The Olmec culture has been the emphasis of intense conversation and archeological exploration in recent years. It is regarded as one of the very most interesting and also one of the mysterious historical civilizations. The Olmec civilization is considered to be the first known bought civilization to arise in Mesoamerica. It was also the first civilization in your community to develop huge monumental temple mounds and building.
In the Pre1typical Period, the time when this civilization flourished, the following
Gulf Coast sites were occupied in overlapping succession; First of all, San Lorenzo
Tenochtitlan, which was occupied between 1450 and 400 BC. , then at La Venta from 2250- 500 BC And Zapotes from 1000-50 BC.
One of the most remarkable relics that people have of the culture is seventeen substantial stone mind. The rock used to carve the statues was carried from a great distance - which signifies the reach and scope of this civilization, as well as its spread and impact. These and other aspects of the culture will be reviewed in more detail below.
The Olmec culture and modern culture has been referred to as extremely well organized with "complex calendar and hieroglyphic writing system" as well as unique skill objects of a very high standard. However, scholars also say that that there is a great paucity of archeological and other data and understanding of this inexplicable and complicated civilization. "We realize much less about the Olmecs than we do about, for example, the Aztecs and Mayans. There are incredibly few written data to reveal about the culture. "
The Olmec culture and civilization is projected have started in about 1200 B. C. and ended around 600 A. D. During this period the Olmec were the key group or culture in Mesoamerica.
What is certain about this culture is the importance and centrality of faith, shamanism and spiritual ritual in their daily lives. There is really as standard consensus that religion and notion in the supernatural affected every aspect of the lives. Olmec sites are characterized the prominent position of the ceremonial mounds and later by complex pyramids that were erected for worship and perhaps for sacrifice. As one study on this aspect notes; "As the clock tower often defines the guts of Traditional western town squares, a central brought up mound signaled the guts of Olmec cities. These mounds were used for spiritual ceremonies and around 900 BC, these were replaced with pyramids".
The following talk will make reference to the various aspects of the culture, as well as their artwork and religion so that they can provide a detailed overview of what's known about the secret and influential Olmec.
Origins
The term Olmec means 'rubber people' in Nahuatl, the terms of the Aztec. It was the name that the Aztecs used to refer to those individuals and the culture that acquired existed in the area of the Olmec Heartland through the fifteenth and sixteenth century. Simply stated the name means "those who reside in the rubber land", which identifies the "practice of extracting latex from Castilla elastica, a plastic tree in the area".
There is an over-all paucity of stable data and information about the roots and the life-world of the Olmec culture. Our knowledge of the civilization is made even more obscure by the fact that they did not appear to have something of writing that could have provided files of the culture. As you commentator says;
If the Olmec ever had a written dialect, all traces than it have vanished. Even their bones have died, rotted way back when in the humid rainwater forest. Virtually anything that scholars know about them is based on the remains of locations and on evaluations between their artifacts and imagery and those of later civilizations. It isn't amazing, therefore, that while the experts have a great deal of theories about the Olmec's roots, social composition and religion, handful of these ideas are universally accepted.
Therefore, it is difficult to make incontrovertible and conclusive claims about the Olmec. In terms of what Historians and archaeologists find out about the Mesoamerican Pre-Classic period, which lengthened from 1200 BCE-400 BCE, the Olmec civilization was the most dominant and influential during this time. The centre of this civilization at its top was situated in La Venta in Tabasco, and San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan and Laguna de los Cerros in Veracruz.
There are extensive theories and views about the origins of the Olmec. One theory that is often described is these were area of the immigration of Asiatic hunter-gatherers to the region following the ice-age. Another view that has achieved some trustworthiness is that they were of African origin.
The view that the Olmec civilization was of African source seems to be partly substantiated by the top carved minds that possibly depict various rulers and which have African features. "Some freelance writers claim the Olmec were related to peoples of Africa structured primarily on their interpretation of cosmetic features of Olmec statues".
This point of view is also allegedly backed by genetic and osteological facts. This is a theory that was first submit by Jose Melgar, who discovered the first colossal head at Hueyapan. Some research workers such as Winters link the early origins of the Olmec with the Mande people of West Africa. However, this theory is very contentious and the suggested evidence hasn't resided up to modern scrutiny; for example, research during the past two decades has "failed to yield evidence of pre-Columbian African efforts to the indigenous populations of the Americas".
