ASB 222 - Buried Civilizations of the Americas - Keith Kintigh

13. The Olmec and the Rise of Chiefdoms

• Development of Mesoamerican Social Complexity
• Consider similarities & differences with Andes
• Pre-Olmec
• Corn domestication, ca. 2500BC; ceramics ca. 2500BC; village life 1500BC
• The Olmec
• Archaeological phenomenon, Gulf Coast lowlands
• Middle and Late Preclassic, ca. 1500BC-AD1
• Characteristics that demand explanation
• Early monumental architecture, too much construction for those living at the town
• Widespread Olmec Horizon Style: were-jaguar motif (human-jaguar mix)
• Colossal stone sculptures of human heads
• Stelae, stone carvings, fine pottery
• Widespread exchange system by 1000BC
• Two major centers willfully destroyed
• Argument: this is the result of the development of strong, hereditary leaders, development
• Olmec Towns (population > 1000)
• San Lorenzo (Michael D. Coe)
• Start 1500BC, peak 1150-900BC, ends 400BC
• Public architecture begins 1400BC. San Lorenzo may develop from ordinary town.
• Eventually site is poised on an artificial platform 50m high, perhaps in an effigy form. On platform, rectangular courts surrounded by pyramids. Structures made of earth and colored clay. Buried drains of basalt on slopes.
• First ballcourt. Depictions of players, played w/ rubber ball, yokes
• 1150BC, the Olmec horizon style begins, figurines, the were-jaguar and Olmec heads, 5'-6' tall, up to 20 tons, found as far as 100km away from stone source
• Evidence of trade with Chalcatzingo, Valley of Mexico, Oaxaca. Lowland areas are high in agricultural potential but poor in exotic resources; trade for these exotic materials such as serpentine, colored obsidian, schist, mica.
• Stone carvings intentionally mutilated and buried, lined up atop artificial ridges
• La Venta
• Dates 900BC-400BC
• On island in river 30km inland, site 1.5km long
• Architecture
• Fluted cone-shaped clay & earth pyramid 360 feet high
• Additional mounds, heads, stelae & altars
• 3 massive mosaic pavements 4.5x6m of sepentine & clay laid out to form jaguar masks, buried soon after construction. Apparently sacrificial; over one lay 20 jade and serpentine celts in a cross shape, with hematite mirror at the intersection.
• Few burials, one elaborate basalt column tomb, two youths, wrapped, covered w/ vermillion, jade figurines, jade stingray spine.
• Unmatched wealth in caches of finely shaped jade and serpentine.
• Little refuse, few household remains, implies a ceremonial center
• Exchange
• Jade imported here, not San Lorenzo
• Great amount of luxury items found at Olmec Sites, especially at La Venta
• Concave mirrors of magnetite, pendant
• By 400BC monuments smashed and destroyed.
• Tres Zapotes
• mainly postdates La Venta; some overlap
• 50 mounds, groups of 4 around plazas,
• rectangular pyramid, faced w/ cut stone
• colossal heads
• Beginnings of calendrics in Mesoamerica; one Olmec stela, w/ 31BC date written in Mesoamerican calendric system
• The Olmec Elite
• Olmec elite were pictured on stone heads
• The were-jaguar
• May represent an origin belief having to do with a union of a jaguar and a human
• Stone carvings at Potrero Nuevo depict copulation of a woman and a jaguar
• May associate rulers with deities, and may indicate Olmec origin stories are antecedent to quite similar Maya and Aztec stories.
• Originally thought to be the "mother" culture of Mesoamerica; some of the Maya & Aztec ideology may develop here. However, there is also independent development of social complexity at other sites elsewhere at same time.
• Trade relationships between Olmec elite and elites in a number of parts of Mesoamerica, not Maya Lowlands
• What is going on in the Olmec hinterland unclear
• Culture History and Cultural Process. We'll discuss the facts to be explained about the Olmec:
• Monumental architecture
• Horizon style
• Colossal heads
• Trade for and in exotic materials
• Chiefdoms
• How does power emerge; individual and system perspectives (assumptions of theory)
• Prestige goods economy (legitimation of elites) vs. staple goods economy (allegiance of commoners). How does this play out in contemporary society
• Tribute (taxes) to support elites & specialists needed by the elite. Do we support the elite?
• What is the role of a ceremonial center? Does American culture have ceremonial centers?
• How do we account for collapse?
• Research design question for discussion: what are the problems with our understandings of the Olmec and how could we solve them?