. In the place where the city of Panutla is now located, they left the boats and moved, following the instructions of the gods, to the area of ​​Tamoanchan (translated from the Mayan language - “land of rain and fog”), where they founded their civilization. Other Indian legends do not explain the emergence of the Olmec civilization: it is only said that the Olmecs lived in those places since ancient times.

According to Norwegian researcher Thura Heyerdahl, the Olmec civilization could have been brought to Central America from the Mediterranean and Ancient Egypt. This can be indicated not only by Indian legends, but also by the similarity of Olmec buildings, writing, and the art of mummification with similar evidence of Old World cultures. Such an assumption would explain the fact that during archaeological research no signs of the evolution of the Olmec civilization were found: it seemed to have appeared in an already prosperous form and just as unexpectedly ended its existence. But this is also just a guess. Many scientists are still convinced that civilizations in different parts of the Earth could have developed in a similar pattern, being completely isolated from each other.

The emergence of the Olmec culture dates back to approximately the second millennium BC. e. Based on later archaeological research, it may have developed from the early agricultural cultures of Central America, which gradually evolved from nomadic cultures as a result of changing environmental conditions. The most ancient nomadic tribes of South and Central America, according to scientists, came from Asia at a time when there was still a land connection between these continents.

Paleoanthropologists believe that representatives of the Negroid race could also have entered Central America during the last ice age. This goes some way to explaining the facial features reflected in the giant Olmec heads. Other researchers believe that ancient Australians and Europeans could have entered the Meso-American territory by water. Perhaps the Olmec civilization appeared entirely as a result of the mixing of people from different continents.

In 1200-900 BC. e. the main Olmec settlement (at San Lorenzo) was abandoned: perhaps as a result of internal rebellion. The “capital” of the Olmec kingdom moved to La Venta, located 55 miles to the east, among the swamps near the Tonala River. An Olmec settlement at La Venta existed from 1000-600 BC. e. or in 800–400 BC. e. (according to various research data).

The Olmecs abandoned the eastern parts of their lands around 400 BC. e. Possible reasons include climate change, volcanic eruptions and the capture of some of the Olmecs by representatives of other civilizations. By the last centuries BC. e. archaeologists date dates carved by the Olmecs on stone steles and figurines. These are the most ancient written dates discovered in Central America, older than the writing of the Mayan civilization. When Olmec artifacts with dates were found, scientists, after much debate, came to the conclusion that the Mayans borrowed their writing and their calendar from the Olmecs.

It is curious that many stone statues and giant heads belonging to the Olmec civilization were deliberately damaged in ancient times: perhaps by the Olmecs themselves. In addition, some statues at the same ancient time were clearly moved from their original places or were also purposefully covered with earth, after which the “grave” was lined with tiles or multi-colored clay.

Some studies suggest that the Olmec civilization flourished in the 1st century BC. e. - I century AD e. It is from this period that all examples of Olmec writing, as well as the most advanced objects of art, are dated. Thus, the Olmecs and Mayans coexisted next to each other for some time.

Researcher Michael Ko believes that the ancestors of the Mayans once lived in the territory of the Olmecs: when the culture of San Lorenzo and La Venta declined, the bulk of the Olmecs moved to the east and gradually turned into the Mayan civilization. According to other researchers, the Mayans and Olmecs developed simultaneously and, despite the existing family ties between these two civilizations, the Mayans cannot be descendants of the Olmecs. The latter assumption is supported by data from the most recent archaeological research. But in this case, where and for what reason did the Olmecs disappear? Scientists have yet to answer this question.

After excavations and discoveries in the 30s and 40s of the 20th century, it became clear that in the first millennium AD, an unusually high culture existed in the swampy and humid jungles of the Gulf Coast, created by the Olmec people. They built tall pyramids and magnificent tombs, carved massive ten-ton heads of their rulers from stone, and many times depicted the figure of a ferocious jaguar god on huge basalt steles and elegant jade objects.

We still don’t know where the Olmecs came from to Veracruz and Tabasco, whether they were the original inhabitants of these places.

No less mysterious is the death of the Olmec culture, the creators of which suddenly disappeared without a trace from the historical arena seven centuries before Columbus saw the shores of the New World.

Later, in the mid-50s, when archaeologists began to widely use the radiocarbon method in their work to determine the age of ancient things, the Olmec civilization suddenly received a completely new light.

The fact is that, judging by a series of radiocarbon dates obtained during the excavations of La Venta in 1955, this most important center of the Olmec kingdom existed implausibly early - in 800-400 BC. e., that is, in an era when the cultures of early farmers still dominated in other areas of Mexico.

Based on this data, a group of Mexican scientists hypothesized that the Olmecs were the creators of the oldest civilization in the Americas and had a decisive influence on the origin and development of other civilizations in this area.

In turn, other archaeologists, citing the unreliability of radiocarbon dates, which have often failed archeology in the recent past, defend the idea that the Olmecs as a whole developed in parallel with the other peoples of Central America - the Mayans, Nahuas, Zapotecs, and so on. The future will show which of them is right.

Thus, the problem of the origin and death of a large people who at one time inhabited vast territories of Southern Mexico, and to this day remains the main problem for all archaeologists, for all scientists involved in the ancient history of the New World. There are more than enough bold theories here. But any truly scientific research is based on painstaking work. The work of a scientist is also impossible without elements of fantasy, but the main thing in it is a solid foundation of real facts and evidence.

The beginning of excavations in Mexico.

In the late autumn of 1938, from the port town of Alvarado, which stands on the ocean shore, near the mouth of the large Papaloapan River, an antediluvian paddle steamer set off up the river on its next voyage. On board, in addition to the usual passengers - Mexican peasants, merchants and minor officials - there was a group of people whose clothing and appearance identified them as foreigners. American explorer Matthew Stirling, the head of a joint archaeological expedition of the Smithsonian Institution and the US National Geographic Society, and his few employees, crowded along the side, eagerly examined the rapidly changing exotic landscapes of the tropics. The steamer passed emerald meadows with tall grass and entered an endless green tunnel formed by the spreading crowns of giant trees, closing their branches over the middle of the river. Jungle, endless jungle for hundreds of kilometers around. Sometimes they are cheerful, strewn with scarlet and white flowers, with the chirping of birds and the perky cries of monkeys, sometimes, on the contrary, they are dark and gloomy, immersed up to their shoulders in the viscous mud of bottomless swamps, where only snakes and huge iguana lizards patiently wait in the cool twilight for unwary prey.

Finally, after several days of travel, the misty peaks of the volcanic mountain ranges of Tuxtla appeared far on the horizon, at the foot of which were the ruins of unknown ancient cities. It was these that archaeologists had to study. There, on the fertile lands of the foothills and adjacent plains, many centuries ago a large and industrious people lived and flourished. An impregnable wall of mountain ranges protected this area from fierce hurricanes and winds from the Gulf of Mexico. And the fertile soil, even with minimal labor, produced incredible harvests, and twice a year.

History of the Olmec region.

What did we know until recently about the past of this region? The notes of the Spanish soldier Bernal Diaz, an eyewitness and direct participant in all the vicissitudes of the bloody epic of the Conquista, say that the Papaloapan River was discovered in 1518 by the brave hidalgo Pedro de Alvarado, the future associate of Cortes. At that time, the country was inhabited by warlike Indian tribes that came from somewhere in the west. The formidable legions of Indian warriors, lined up on the river bank in strict battle formation, were so impressive that the Spaniards (it was an exploration expedition under the command of Grijalva) hastened to leave.