Another factor that goes up against the view of the African origins to the Olmec would be that the people of the region were very vunerable to diseases brought by the Europeans. This means that the Mesoamericans of the region has been isolated for a considerable time, which in turn moves against a theory of roots that would include connection with the African continent.
There are numerous other theories, including the contention that the Olmec were of Chinese language origin. This view suggests that the original Olmec were Chinese refugees who emerged to the region through the Shang dynasty. However, this view is not reinforced by the majorly of research workers. Most research workers are of the view that "the Olmec and their successes arose from affects and traditions which were wholly indigenous to the spot, or at least the brand new World, and there is no reliable material proof to suggest in any other case". This view suggests that the Olmec and the next ethnicities that developed in your community acquired their own specific and indigenous personality and heritage and they were indie of any external influences.
The research of the roots and development of the Olmec culture is steeped in secret and hesitation. Another concern that is debated is the change of the possible hunter-gatherer origins of the Olmec into a highly successful agricultural population. As you pundit reviews; "archaeologists don't really know what transformed a world of farmers into the class-based social structure of the Olmec, with their leaders and commoners, bosses and laborers, artisans and priests".
Spread and Influence
The secret Olmec civilization is predicted to reach its peak one thousand years before the great Mayan civilization of Central America and twenty-five ages before there Aztecs. This ancient civilization was extremely important and affected many other ethnicities and tribes in the region, as one article state governments;
Starting in 1200 B. C. in the steamy jungles of Mexico's southern Gulf Seacoast, the Olmec's affect spread so far as modern Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Costa Rica and El Salvador. They built large settlements, founded elaborate trade routes and developed religious iconography and rituals, including ceremonial ball game titles, blood-letting and real human sacrifice, which were designed by all the Mesoamerican civilizations to follow.
Therefore, the Olmec were important on lots of interconnected levels, from trade and economics to religious beliefs and cultural procedures. David M. Jones ( 2007) suggests that the skill and the architectural varieties of the Olmec were important in the region. "The Olmec fine art style and architectural firm of ceremonial places were exported in the first periods of long-distance trading systems and, possibly, empire-building. " What's clear from research in to the spread and affect of the culture is that it influenced Gulf Coastline as well as growing inland to the Basin of Mexico and to the expresses of Morelos, Guerrero and Oaxaca.
The Importance of Olmec Culture
The importance of the Olmec culture lay down in their inventiveness and their discoveries which influenced later civilizations that arose in the region. They "developed many things culturally and religiously that were later used by the Mayans and Aztecs and many other cultures". A lot of their ideas distributed throughout the region.
In terms of farming and agriculture, for example, there there is strong information that the Olmec were accountable for the invention of a way of irrigation that was to impact the agricultural techniques of the Maya and Aztecs. This also applies to this inflatable water system that archeologist have bought at the websites of Olmec towns. This refer to the finding that the "most important top features of an Olmec town centre was a "buried network of natural stone drain lines - long U-shaped rectangular blocks of basalt laid end to get rid of and covered with capstones. "
Social and Political Life
There is a general paucity of information about the genuine societal and political composition of the Olmec. Since there is not much data to create a thorough picture of the daily and interpersonal life of the people, there is enough available data from certain archeological sites to provide some acceptable speculations.
One of the assumptions that comes from the excavation of sites at San Lorenzo and then at La Venta is usually that the modern culture was very centralized. Therefore has resulted in the view that the contemporary society was highly organised, with a hierarchical basis of order and class stratification. This also indicates the presence of a ruling elite and a system of electric power and control, which was possibly based on religious beliefs. This view of the composition of the contemporary society is summarized the following: "Olmec population was highly centralized, with a strongly hierarchical composition and elite that was able to use their control over materials, such as monumental natural stone and drinking water, to exert control over individuals and legitimize their regime".
There is also clear evidence of a class structure in Olmec modern culture. This is the view for example of Olmec scholars like Ann Cyphers. She says that there is evidence of elaborate residences for the top notch or top classes, while there are simpler housing structures for the center and lower classes. As you study records, "The architecture of the Olmec was complicated. Set ups in Lorenzo, for example, included public-ceremonial buildings, elite residences, and homes for commoners (a parting of the classes).
