The mysterious Olmec civilization prospered in Pre-Classical (Formative) Mesoamerica from c. 1200 BCE to c. 400 BCE and is generally considered the forerunner of all subsequent Mesoamerican cultures such as the Maya and Aztecs.
Explore the relationship of Mayan kingship and the supernatural world. Learn about the origins of Mayan civilization and about the earlier Mesoamerican culture of the Olmec. Includes wonderful illustrations of Mayan carvings and forms of illustration, with close-ups, descriptions, and explanations of their symbolic meanings.
Using a green stone mask from the Olmec culture and a wall painting from Teotihuacan, both of prehispanic Mexico, as a point of departure, this pdf article presents examples for the historical analysis of art.
The Olmecs had flourished well before the rise of the Mayas. For scholars, the early existence of the Olmecs was hard to believe because there were no other known complex societies in Mesoamerica before the Maya—it seemed as if suddenly and out of nowhere a highly developed society had simply appeared.
1,500 years earlier than the Maya, they were the beginnings of settled village life and participated in the very beginnings of ceramics and adaptation of agriculture in this part of Mesoamerica; that makes them very important in the general history and the evolution of the Maya, and everyone else who comes alongside them or behind them in time. They were the Olmecs.
C Level
Olmec city of Laguna de los Cerros covered by pastureland. The city illustrate s the building plan of the Olmec, among the first Americans to design ritual centers and raise pyramids.