From ancient Indian legends we also know that even before the arrival of the conquistadors, the entire coast of the Gulf of Mexico was under the rule of the great Aztec ruler Montezuma. One of the many duties of the local residents was that they had to deliver fresh fish daily to the court of the formidable emperor.

To cover this enormous distance of several hundred kilometers, along the entire route - both in the jungle and on mountain passes - fleet-footed and hardy messengers were stationed, who, like a relay race, passed baskets of fish from one post to another. In one day they managed to run from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan.

According to other legends, the first inhabitants of these places were the Olmecs (the word “Olmec” literally means “inhabitants of the land of rubber”) - the creators of the most ancient civilization of Central America. “Their houses were beautiful,” says the legend, “houses with mosaic inlays of turquoise, elegantly plastered , were wonderful. Artists, sculptors, stone carvers, feather craftsmen, gongers and spinners, weavers, skilled in everything, they made discoveries and became capable of finishing green stones, turquoise ... "
But this prosperity did not last long. Unknown enemies who came from the west poured into the flourishing cities and villages of farmers in a black stream. The high Olmec civilization was destroyed, and the green jungle absorbed what the foreigners had not managed to destroy.

It fell to the lot of Matthew Stirling and his comrades to open the first page in the study of the mysterious Olmec culture, which was forcibly erased from human memory by the swords of the conquerors and the onslaught of the merciless jungle. In 1939, excavations began on the ancient Olmec city near the already familiar village of Tres Zapotes, in the state of Veracruz.

Olmec civilization. A city lost in the jungle

At first everything was mysterious and unclear. Dozens of artificial hills-pyramids that once served as the foundations for palace and temple buildings, countless stone monuments with bizarre faces of rulers and gods, fragments of painted pottery. And one hint as to who owned this abandoned city. The words spoken by the famous American traveler Stephens involuntarily came to mind about another ancient city lying in the jungles of Honduras, three hundred miles to the south:
“Architecture, sculpture and painting, all types of art that decorate life, once flourished in this virgin forest. Orators, warriors and statesmen; beauty, ambition and fame lived and died here, and no one knew of their existence or could tell about their past. The city was uninhabited. Among the ancient ruins there are no traces of the disappeared people with their traditions passed on from father to son and from generation to generation. He lay before us, like a ship wrecked in the middle of the ocean. Its masts were broken, its name was erased, and its crew died. And no one can say where he came from, who he belonged to, how long his journey lasted, or what caused his death.”

The mystery of stone sculptures

Nevertheless, archaeologists stubbornly continued their painstaking work, bringing to the surface more and more traces of the lost culture. First of all, the famous stone head was excavated, which, as it turned out, lay only 100 meters from the expedition camp. Twenty workers spent the whole day working around the fallen giant, trying to free him from a deep forest grave. Finally it was all over. The head, cleared of earth, seemed to come from some fantastic, otherworldly world. Despite its impressive dimensions (height - 1.8 meters, circumference - 5.4 meters, weight - 10 tons), it was carved from a single stone monolith. Like the Egyptian sphinx, she silently looked with her empty eye sockets to the north, to where magnificent barbarian ceremonies were once performed in the wide city square, and the priests made bloody sacrifices in honor of the ugly pagan gods. Oh, if the stone mouth of the image could open and it could speak, many of the most interesting pages of American history would become as well known to us as the history of Egypt, Greece and Rome.

But how did the ancient inhabitants of Tres Zapotes deliver this huge block of basalt to their hometown, if the nearest stone deposit is located several tens of kilometers away? Such a task would baffle even modern engineers. And 15-20 centuries ago, all this was done by the Olmecs without the help of wheeled transport and draft animals (they, like the rest of the American Indians, simply did not have either one or the other), only with the muscular power of man. And yet, a giant monolith, delivered by some miracle - and not by air, but by land, through the jungle, rivers, swamps and ravines - now proudly stands in the central square of the city as a majestic monument to the perseverance and work of unknown masters of antiquity.

Did the Olmecs invent the Mayan calendar? Sensation

On January 16, 1939, an event occurred in the life of the expedition that eclipsed in its significance all previous discoveries and finds. On this day, Matthew Stirling and a group of Indian workers went to look at the newly found stone stele, the edge of which barely protruded from the ground.

They had to tinker a lot before they managed to pull the heavy monument to the surface. “The Indians, on their knees,” recalls Stirling, “began to clear the surface of the monument from viscous clay. And suddenly one of them shouted to me in Spanish: “Señor, there are some numbers here!”

These were indeed numbers. I don’t know how my illiterate workers figured this out, but there, on the smooth surface of the stele, were clearly carved perfectly preserved columns of dashes and dots - signs of the ancient calendar.

Choking from the unbearable heat, covered in sticky sweat, Stirling began feverishly copying the mysterious inscription. A few hours later, all the expedition members eagerly crowded around the table in their leader’s tent. Complex calculations and calculations followed, and now the full text of the inscription is ready: 6 Etsiab 1 Io. According to the European calendar, this corresponded to November 4, 31 BC.

No one dared to dream of such a sensational find. On the newly discovered stele (later called “Stele C”), a date was carved according to the Mayan calendar system, which was more than three centuries older than any other dated monument from the Mayan region!

And there could be only one conclusion from here: the proud Mayan priests borrowed their amazingly accurate calendar from their western neighbors - the unknown Olmecs.

La Venta is the capital of the Olmecs.

On the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, among the vast mangrove swamps of the state of Tabasco, several sandy islands rise, the largest of which, La Venta, is only 12 kilometers long and 4 kilometers across. Here, next to a remote Mexican village, from which the entire island took its name, the remains of another Olmec city were discovered.
The ancient builders of La Venta knew the laws of geometry well. All the most important buildings of the city, standing on the tops of high pyramidal foundations, were oriented strictly to the cardinal points. The abundance of palace and temple ensembles, elaborate sculptures, steles and altars, numerous giant heads carved from basalt, the luxurious decoration of the tombs found here indicated that La Venta was once the largest center of Olmec culture, and perhaps the capital of the entire countries. Using calendar dates found on many stone sculptures, as well as the results of art historical analysis, scientists have established that the city’s greatest prosperity occurred in the 1st-7th centuries AD.

Then, like Tres Zapotes, he becomes a victim of an enemy invasion and perishes in the flames of fires amid the jubilant cries of the victors. Everything that could be destroyed was destroyed. Everything that could be robbed and carried away was carried away. The uninvited aliens sought to destroy literally everything that reminded them of the culture and religion of the defeated people. But the huge stone heads, columns and statues, sculpted from basalt as hard as steel, were not so easy to destroy. And then, in helpless rage, the ancient vandals smashed small sculptures, and deliberately disfigured and damaged the beautiful and expressive faces of large statues. Nevertheless, most of the amazing creations of the artists and sculptors of La Venta survived the centuries, and they were rediscovered for humanity in the middle of the 20th century by the skillful hands of archaeologists.

In the very center of the city, from the foot of the high pyramid and further to the north, there is a wide, flat square, bordered on all sides by vertically standing basalt columns. In the middle of it, above the thick grass and bushes, rose some strange structure in the form of a platform made of the same basalt columns. When the platform was completely cleared, a kind of basalt house, half buried in the ground, appeared before the archaeologists. Its long wall consisted of nine vertically placed stone pillars, and the short one - of five. From above this rectangular room was covered with a ramp of the same basalt pillars. The house had no door or windows. The ancient builders fit the giant stone columns together so skillfully that not even a mouse could slip between them. But each of them weighed almost two, or even three tons!