Cyphers also makes the important point that archeological research shows that the society was extremely complex in composition and stratification; "Each one of these things show a modern culture of great difficulty" Scholars are also of the opinion that the society was possibly a sophisticated unity of various chiefdoms. These categories interacted on the religious and ethnic level.
Agriculture and farming performed as essential part in the culture of these people. Aside from the obvious simple fact of sufficient foods and diet it has additionally been seen by experts and being as tool in the politics of the modern culture. As a study by Amber M. VanDerwarker (2006) indicates, the increase in the size and intricacy of the population coincided with the introduction of community agriculture, which "has led scholars to theorize that agricultural surpluses offered aspiring Olmec market leaders control over vital resources and thus a power basic on which to create expert and exact tribute".
Central to the culture and social life was religious service and ritual. That is evident in the large and centrally situated ceremonial centers. There are however some views that suggest a somewhat different social composition. This identifies the view that because of this of the slash-and shed agriculture and crop-rotation that was utilized, most of individuals would have lived in smaller villages and hamlets. "However the river banking companies were used to seed crops between flooding times, the Olmec also likely practiced swidden (or slash-and-burn) agriculture to clear the forests and shrubs, and provide new domains once the old areas were exhausted.
The development of an agricultural current economic climate also had lots of social implications. With the increase of your agricultural economy more folks were needed to deal with and administer the resources - which led to a section of labor and a class framework in the modern culture.
The one's who controlled the rich farm land would naturally have been the
ones who rise up as the Top notch of the community because they handled the food resource, and as part of the management of resources, a central center had to be established.
A number of theorists are of the thoughts and opinions that the development of agriculture was the impetus which resulted in the enlargement and development of the Olmec civilization. This would also have resulted in its effect through trade on the encompassing regions. As you review o0n this aspect notes: "A fresh elite category probably asserted its command through charisma, control of trade networks and control of people, all of which led to the evolution of a complex culture and, eventually, the artwork style we call Olmec".
5. Art
There is really as general arrangement among scholars that the Olmec civilization produced"the first sophisticated art in Mesoamerica and this their distinctive style provided a model for the Maya, Aztec and other later civilizations in your community". There's also certain changes in Olmec fine art over time that needs to be noted. Is that before 900 B. C. most of the art tend to be ceramic, while later objects were made form jade and serpentine; that have been exceptional materials that required appreciable skill to fashion.
However, what has fascinated people for centuries is the topic matter and the importance of the figures in Olmec skill. There are a number of subjects that tend to be repeated in Aztec art. Included in these are dragons, birds, dwarfs, hunchbacks and, most significant, the jaguar - or more appropriately the "were-jaguar" that is part real human, part jaguar.
It also needs to be made clear that art work in this culture, such as many other early cultures, can't be segregated from the religious and religious fundamental life of this culture. The art work and shamanic and religious aspects of the modern culture are inextricably intertwined. Olmec artwork is essentially an expression of the religious beliefs that permeated the entire society.
A case in point is the image of the jaguar that is so dominating in Olmec artwork. The jaguar presents a opinion system that was deeply involved in the supernatural and the shamanic perspective of actuality. The jaguar number in Olmec art is comparable to a number of other characters in that it shows a mixture of or changeover between individuals and canine. It must be remembered that in many historic worldviews there is absolutely no distinction between your individuals and natural world. Quite simply, many ancient belief systems do not stick to the newer variation between man and aspect. The jaguar amount in Olmec skill is possibly therefore a representation of the belief system where in fact the barriers between humanity and characteristics and between man and dog is seen as illusionary or has been broken down.
The above pertains specifically to the shamanic belief of actuality, where transformation of man to pet animal is seen part of the ability of the shaman. The shaman gets the facility to change his or her form in order to attain certain supernatural ends. Linked with this was the belief that was prevalent on the list of Olmec that, " every individual has an pet animal heart. " This pertains as well to the general shamanic views about 'vitality family pets'.
