Olmec Civilization

Located on an island in a coastal swamp, the Olmec Civilization city of La Venta probably controlled a region between the Mezcalapa and Coatzacoalcos rivers. La Venta is dated to between 1200 BC through 400 BC.

The entire southern end of this Olmec site is covered by a petroleum refinery, and has been largely demolished, making excavations difficult or impossible. Many of the site's monuments are now on display in the archaeological museum and park in the city of Villahermosa, Tabasco.

The Olmec Civilization heartland is characterized by swampy lowlands punctuated by low hill ridges and volcanoes. The Tuxtla Mountains rise sharply in the north, along the Bay of Campeche. Here the Olmec civilization constructed permanent city-temple complexes at several locations, among them San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, La Venta, Tres Zapotes, Laguna de los Cerros, and La Mojarra.

The Olmec civilization also had great influence beyond the heartland: from Chalcatzingo, far to the west in the highlands of Mexico, to Izapa, on the Pacific coast near what is now Guatemala, Olmec goods have been found throughout Mesoamerica during this period.

The area of Olmec civilization extended from the Tuxtlas mountains in the west to the lowlands of the Chontalpa in the east. Over 170 Olmec monuments have been found within the area, and eighty percent of those occur at the three largest Olmec civilization centers, La Venta, Tabasco, San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, Veracruz, and Laguna de los Cerros.

Those three major Olmec Civilization centers are spaced from east to west across the area so that each center could exploit, control, and provide a distinct set of natural resources valuable to the overall Olmec economy. La Venta, the eastern center, is near the rich estuaries of the coast, and also could have provided cacao, rubber, and salt. San Lorenzo, at the center of the Olmec civilization, controlled the vast flood plain area of Coatzacoalcos basin and riverline trade routes.

Laguna de los Cerros, adjacent to the Tuxtlas mountains, is positioned near important sources of basalt, a stone needed to manufacture manos, metates, and monuments. Perhaps marriage alliances between Olmec centers helped maintain such an exchange network.