Using a hand winch and strong ropes, workers began to pull away the roof of the mysterious building. After removing the four columns, the hole in the roof became so wide that one could venture downstairs to where the thick black shadows hid the inside of a spacious room walled up by the priests of La Venta 15 centuries ago.

“First,” writes Matthew Stirling, “we came across an elegant little pendant in the shape of a jaguar’s fang, carved from green jade ... Then an oval mirror appeared from a carefully polished piece of obsidian. And further, in the back of the room, rose some kind of platform made of clay and lined with stone. A large spot of bright purple paint stood out clearly on its surface. Inside it we found the remains of human bones belonging to at least three of those buried.”

Next to the skeletons lay in a pile all sorts of items made of precious jade in green and bluish tones: funny little figurines in the form of sitting men with childish faces, dwarfs and freaks, frogs, snails, jaguars, strange flowers and beads.

In the southwestern corner of the burial platform, a strange headdress was discovered, more reminiscent of a “crown of thorns” than a symbol of the power and high position of its owner. Six long sea urchin needles were strung on a strong cord, separated from each other by elaborate jade decorations in the form of outlandish flowers and plants. There were also two large jade spools - ear decorations and the remains of a wooden funeral mask inlaid with jade and shells. Not far from the platform, workers came across a cache hidden in the ground, which contained 37 polished jade and serpentine axes.

According to a legend still prevalent among the residents of La Vepta, the last Aztec emperor Montezuma was buried here, among the ruins of the ancient city. And when night falls on the earth, he leaves his tomb to dance in the ghostly rays of the moonlight with his entourage in the wide squares and deserted streets of the forever asleep capital of the Olmecs.

And although all this is just a figment of popular imagination, a wonderful legend, the scientific significance of the basalt tomb is in no way diminished by the fact that instead of Montezuma, some other powerful ruler was buried in it, who lived 9-10 centuries before the Aztecs appeared in the Valley of Mexico.

Olmec civilization. The Mystery of Sixteen Men.

In 1955, after a long break, excavations continued in the Olmec capital, La Venta. One after another, amazing finds were born: reliefs, mosaics, magnificent sculptures, steles and altars. And suddenly the worker’s shovel, having broken through the hard layer of cement covering the surface of the clay platform, fell down into the emptiness of a narrow and deep pit. When archaeologists finally got to its bottom, green spots of polished jade shone brightly in the sun’s rays against the background of yellow clay. Sixteen little stone men - participants in some unknown dramatic performance - solemnly froze in front of a fence of six vertically placed jade axes. Who are they? And why were they hidden at the bottom of a deep hole, arranged in a certain order, but incomprehensible to us?

It is possible that the key to solving this archaeological puzzle can be provided by the sixteenth participant in the ancient pagan ritual.
His solitary figure, carved from granite unlike the others, stands with his back to the flat surface of the fence. The remaining fifteen figures are made of jade and have a purely Olmec appearance. All of them, turning their heads in one direction, look intently at the person opposing them. From the right, a procession of four gloomy figures with frozen masked faces is approaching him. Who is this lonely man? The high priest presiding over a solemn pagan rite, or a victim who will be thrown down in a moment on the bloody altar of an unknown god?

And here the description of a terrible custom that was once widespread among many peoples of antiquity involuntarily comes to mind. According to their ideas, the king was considered the focus of magical forces that controlled the life of nature. He is responsible for a good crop harvest, for the abundant offspring of livestock, for the fertility of women of the entire tribe. He receives almost divine honors. He tastes all the blessings of life, enjoying luxury and peace. But one day the day comes when the king must pay a hundredfold for both his wealth and his exorbitant power. And the only payment that he is obliged to give to his people is his own life! According to ancient customs, the people cannot tolerate a weakened, sick or aging king for a minute, since the well-being of the entire country depends on his health. A tragic ending comes. The old ruler is killed. A. in his place they choose a young, full of strength successor. And this terrible cycle of murder and coronation continued in many countries for hundreds of years.
Who knows, maybe by chance we also managed to see in all its tragic completeness this terrible ritual performed by sixteen stone men from La Venta?

Olmec. Gold and jade

Among the civilized peoples of pre-Columbian America, unlike the Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans and other inhabitants of the Old World, the main symbol of wealth was not gold, but jade. This fact so struck the imagination of the first Europeans, who made their way through the ocean barrier to the unknown shores of the New World at the beginning of the 16th century, that they repeatedly returned to it in their historical narratives and chronicles.

When in 1519 Cortez landed on the desert coast of Mexico, near the modern city of Veracruz, the local Indian ruler hastened to send a message about this extraordinary event to his supreme ruler, Emperor Montezuma. And a few days later, a magnificent procession of ambassadors and nobles from the Aztec emperor appeared in front of Cortez’s camp tent. Silently spreading several mats at the entrance to the tent, they laid out many expensive gifts on them.

“The first was a round dish,” recalls Berial Diaz, “the size of a cart wheel, with the image of the sun, all made of pure gold. According to the people who weighed it, it was worth 20,000 gold pesos. The second was a round dish, even larger than the first, made of solid silver, with the image of the moon; very valuable thing. The third was a helmet filled to the brim with gold sand worth no less than 3,000 pesos. There were many golden figurines of birds, animals and gods, 30 bales of thin cotton fabrics, beautiful feather cloaks, and in addition, four green stones, which are valued more among them than emerald among us. And they told Cortes that these stones were intended for our emperor, since each of them was worth a whole load of gold.”

If it is true that jade was valued more than gold among the Indians, then it is also true that the largest number of jade products is found in the Olmec country. And this is all the more amazing because there were no jade deposits on the marshy shores of the Gulf of Mexico, where the main Olmec cities are located. It was mined either
in the south, in the mountains of Guatemala, or in the west, in Oaxaca. Be that as it may, a large amount of this precious and unusually hard mineral found its way into the Olmec country, where rough pieces of stone were transformed under the hands of skilled Olmec jewelers into elegant statuettes of gods, intricate jewelry, beads and ritual axes. And from there, from the Olmec centers of La Venta, Tres Zapotes, Cerro de las Mesas, these magnificent jade items dispersed throughout Central America, from the northernmost regions of Mexico to Costa Rica.

Olmec - Fans of the Jaguar.

If all the works of ancient Olmec art were exhibited in the halls of one large museum, then its visitors would immediately pay attention to one strange detail. Of every two or three sculptures, one would necessarily depict either a jaguar or a creature combining the features of a human and a jaguar.

When you find yourself in the mysterious green twilight of the Mexican jungle, it is easy to understand why the Olmec masters tried with such fanatical persistence to capture the image of this ferocious beast.

One of the most powerful predators of the Western Hemisphere, the formidable ruler of the tropical forest, the jaguar was for the ancient Indians not just a dangerous beast, but also a symbol of supernatural powers, a revered ancestor and god. In the religion of various tribes of ancient Mexico, the jaguar is usually considered the god of rain and fertility, the personification of the fruit-bearing forces of the earth. Is it any wonder that the Olmecs, whose economy was based on agriculture, revered the jaguar god with special zeal, forever capturing him in their monumental art.