Shamans assume that everyone has vitality animals - creature spirits which reside with every individual adding to their ability and protecting them from condition, acting much like a guardian angel. Each power animal as increases your electricity so that illnesses or negative energy cannot enter your system. The nature also lends you the intelligence of its kind. A hawk soul will give you hawk intelligence, and lend you some of the traits of hawk.
The above quotation provides some understanding into the way that the Maya possibly recognized the link between man, character and the supernatural. This shamanic aspect is seen in the top amount of the jaguar. Additionally it is worth reiterating the fact that Olmec art work, like many early cultures, cannot be considered in isolation from the spiritual and spiritual beliefs of the civilization. This is an aspect which will be explored in greater detail in the following section on religion.
The jaguar was also very very important to Olmec culture for the reason that it was associated with one of the central gods. The jaguar was also referred to as nahual, which is ". . . an pet that is so tightly related to a certain man, that if the pet dies, the man will also die". From another position, jaguars were also seen as the alter ego of the shaman. The next provides insight into the reason why the jaguar physique was revered and why it was so dominant in Olmec art work "To the early Indians the jaguar was symbolic of supernatural forces-not a straightforward animal, but an ancestor and a god".
In order to understand the importance of the jaguar amount one has to suspend the present day dualistic view of the world and certainty that makes rational distinctions between man and characteristics and between the known and the mysterious. The Olmec resided in a world where such distinctions were viewed as illusionary and the jaguar was symbolic of this idea and a conduit between this world and the supernatural.
As we explore the literature on Olmec fine art the references to the jaguar image also are more sophisticated and intertwined when we enter further into the often challenging world of Olmec myth and religion. For example, in Olmec imagery we also come across a 'werejaguar' baby. This identifies the offspring of the jaguar mom and a real human daddy. This mating
resulted in a competition of infants merging the top features of the jaguar and man in differing degrees. These are usually shown as relatively infantile throughout life, with the puffy top features of small fat babies, snarling mouths, fangs, and perhaps even claws. These werejaguars were deities of thunder, lightening, and rainwater. "
This subsequently can be linked to depictions associated with an Olmec God who was half jaguar, half serpent.
5. 1. Olmec Heads
( Source: http://www. theancientweb. com/explore/content. aspx?content_id=19)
Another predominant attribute of Olmec art work are their distinct human minds and faces. As you commentator notes, "Olmec-style human numbers routinely have squarish facial features with full mouth, a flat nostril, pronounced jowls and slanting eyes
reminiscent (at least to early travelers in the region) of African or Chinese peoples". . There are seventeen of these massive heads and they are presumed to get been sculpted between 1200 B. C. and 900 B. C. The stone used is volcanic basalt and the height runs from 5 ft. to 11 ft. and they ponder around 20 tons. The heads have been located at the next places; ten minds at San Lorenzo, four heads at La Venta, two at Tres Zapotes and one at Rancho La Cobata.
One of the fascinating and intriguing areas of the heads is the fact that experts have no idea how these large rocks were transferred over such long distances. "Archaeologists still have not determined how the Olmec transported the basalt from quarries to various settlements so far as 80 kilometers away--and, in San Lorenzo, hoisted it to the most notable of the plateau some 150 ft. high". However it is the meaning of the mind that has made them such a source of interest and enigma.
Experts conjecture that the mind were possibly representations of well- known and revered individuals or leaders. This however does not explain the facts that lots of of the minds have been intentionally defaced. You will discover two possible explanations because of this. The one is the fact that they were ruined when the first choice or prominent number depicted in the statue fell out of favour. However, considering the shamanic and spiritual characteristics of the culture, the second explanation is more likely. This refers to the sacrifice of the gods to be able to replenishment and renewal of the earth and the partnership between man and the world. "the Olmecs have this themselves after having a ruler perished as a sacrifice to the gods or canine spirits". This form of sacrifice is also encountered in other traditional cultures and may explain the harm to the statues.
Innovations
The Olmec are credited with lots of major innovations in Mesoamerican history. However, there is still a great deal of speculation and question about these enhancements. They include the origins of the Mesoamerican ballgame, as well as aspects such as bloodletting and sacrifice, as well as writing and the technology of No.
