Olmecs

The Olmecs flourished on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, in southern Veracruz and western Tabasco, roughly between 1200 and 400 BC. Because of their age and the influence they had on later peoples, they are called the “mother culture” of Mesoamerica. Their most important centers were San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, in Veracruz, one of the oldest, and La Venta, in Tabasco, their great ceremonial center, where one of the first pyramids in Mesoamerica was built.

The Olmecs are famous for their colossal basalt heads, monumental portraits of their rulers, and for the large stone altars or “tables” they used in ceremonies. The jaguar was their main symbol: they revered it and depicted it again and again, often blended with human features.