Even today, four centuries after the Spanish conquest and a thousand years after the destruction of the Olmec civilization, the image of the jaguar still evokes superstitious horror among the Indians, and ritual dances in its honor are widespread among the inhabitants of the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Veracruz. What tricks did the ancient Olmecs resort to so that the formidable ruler of the forests and heavenly waters would provide them with a good harvest. They built magnificent temples in his honor, carved his image on reliefs and steles, and gave him the most precious gift on earth - human lives.

During excavations of the main square of La Venta, almost six meters deep, archaeologists found a perfectly preserved mosaic in the form of a stylized jaguar's face. The total dimensions of the mosaic are about five square meters. It consists of 486 carefully hewn, polished blocks of bright green serpentine, attached with bitumen to the surface of a low stone platform. The beast's empty eye sockets and mouth were filled with orange sand, and the top of its angular skull was decorated with stylized diamond-shaped feathers.
Exactly the same mosaic was subsequently discovered at the other end of the city’s sacred square. But there, in addition to the image of the predator himself, in the depths of the stone platform, they managed to find the richest gifts in his honor: a pile of precious Things and jewelry made of jade and serpentine.

The earthly rulers, wanting to somehow strengthen the already extensive royal power, considered the jaguar their divine ancestor and patron. On reliefs, frescoes and steles they are constantly depicted wearing clothes made of jaguar skin or sitting on thrones made in the form of a figure of this beast. Jaguar fangs and claws are constantly found in the richest and most magnificent burials, not only among the Olmecs, but also among most other cultural peoples of pre-Columbian Mexico.

- Olmec.

Olmec architecture.

The Olmec buildings did not have complex forms, like those of later tribes, but they were massive and original. Several features of the architecture of the first American tribe can be identified. The base of ancient temples was either a square or a rectangle. These structures themselves resembled a pyramid. It is assumed that buildings of this shape are easier to construct than, for example, cubic ones; they turn out taller and more stable. Unlike the Egyptian pyramids, the Mesoamerican ones (and the Olmec architectural style was adopted by all Central American tribes without exception) were built with stairs leading from the base to a temple located at the top (usually with two rooms). If the structure was large, not two, but four stairs went up - on all sides of the pyramid. The second type of buildings are the so-called palaces, which were more likely residential buildings of the nobility. These buildings were also located on small elevations, but inside they were divided into several narrow and elongated rooms. The main totem animal of the Olmecs is the jaguar (according to legend, this tribe originated from the union of a divine jaguar and a mortal woman), which is confirmed by numerous archaeological finds, both sculptural and architectural.

Amazing archaeological finds.

One of the centers of Olmec culture was the city of San Andres, located about 5 km northeast of La Venta (now part of the city of Villahermosa). During excavations, an amazing discovery was discovered that pushed back the date of the appearance of the first writing in Mesoamerica by at least 300 years - it was a fist-sized ceramic cylinder with hieroglyphs depicted on the sides. It was used as a writing instrument. Olmec stone heads, unfortunately, are not as famous as the Easter Island statues, however, they are also striking, primarily for their monumentality (their weight is about 30 tons, in circumference - 7 m, height - 2.5 m) and realism . Several more of the most notable and large Olmec cities can be identified: these are San Lorenzo, Las Limas, Lagunade Los Cerros and Llano de Jicaro (the ruins of a basalt processing workshop were found there). Among other finds, it is worth highlighting sensational children's toys. The fact is that many of them depict various animals on wheels, but for a long time it was believed that the population of pre-Columbian America was not familiar with wheels!

San Lorenzo is one of the first cities in America.

The most famous and first main Olmec city is San Lorenzo (San Lorenzo), which existed for 500 years. Historians have come to the conclusion that 5 thousand inhabitants lived here. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to see one of the first Mesoamerican cities. Almost nothing remains of the once largest settlement in America due to terrible weather conditions, gluttonous time and inaction of the authorities, and tourists are much more interested in the Mayans and Aztecs. However, in the territory of San Lorenzo (now the town of Tenochtitlan) there is the oldest pyramid in America, whose steps are decorated with a carved image of a bogajaguar. Drainage systems, stone heads and a court for the iconic ball game were also discovered here. The last structure consisted of two parallel inclined walls made of stone. The game itself took place below, and the spectators sat on the walls.

La Venta is an open air museum.

The best preserved and richest Olmec city is La Venta. San Lorenzo gradually fell into decay and by 900 BC. e. the center of Olmec culture moves south. This is due to the aggressive raids (relations between the Olmec tribes were by no means peaceful) and changes in the river bed, which played one of the determining roles in those days. Goods were delivered along the river, water was diverted from it to ensure the livelihoods of people, and, among other things, they fished in it, which, along with agriculture, was the main occupation of the Olmecs. In La Venta there is also a large accumulation of the famous Olmec stone sculptures - huge heads of outwardly Negroid origin, which gives rise to certain thoughts about the origin of this ancient people. The abundance of such finds is amazing, because there was not a single quarry nearby.

By the time of the heyday of La Venta (starting from the 9th century BC), complex mosaics began to be created in the city, new monumental sculptures were built - steles and rich burials, created using basalt columns placed close to each other. Sarcophagi, many figurines and decorations were found in these chambers. Most of the finds were transported to the museum of the city of Villahermosa (the capital of the Mexican state of Tabasco), to La Venta Park - to the territory occupied by the ancient city.

Conclusion.

For a long time it was believed that the Olmecs - the first civilization of Mesoamerica - suddenly abandoned their cities and disappeared into in an unknown direction, “like the Baltic water disappeared through the earth.” In fact, unlike the same water, which literally went underground, the Olmecs simply left the area they had inhabited for centuries and began to move north, deep into the continent. The reasons for this could be droughts, volcanic eruptions or other natural disasters, which led to the fact that the territory occupied by the Olmecs became uninhabitable. The reason for this, in turn, could be a change in the direction of river beds or their complete disappearance, because water in those days played a decisive role in the life of the population, especially in such a climatically difficult territory as Central America (however, for the Mayans the lack of water was not an obstacle, but this will be discussed later). It was not difficult for the Olmecs to find new territories suitable for existence, since during their trading campaigns they had already repeatedly visited the settlements of neighboring tribes. The movement of the Olmecs to the north led to the gradual assimilation of this distinctive civilization with other Indian tribes. It should be noted that the history of the Maya lasts almost in parallel with the existence of the Olmecs (the first of the known cities of the tribe - Cueyo (Belize) - dates back to 2000 BC), however, the heyday of the Maya began precisely from the moment of the “disappearance” of the Olmecs. From this we can conclude that the latter, assimilating with other Indians, as if in exchange for the right to live on foreign territory, taught their former neighbors and trading partners the social and political system and enriched their culture with their skills. The principles of building society, writing, astronomy, mathematics - this is only a small part of the knowledge, the appearance of which the Mayans and subsequently other Indian tribes of America owe to the Olmecs.

Ecology of Cognition: All these heads are carved from solid blocks of basalt. The smallest have a height of 1.5 m, the largest is about 3.5 m. Most Olmec heads are about 2 m. Accordingly, the weight of these huge sculptures ranges from 10 to 35 tons!

All these heads are carved from solid blocks of basalt. The smallest have a height of 1.5 m, the largest is about 3.5 m. Most Olmec heads are about 2 m. Accordingly, the weight of these huge sculptures ranges from 10 to 35 tons!