There is little question that the Olmec civilization got a far-reaching influence on the region - one needs only make reference to the complex politics and social framework that was developed. "Their political plans of firmly hierarchical city-state kingdoms were repeated by practically almost every other Mexican and Central North american civilization that followed". Also, they are credited with providing the foundation for spiritual mythologies which were imitated in other civilizations. "the Olmec produced the forerunners of several of the later Mesoamerican deities".
There is substantial question among scholars concerning if the Olmec created a writing system and if they were first civilization in the Traditional western hemisphere to do so. Most are of the judgment that there is no research to claim that there is a writing system one of the Olmec. However there are newer indications a writing system originated by the Olmec. Included in these are,
Symbols within 2002 and 2006 particular date to 650 B. C. E. and 900 B. C. E. respectively, preceding the oldest Zapotec writing dated to about 500 B. C. E. The 2002 find at the San Andres site shows a bird, talk scrolls, and glyphs that are similar to the later Mayan hieroglyphs
The finding of the Cascajal block near San Lorenzo in 2006 seems to suggest that the Olmec were main ethnicities in this part of the word to develop a writing system. The Cascajal block "showed a set of 62 symbols, 28 of which are unique, carved on a serpentine block. This find has been hailed as the "earliest pre-Colombian writing". However, this is in no way considered to be conclusive evidence and many archeologists remain unconvinced that block is consultant of the Olmec culture. Among the reasons for this skepticism is that the Cascajal block" bears no clear resemblance to any other Mesoamerican writing system".
However the question also includes a view the Olmec may are suffering from a system of signs that was to lead to the writing systems of the Maya. This refers to well-known "Epi-Olmec, " hieroglyphs. There is a view that the Epi-Olmec may symbolize a "transitional script between a youthful Olmec writing system and Maya writing". In this regard it is also important to note that,
. Even less is well known about the spoken language of the Olmec. Because the Mixe-Zoquean dialects still are, and historically are known to have been, spoken within an area corresponding approximately to the Olmec heartland, they have generally been thought to be probable that the Olmec spoke a Mixe-Zoquean language.
Many of the enhancements ascribed to the Olmec are significantly less controversial; including the view that the compass might well have an Olmec source. Various archeological discoveries have led to view that, "the Olmec may have uncovered and used the geomagnetic lodestone compass sooner than 1000 B. C. E".
The Olmec are also thought to have discovered the concept of zero. This refers to the Long Count calendar that was developed by cultures following the Olmec but which probably had its origins in the Olmec civilization. "The Long Count calendar required the use of zero as a place-holder within its vigesimal (foundation-20) positional numeral system". Many archeologists think that because of varied objects within the Maya homeland, the Long Count Calendar most probably had its roots in the Olmec civilization. However, as with most of our understanding of the Olmec, this view is also mired in uncertainty and controversy because of a lack of substantiated evidence
Religion and mythology
Figure 2. Olmec retains a one half human-half jaguar baby.
( Source: http://www. crystalinks. com/olmec. html)
The Olmec civilization was immersed in religious and spiritual value. It is explained that the supernatural and religion was the formative element in this culture. It is also conjectured that the Olmec were essentially shamanistic in their religious activities and perspective.
One of the central common myths and values of the Olmec people was the view that there have been different but interlinked planes and measurements to simple fact and not simply the world of regular sense experience. They also believed that our body, and especially your body of ruler or king, was divided into to correspond with the main cosmic levels in their mythology. We were holding the celestial or heavenly, the terrestrial, the earth's surface and the watery underworld. This cosmology therefore possessed the next implications.
The head represented the celestial world and hence the colossal heads within Veracruz and Tabasco were probably ancestral portraits depicting the seat of your brain and the most exalted part of the most important rulers. The systems, standing, resting or kneeling, stand for our environment in different aspects. And the low parts, like the limbs and feet, as the root base of the tree, penetrate into the underworld and contact its forces.
The priest or the shaman gets into into these different locations and degrees of reality at will to be able to achieve balance between the various realms of presence and to produce therapeutic and other results. Furthermore, as mentioned in these discussion on artwork, "The ruler or the shaman could do that through ritual change into his nagual, his creature spirit companion".