When you look at the heads, many questions immediately arise to which you still want to get a clear answer from the all-knowing science. The facial features of each of the 17 giant heads are not individual and they all have one thing in common - characteristic Negroid features. Where did blacks come from in pre-Columbian America, if, according to official science, there could have been no contacts between Africa and America before Columbus? And the Olmecs themselves did not look like blacks at all, as follows from numerous other figurines and figurines. And only these 17 heads are endowed with Negroid features.

With the help of what tools, in the absence of metal (again, according to the official version), basalt, one of the strongest stones, from which the heads are made, was processed with such precision and detail? Is it really a different stone?

How were multi-ton blocks, some weighing up to 35 tons, transported to the processing site 90 km from the place of their extraction through the jungle over rough terrain? Despite the fact that (according to the same version) the Olmecs did not know wheels (by the way, it has already been proven that they knew).

Why make them so big? After all, the Olmecs have many other sculptures, including heads of quite normal size and quite American (Indian) appearance. And only these 17 black faces are an exception. Why are they so honored? Or is it life-size?Now let's try to answer these questions...

The Olmec civilization is considered the first, “mother” civilization of Mexico. Like all other first civilizations, it appeared immediately and in a “ready-made form”: with developed hieroglyphic writing, an accurate calendar, canonized art, and developed architecture. According to the ideas of modern researchers, the Olmec civilization arose around the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. and lasted for about a thousand years. The main centers of this culture were located in the coastal zone of the Gulf of Mexico in the territory of the modern states of Tobasco and Veracruz. But the Olmec cultural influence can be traced throughout Central Mexico. Until now, nothing is known about the people who created this first Mexican civilization. The name "Olmec", meaning "people of rubber", was given by modern scientists. But where did this people come from, what language did they speak, where did they disappear centuries later - all these main questions remain unanswered after more than half a century of research into Olmec culture.

The Olmecs are Mexico's oldest and most mysterious civilization. These peoples settled along the entire Gulf Coast around the third millennium BC.
The Coatzecoalcos was the main river of the Olmecs. Its name translated means “Sanctuary of the Snake.”

According to legends, it was in this river that farewell to the ancient deity Quetzalcoatl took place. Quetzalcoatl, or the Great Cuculan, as the Mayans called him, was a feathered serpent and a mysterious figure. This snake had a powerful physique, noble facial features, and, in general, a completely human appearance.
I wonder where he came from among the red-skinned and beardless Olmecs? According to legends, he came and left on the water. It was he who taught the Olmecs all crafts, moral principles and the calculation of time. Quetzalcoatl condemned sacrifices and was against violence..

The largest Olmec monuments are San Lorenzo, La Venta and Tres Zapotes. These were real urban centers, the first in Mexico. They included large ceremonial complexes with earthen pyramids, an extensive system of irrigation canals, city blocks and numerous necropolises.

The Olmecs achieved real perfection in stone processing, including very hard rocks. Olmec jade products are rightfully considered masterpieces of ancient American art. Olmec monumental sculpture included multi-ton altars made of granite and basalt, carved steles, and human-sized sculptures. But one of the most remarkable and mysterious features of this civilization are the huge stone heads.

The first such head was found back in 1862 in La Venta. To date, 17 such giant human heads have been discovered, ten of them come from San Loresno, four from La Venta, and the rest from two more monuments of Olmec culture. All these heads are carved from solid blocks of basalt. The smallest are 1.5 m high, the largest head, found at the Rancho La Cobata monument, reaches 3.4 m in height. The average height of most Olmec heads is about 2 m. Accordingly, the weight of these huge sculptures ranges from 10 to 35 tons!

All heads are made in the same stylistic manner, but it is obvious that each of them is a portrait of a specific person. Each head is topped with a headdress that most closely resembles an American football player's helmet. But all hats are individual, there is not a single repetition. All heads have carefully detailed ears with decorations in the form of large earrings or ear inserts. Ear piercing was a typical tradition for all ancient cultures of Mexico. One of the heads, the largest one from Rancho La Cobata, depicts a man with his eyes closed; all the other sixteen heads have their eyes wide open. Those. each such sculpture was supposed to depict a specific person with a characteristic set of individual traits. It can be said that Olmec heads are images of specific people. But despite the individuality of their features, all the giant Olmec heads are united by one common and mysterious feature.

The portraits of the people depicted in these sculptures have pronounced Negroid features: a wide flattened nose with large nostrils, full lips and large eyes. Such features do not fit in with the main anthropological type of the ancient population of Mexico. In Olmec art, whether sculpture, relief or small sculptures, in most cases, the typical Indian appearance characteristic of the American race is reflected. But not on giant heads. Such Negroid features were noted by the first researchers from the very beginning. This led to the emergence of various hypotheses: from assumptions about the migration of people from Africa to claims that this racial type was characteristic of the ancient inhabitants of Southeast Asia, who were part of the first settlers to America. However, this problem was quickly put to rest by representatives of official science. It was too inconvenient to consider that there could have been any contacts between America and Africa at the very dawn of civilization. The official theory did not imply them.

And if so, then the Olmec heads are images of local rulers, after whose death such original memorial monuments were made. But Olmec heads are truly a unique phenomenon for ancient America. In the Olmec culture itself there are similar analogies, i.e. sculpted human heads. But unlike the 17 “Negro” heads, they depict portraits of people of a typical American race, are smaller in size and made in accordance with a completely different pictorial canon. There is nothing like this in other cultures of ancient Mexico. In addition, one can ask a simple question: if these are images of local rulers, then why are there so few of them, if we speak in relation to the thousand-year history of the Olmec civilization?

And how should we deal with the problem of Negroid traits? Whatever the dominant theories in historical science may claim, in addition to them there are also facts. The Anthropological Museum of the city of Jalapa (Veracruz state) houses an Olmec vessel in the form of a sitting elephant.

It is considered proven that elephants in America disappeared with the end of the last glaciation, i.e. approximately 12 thousand years ago. But the Olmec knew the elephant, so much so that it was even depicted in figured ceramics. Either elephants still lived in the Olmec era, which contradicts paleozoological data, or Olmec craftsmen were familiar with African elephants, which contradicts modern historical views. But the fact remains that you can, if not touch it with your hands, then see it with your own eyes in a museum. Unfortunately, academic science diligently avoids such awkward “trifles.” In addition, in the last century, in different areas of Mexico, at monuments with traces of the influence of the Olmec civilization (Monte Alban, Tlatilco), burials were discovered, the skeletons of which anthropologists identified as belonging to the Negroid race.

Giant Olmec heads pose many paradoxical questions to researchers. One of the heads from San Lorenzo has an internal tube connecting the sculpture's ear and mouth. How could such a complex internal channel be made in a monolithic basalt block 2.7 m high using primitive (not even metal) tools? Geologists who studied the Olmec heads determined that the basalt from which the heads at La Venta were made came from quarries in the Tuxtla Mountains, the distance to which, measured in a straight line, is 90 kilometers. How did the ancient Indians, who did not even know wheels, transport monolithic stone blocks weighing 10-20 tons over rough terrain? American archaeologists believe that the Olmecs could have used reed rafts, which, along with cargo, were floated down the river into the Gulf of Mexico, and along the shore they delivered basalt blocks to their urban centers. But the distance from the Tuxtla quarries to the nearest river is about 40 km, and it is a dense swampy jungle.