There are many types and categories of Olmec gods. There is also different capabilities and powers and various relationships to the human world; although some of the gods have therapeutic powers, others stand for dark pushes. However, as there are no written records no labels can be given to the gods and they are usually designated by lots. Another interesting simple truth is that "No Olmec deities can be categorically thought as female or male. " What's clear is that they influenced later Mesoamerican cultures and civilizations. The Olmec deities and Gods were a "source of many aspects of pan-Mesoamerican mythology and religion, so that prototypes of later gods and goddess".
There are at least ten gods in the Olmec pantheon. The next is a brief history of a few of the central gods and deities and their major characteristic and affect on mankind.
God 1: Olmec Dragon
This is generally known as Earth Monster. it offers flame eyebrows, a bulbous nasal area, and bifurcated tongue". This is one of the most commonly depicted gods or deities.
God 2: Maize God
This God has plants growing from as cleft in his head.
God 3: The Bird Monster
This God has both Mamalis and reptilian features and is linked to ruling and kingship.
God 4: Rainwater Spirit and Were-jaguar
It is not clear if this god is one or two distinct entities.
Other gods include, God 7, The Feathered Serpent and Seafood or Shark Monster (God 8). There is as lot of confusion about the exact nature of the gods and many are merged by some experts. In order to make list of Olmec gods more comprehensible, the following is a selection of the best known of these gods and the ones that have experienced the most impact on succeeding civilizations.
The Jaguar God
The Jaguar God was a process deity in the Olmec mythology. It had been viewed as an Earth god as his power was limited to the terrestrial planes. This god symbolized the pushes of life and was connected or the water and globe.
The Feathered Serpent
The plumed serpent or the feathered serpent is a mythological figure that is situated in many ethnicities in Mesoamerica and it is believe this number originated with the Olmec culture. This god is linked to time and calendars and is seen as the supplier of maize to humanity. Additionally it is very strongly from the concepts of loss of life and resurrection, that have been principal factors in the Olmec religious beliefs, as is evident in their focus on ritual sacrifice.
Man of Plants.
This can be an important fertility amount. The Man of Plants " was a human being man or young man who thought we would give his life so that his people might increase food. The heroic Man of Vegetation is sometimes mentored or assisted with a god number from the other world".
The Rain Heart.
This god plays an important role in Olmec mythology and was also transported into the civilizations that emerged after the Olmec. This god often had many helpers.
As has already been referred to, the idea of sacrifice and making an offering to the gods in order to maintain tranquility and serenity was central to the Olmec culture. This included a continuing succession of rituals and ceremonies where, it is suggested by some, that there were individual sacrifices.
In these rituals the priest or shaman would "cut himself to produce bloodstream, which would be provided to the gods. Certain family pets, such as turkeys, pups, squirrels, quail, and iguana, were also regarded as appropriate sacrifices. " Some declare that there may be strong proof that the Olmec indulged in individual sacrifice. However, others state that this is pure speculation. "No Olmec or Olmec-influenced sacrificial artifacts have yet been uncovered and there is no Olmec or Olmec-influenced artwork that unambiguously shows sacrificial victims (like, for example, the danzante statistics of Monte Alban) or moments of individual sacrifice "
Conclusion: Drop of the Olmec
In about 300 B. C. the Olmec civilization all of the sudden seemed to vanish. What's known is the fact that " between 400 and 350 BCE, society in the eastern 50 % of the Olmec heartland dropped precipitously, and the region would stay sparsely inhabited before 19th century". It isn't clear why this occurred. One possible reason is the fact some natural catastrophe occurred. The depopulation could also have been the consequence of radical environmental changes in the region. Archeologists also suggest that " these changes were brought about by tectonic upheavals or subsidence, or the silting up of streams scheduled to agricultural procedures".
While the Olmec civilization still remains shrouded in puzzle and conjecture, what's very clear from the books is that culture had an enormous impact on the region and on the modern expression. The Olmec left behind some examples of the most enigmatic and thought-provoking art that the earth has seen. The Olmec also very possibly provided agricultural as well as economic models which were influential in your community and which led to the advanced Aztec civilization. What's also clear from the books would be that the religious beliefs and mythology of the Olmec become soaked up into ethnicities like the Maya and are still influential in the revival of modern shamanism.
While much too little is well known about the Olmec, the glowering and somber Olmec heads transfix us in their gaze and hint at the mysterious potential and electric power of the lost civilization.