In some myths about the creation of the world, which have survived to this day from various Mexican peoples, the emergence of the first cities is associated with newcomers from the north. According to one version, they sailed by boat from the north and landed at the Panuco River, then walked along the coast to Potonchan at the mouth of Jalisco (the ancient Olmec center of La Venta is located in this area). Here the aliens exterminated the local giants and founded the first Tamoanchan cultural center mentioned in legends.

According to another myth, seven tribes came from the north to the Mexican Highlands. Two peoples already lived here - the Chichimecs and the Giants. Moreover, the giants inhabited the lands east of modern Mexico City - the regions of Puebla and Cholula. Both peoples led a barbaric lifestyle, obtained food by hunting and ate raw meat. The newcomers from the north drove out the Chichemeks and destroyed the giants. Thus, according to the mythology of a number of Mexican peoples, giants were the predecessors of those who created the first civilizations in these territories. But they could not resist the aliens and were destroyed. By the way, a similar situation took place in the Middle East and it is described in sufficient detail in the Old Testament.

Mentions of a race of ancient giants that preceded historical peoples are found in many Mexican myths. So the Aztecs believed that the earth was inhabited by giants in the era of the First Sun. They called the ancient giants “kiname” or “kinametine”. The Spanish chronicler Bernardo de Sahagún identified these ancient giants with the Toltecs and believed that it was they who erected the giant pyramids in Teotehuacan and Cholula.

Bernal Diaz, a member of the Cortez expedition, wrote in his book “The Conquest of New Spain” that after the conquistadors gained a foothold in the city of Tlaxcala (east of Mexico City, Puebla region), local Indians told them that in very ancient times people had settled in this area enormous height and strength. But since they had a bad character and bad customs, the Indians exterminated them. To confirm their words, the residents of Tlaxcala showed the Spaniards the bone of an ancient giant. Diaz writes that it was a femur and its length was equal to the height of Diaz himself. Those. the height of these giants was more than three times the height of an ordinary person.

In the book “The Conquest of New Spain,” he describes how the Indians told them that in ancient times people of enormous stature settled in these places, but the Indians did not agree with their characters and killed everyone. Quote from the book:

“They also reported that before their arrival the country was inhabited by giants, rude and wild, who then either died out or were destroyed. As proof, they showed the femur of such a giant. Indeed, she was the size of my full height, and I’m not small. And there were a fair number of such bones; We were amazed and horrified at such a breed of past times and decided to send samples to His Majesty in Spain.”

(quote taken from the chapter “Friendship with Tlaxcala.”)

There was no point in lying to the author, the matters being discussed were much more important than long-extinct and non-dangerous giants, and this was said and shown by the Indian casually, as a matter of course. And the book is about something completely different. And if a modern TV channel can still be suspected of falsifying facts in order to increase ratings, then a person who publicly promised 500 years ago to send “non-existent” giant human bones to the king can only be suspected of idiocy. Which is very difficult to do after reading his book.
Traces of giants have been found in this area and in the manuscripts of the Aztecs (Aztec codices), who later lived in the same places, in the form of drawings, and in many Mexican myths.

Drawing from an Aztec manuscript. Judging by how many people can pull one big man, he is also very heavy. Maybe it's his head etched in stone?

In addition, from various sources it is clear that the ancient giants inhabited a certain territory, namely the eastern part of central Mexico up to the Gulf Coast. It is quite reasonable to assume that the giant heads of the Olmecs symbolized victory over the race of giants and the victors erected these monuments in the centers of their cities in order to perpetuate the memory of their defeated predecessors. On the other hand, how can such an assumption be reconciled with the fact that all the giant Olmec heads have individual facial features?

Maybe those researchers are right who believe that the giant heads were portraits of rulers? But the study of paradoxical phenomena is always complicated by the fact that such historical phenomena rarely fit into the system of conventional logic. That's why they are paradoxical. Moreover, myths, like any historical source, are subject to influences dictated by the current political situation. Mexican myths were recorded by Spanish chroniclers in the 16th century. Information about events that happened tens of centuries before this time could have been transformed several times. The image of giants could be distorted to please the victors. Why not assume that giants were rulers of the Olmec cities for a time? And why not also assume that this ancient people of giants belonged to the Negroid race?

The ancient Ossetian epic “Tales of the Narts” is entirely imbued with the theme of the struggle of the Narts with the giants. They were called uaigi. But, what is most interesting, they were called black uaigs. And although the epic does not mention the skin color of the Caucasian giants anywhere, the adjective “black”, in relation to the Uaigs, is used in the epic as a qualitative, and not as a figurative concept. Of course, such a comparison of facts relating to the ancient history of peoples so distant from each other may seem too bold. But our knowledge about distant eras is too scanty.

It remains only to remember the great poet A.S. Pushkin, who used the rich heritage of Russian folklore in his work. In "Ruslan and Lyudmila" the main character encounters the head of a giant standing alone in an open field and defeats it. The same theme of defeating ancient giants and the same image of a giant head. And such a coincidence cannot be a mere coincidence.

Graham Hancock in the book “Traces of the Gods” writes: “The most amazing thing was that Tres Zapotes was not a Mayan city at all. It was completely, exclusively, undeniably Olmec. This meant that it was the Olmecs, and not the Mayans, who invented the calendar, that it was the Olmec culture, and not the Mayans, that was the “progenitor” of the cultures of Central America... The Olmecs are much older than the Mayans. They were a skillful, civilized, technically advanced people, and it was they who invented the dot and dash calendar, which begins with the mysterious date of August 13, 3114 BC.”

Most Olmec stone heads depict a man with Negroid facial features. But 2000 years ago there were no black Africans in the New World; the first of them appeared much later than the Conquest, when the slave trade began. However, there is solid evidence from paleoanthropologists that one of the migrations to the territory of the American continent during the last ice age actually included people of the Negroid race. This migration took place around 15 thousand years BC.

At San Lorenzo, the Olmecs created an artificial hill over 30 meters high as part of a huge structure 1,200 meters long and 600 meters wide. Archaeologist Michael K ou During excavations in 1966, he made a number of finds, including over twenty artificial reservoirs connected by a very complex network of gutters lined with basalt. Part of this network was built into the watershed. When this place was excavated, water again began to flow from there in heavy rains, as it had done for more than three thousand years. The main drainage line ran from east to west. Three auxiliary lines were cut into it, and the connections were made very competently from a technical point of view. Having carefully examined the system, archaeologists were forced to admit that they could not understand the purpose of this complex system of water conduits and other hydraulic structures.

The Olmecs still remain a mystery to archaeologists. No traces of Olmec evolution could be found, as if this people appeared out of nowhere. Nothing is known about the social organization, rituals and belief system of the Olmecs, what language they spoke, what ethnic group they belonged to, and not a single Olmec skeleton has survived.

The Mayans inherited their calendar from the Olmecs, who used it a thousand years before the Mayans. But where did the Olmecs get it from? What level of technical and scientific development of civilization is required to develop such a calendar? published

P After the symposium “Regional Perspectives on the Olmec Problem” in 1983, it was decided to use the term “Olmec” in a narrow sense: a society and archaeological culture that existed on the southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the 2nd - 1st millennium BC. e.

WITH The earliest traces of habitation were found in the La Venta area and date back to the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e. The first settlers developed the ecological zones of the river estuaries and created an integrated economy using agriculture (maize, which produced three crops a year, beans, avocados), sea and river resources. The first settlements were small villages in irrigated areas.

IN end of the 2nd millennium BC e. a sedentary lifestyle becomes dominant and ceremonial centers appear on the Gulf Coast and in the highlands. The culture of the Atlantic coast of the current state of Veracruz began to flourish, which received the name Olmec (from the Aztec word “olmi” - rubber). The Aztecs named them after the area on the Gulf Coast where rubber was produced and where the contemporary Olmecs lived. So the Olmecs themselves and the Olmec culture are not at all the same thing.
According to the most ancient legend, the Olmecs (“people from the land of rubber trees”) appeared on the territory of modern Tabasco about 4000 years ago, they arrived by sea and settled in the village of Tamoanchane (“We are looking for our home”). According to the same legend, it is said that the sages sailed away, and the remaining people settled these lands and began to call themselves by the name of their great leader Olmec Wimtoni.
According to another legend, the Olmecs appeared as a result of the union of the divine animal jaguar with a mortal woman. Since then, the Olmecs considered jaguars as their totems, and they began to be called the Jaguar Indians.

ABOUT however, despite all the efforts of archaeologists, no traces of the origin and evolution of the Olmec civilization, the stages of its development, or the place of its origin have been found anywhere. Little is known about the social organization of the Olmecs, and about their beliefs and rituals - except that they, it seems, also did not disdain human sacrifice. It is unknown what language the Olmecs spoke and what ethnic group they belonged to. On top of this, the high humidity in the Gulf of Mexico has meant that not a single Olmec skeleton has survived, making it extremely difficult for archaeologists to shed light on the culture of Mesoamerica's oldest civilization.

N Some scholars believe that the first empire in America was the Olmec. This was due to the creation of cities (ritual centers) with a unique, simple and powerful architecture.

P The first and most ancient capital of Indian America is considered to be San Lorenzo (1400-900 BC). It is located on a natural plateau, the slopes of which have been modified to create numerous residential terraces. According to archaeologists, up to 5 thousand inhabitants lived in it. The city was still patronized by the almighty jaguar god. His masks decorated the corners of the steps of the pyramid (the oldest known today in America), which is a cone with a base diameter of about 130 m, but with an irregular projection. Two mounds stretch from the pyramid (mound is an earthen embankment, mound), between which there is a stone mosaic platform in the shape of a jaguar’s muzzle. Also built in the city were the first ball court, stone drainage systems and stone sculptures.
Between 1150 and 900 BC. San Lorenzo grew into a vast settlement occupying the top and slopes of a low plateau. Its area is defined in different ways: 52.9 hectares, 300 hectares and even 690 hectares (the latter figure is clearly exaggerated).
Archaeological research in the river valley Coatzacoalcos revealed a three-level settlement hierarchy. The first level is represented by San Lorenzo. The second level (type 6 in the classification of the San Lorenzo project) are settlements with terraces and an area of ​​up to 25 hectares. There are four of them (San Antonio, Huatepec, Loma del Zapote and an unnamed settlement near the Pena Blanca hill) and they are located on hills at approximately the same distance from each other. The third level consists of numerous villages and isolated households.
The buildings discovered at the site in the 1990s were located on low, no more than 2 m, platforms. The most important of them was the so-called "Red Palace". It was a large, long building with walls made of rammed earth and limestone and sandstone slabs. Under the floor was an aqueduct made of basalt trenches. Judging by the soil analysis, the roof of the “palace” was made of palm leaves. The central support for the roof was a basalt column. Another important structure (D4-7), 12 m long and apsidal in plan, stood on a clay platform measuring 75 by 50 m.
In the city, 10 colossal Olmec heads made of basalt were also found, as well as throne altars and several dozen anthropomorphic and zoomorphic sculptures. The colossal heads obviously represented the supreme leaders. Their insignificant number and concentration in the central settlement further support this. Although the heads are not individual portraits, they are different from each other. In addition, each head has its own special helmet. It is known that in Mesoamerica, a headdress served as the main indicator of a person’s status. These ten heads from San Lorenzo probably represent ten generations of the dynasty that ruled the valley. Coatzacoalcos for 250 years (1150-900 BC). Monuments were also discovered in smaller quantities in the surrounding settlements. However, colossal heads are found only in San Lorenzo, and in second-level settlements only throne altars are found (for example, in Potrero Nuevo) and statues of seated men with signs of high status (necklaces, earrings) in complex headdresses. Findings of thrones in second-level settlements thus indicate the existence of a hierarchy of leaders.
Around 900 BC e. The heyday of San Lorenzo ends. Both historical (conquest, social struggle) and natural (volcanic activity, change in river bed) explanations have been proposed for this. However, the center itself was not abandoned (Nakaste phase, 900-700). Monumental architecture - earthen hills and platforms located around squares - belongs to the middle-format phase. A study of the settlements around also shows that the decline was relative. The settlement hierarchy still consisted of three levels: 1) San Lorenzo; 2) settlements with terraces, up to 25 hectares in area and several earthen embankments-platforms; 3) small villages without monumental architecture. Second-level centers have in some cases changed their location. In general, the number of settlements in the immediate district of San Lorenzo decreased, while those in the periphery increased. All this suggests that the complex chiefdom of San Lorenzo, although it experienced a certain crisis, remained unchanged.
By 400 B.C. San Lorenzo falls into decay, after which the city is abandoned.

IN The second ritual center-city of the first level of the Olmecs was La Venta. The city was home to a large architectural complex consisting of two temples and several pyramidal platforms. Ancient settlers chose this place back in 1400 BC, where they erected one of the oldest settlements. La Venta was built on the greatest scale. And by 900 B.C. the city becomes an important center of another important chiefdom with its colossal Olmec heads. There is a sharp rise in the power of La Venta. Perhaps this was due to another change in the course of the Bari River. From the turn of the 2nd-1st millennium BC. it ran 2 km from Group A in La Venta, which made it possible to control communications and facilitate the movement of resources. In the La Venta area, a three-level settlement hierarchy is finally being formed: settlements without maunds - settlements with a central maund - settlements with several maunds. The population of the zone between La Venta and San Miguel (these monuments are separated by about 40 km) was at least 10,000 people.
La Venta reached a size of 2 square meters. km. Its distinctive feature was the monumental earthen buildings. Their construction began in the 10th century. BC. Between 900 and 750 BC. complexes "A" and "C" were built. The central axis of the settlement was the "Great Pyramid" - a rounded earthen mound more than 30 m high. No stages were identified in the construction of the pyramid: it seems that it was erected as a one-time project in the 9th century. BC. To the north of the pyramid there is a courtyard formed by several long buildings (complex "A"). In this case, this is the earliest complex architectural ensemble in Olman - the so-called two-part complex, oriented along the north-south axis. Perhaps already at this time there was a tradition of creating complex serpentine mosaics that characterize La Venta.
The following construction stages were accompanied by the laying of mosaics from serpentine blocks (apparently these were consecration sacrifices). After 600 BC in group "D" a new complex is being built: a small pyramid oriented on a long platform. These buildings are located along a west-east line and probably represent an example of a new architectural tradition originating in Chiapas.
In the Middle Formative period, a new type of monumental sculpture appeared in La Venta - steles, of which there are eight known. Stela 1 depicts a woman wearing an elaborate headdress standing in a niche. Stela 2 shows a ruler in rich attire with a weapon in his hands, surrounded by six human figures. Stela 3 is a scene of a meeting between two noble characters; one of them is wearing a magnificent crown, as on Stela 2, and the second is depicted with a beard and a “Roman” profile, apparently personifying a type ethnically alien to the Olmecs. Stela 5 also shows several people: a ruler identified by his rich attire and a staff in his hand, a helmeted warrior or ball player in front of him, and a character with inhuman features and a net on his back. Another supernatural participant hovers above the stage - apparently a deified ancestor.
At the last stage (5th century BC), rich burials are built in complex "A" inside Mound A-2. Tomb "A" consisted of 44 basalt columns forming a chamber measuring 4 m long, 2 m wide and 1.8 m high. It contained the remains of two young men, covered with red paint and accompanied by numerous objects made of jade (anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, pendants, beads), obsidian, magnetite, and an unusual necklace of six stingray tail spines, the center of which was an artificial spike made of jade. To the south of Tomb "A" was Tomb "E", also made of basalt columns. In front of it was found a carved stone sarcophagus (Tomb "B"), depicting a mythical beast with the features of a jaguar and an alligator. No bones were found in the sarcophagus, but only two jade earrings with pendants in the form of jaguar fangs, a serpentine figurine and a stone piercing.
The city also has colossal basalt heads - 4, and they can be dated back to 1000-900. BC.
The chiefdom of La Venta declines around 400 BC.

E Another ancient settlement is San Andres. Between 1400 and 1150 BC. a flood occurred here, probably inundating San Andres, where there is pure silt above layer 10. This apparently led to the rise of La Venta. At San Lorenzo, the earliest layers are from the Ojocha (1500-1350 BC), Bajio (1350-1250 BC) and Chicharras (1250-1150 BC) phases. ). The city is located 5.5 kilometers northeast of La Venta. In the period from 900 to 400. BC, San Andres again became the center of the Olmec civilization. At the site of this settlement, one amazing find was recently found - a ceramic cylinder the size of a fist with 2 glyphs engraved, connected by lines to the beak of a bird in such a way that it gives the impression of a bird “conversing”. Anthropologist Mary Paul (who discovered this find) believes that this is the earliest evidence of writing in Mesoamerica.

M Less ancient and smaller in size is another settlement - Tres Zapotes (1000-400 BC). However, no buildings were found here, but huge basalt sculptures were discovered - Olmec stone heads. These 3 heads from the Tres Zapotes area apparently represent the three most powerful leaders in the 11th-10th centuries. BC.

D Other important mid-format centers were Laguna de Los Cerros and Las Limas. There are 28 known stone sculptures in Laguna de Los Cerros, including zoomorphic and sessile figures, as well as statues of rulers. The center was surrounded by several smaller settlements with one or two sculptures: Cuautotolapan, La Isla, Los Mangos. Excavations located 7 km. The settlements of Llano de Jicaro revealed traces of a specialized workshop for the primary processing of monuments from the basalt of Cerro Sintepec. S. Gillespie believes that the elite of Laguna de Los Cerros partially controlled the basalt quarries and the distribution of stone throughout the Olmec region. At the same time, Tres Zapotes is declining, which may be due to the rise of Laguna de Los Cerros.

L al-Limas, located in the extreme south of Olman, has been less explored. A statue of a seated man made of greenish stone (the so-called “Ruler of Las Limas”) was discovered here. The research of J. Jadeun (1977-1978) and the subsequent work of J. Gómez Rueda showed that this site was the center of an important chiefdom, uniting at least 27 settlements of the second and third rank.

M between 900 and 600 BC e there were at least five complex chiefdoms on the Gulf Coast - San Lorenzo, La Venta, Las Limas, Laguna de Los Cerros and the peripheral Tres Zapotes. Based on the regular distribution of San Lorenzo, La Venta, Laguna de Los Cerros and Tres Zapotes (average distance of 50-60 km), T. Earl concluded that they controlled all of Olman (about 12,000 sq. km). The chiefdoms seem to have grown in size compared to early formative times: San Lorenzo probably subordinated such second-rank settlements outside the Coatzacoalcos valley proper as Estero Rabon, San Isidro and Cruz del Milagro; La Venta - Arroyo Sonzo and Los Soldados.

ABOUT The discovery of the ditched and ramparted settlement of La Oaxaqueña between San Lorenzo and Las Limas shows that relations between the Olmec chiefdoms were not peaceful. Political rivalry is also indicated by the fact that La Venta and San Lorenzo were part of various interregional political-economic networks. La Venta was allied with the chiefdoms of the Central Chiapas Basin and received obsidian from the San Martín Jilotepec mine, while San Lorenzo was allied with the polities of the Pacific coast and used obsidian from El Chayal. Images of severed human heads and weapons on the La Venta steles indicate that the military function was one of the most important among the Olmec leaders.

400 year BC chosen by researchers as the end of the Olmec archaeological culture, although this is rather a convention. Rather, we should be talking about the end of one stage in the history of the region and the beginning of another. Tres Zapotes is still alive, as is Laguna de Los Cerros. In general, however, the core of political and cultural development moves north to the Tuxtla mountains and spreads along the coast of Veracruz. Along with the old centers, new ones are growing - Cerro de Las Mesas, Viejon. The new capitals retain many of the traditions of their predecessors; therefore, the late Formative society of the Gulf Coast was called Epiolmec.

TO The Olmec stone heads are giant basalt blocks weighing up to 30 tons and having an average circumference of about 7 meters and a height of 2.5 meters. Each of the heads has its own “face” with a gaze directed into space. They wear helmets with a chin strap on their heads. The first such stone head was discovered by American archaeologist Matthew Stirling in the 1930s. He wrote then in his report: “The head was carved from a separate massive basalt block. It rested on a foundation of unprocessed stone blocks. Being cleared of the ground, the head had a rather frightening appearance. Despite its considerable size, it was processed very carefully and confidently, its the proportions are ideal. Unique among the sculptures of the natives of America, it is remarkable for its realism."

WITH Tirling also discovered children's toys in the form of dogs on wheels. This find became a sensation - it was believed that the civilizations of pre-Columbian America did not know wheels. But it turned out that this is not so.

P In addition to their heads, the ancient Olmecs left numerous examples of monumental sculpture. All of them are carved from basalt monoliths or other durable stone. The Olmecs loved to create various body decorations and a wide variety of jewelry. Their price was not gold, not silver and not precious stones, but obsidian, jasper and jade (“sun stone”) of various shades (from snow blue to azure and deep green).

C The central place in Olmec art was occupied by a character whose appearance combined the features of a growling jaguar and a crying human child. Its appearance is captured both in giant basalt sculptures, whose weight often reaches several tons, and in small carvings. There is no doubt that this were-jaguar represented a rain deity, whose cult arose earlier than the cults of the other gods of the Mesoamerican pantheon known to us.

R The diet of the ancient Olmecs was also based on a “corn” diet, like other peoples of the rest of pre-Columbian America; the main agricultural crop of the Olmecs was maize. The main sectors of the economy were agriculture and fishing.

ABOUT The Lmec culture is called the "mother of cultures" of Central America and the earliest civilization of Mexico. They are credited with creating the basis of writing, a calendar, and a system of numbers for later cultures of Mesoamerica. But there is still heated debate around this - not many agree that the Olmecs invented it.

IN In the last century BC, the Olmec civilization completely disappeared, but their heritage organically entered the cultures of the Mayans and other peoples of Mesoamerica.