La Venta
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Image:Mexico.Tab.LaVenta.01.jpg La Venta is the name of a Pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Olmec civilization. The site is located in the Mexican state of Tabasco at Template:Coor dm.
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Olmec overview
The Olmec civilization was prominent in Mesoamerica from as early as 1500 BCE through 100 BCE, although there is evidence that the Olmec culture existed into the Common Era. The Olmec heartland is an area on the south coast of the Gulf of Mexico coastal plain of southern Veracruz and Tabasco, is thus called because of the concentration of a large number of Olmec monuments as well as the greatest Olmec sites. The area is about 125 miles long and 50 miles wide (200 by 80 km), with the Coatzalcoalcos River system running through the middle. These sites include San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, Laguna de los Cerros, Tres Zapotes, and La Venta is one of the greatest of the Olmec sites.
La Venta is dated to between 1200 BCE through 400 BCE which places the major development of the city in the Middle Formative Period. Located on an island in a coastal swamp overlooking the then-active Río Palma river, the city of La Venta probably controlled a region between the Mezcalapa and Coatzacoalcos rivers.
The site itself is about 18 miles inland with the island consisting of slightly more than 2 square miles of dry land. The main part of the site is a complex of clay constructions stretched out for 12 miles in a North-South direction, although the site is 8° West of true North. The entire southern end of the 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 (photos of park).
La Venta at its height
In its heyday, La Venta was a monumental center that contained an elaborate series of buried offerings and tombs as well as monumental sculptures similar to the many found at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, perhaps the most well known of the Olmec sites. Power of the Olmec culture passed down to La Venta after the decline of San Lorenzo, in about 900 BCE. It is calculated that the site supported a population of at least 18,000 people during its principal occupation.
Image:La Venta.jpgThe major features of the site at La Venta are Complex A and the Great Pyramid. The Great Pyramid is a huge clay pyramid 110 ft high, one of the earliest pyramids known in Mesoamerica. The current conical shape of the pyramid was once thought to represent nearby volcanoes or mountains, but recent work by Rebecca Gonzalez-Lauck has shown that the pyramid was in fact a rectangular pyramid with stepped sides and inset corners, and the current shape is probably due to 2500 years of erosion. The pyramid itself has never been excavated, but is thought to contain an elaborate tomb, such as many other Mesoamerican mounds and pyramids do.
Complex A is a mound and plaza group located just to the north of the Great Pyramid. It was erected in a period of 4 construction phases that span over 4 centuries. Beneath the mounds and plazas were found a vast array of offerings and other buried objects including buried jade celts, polished mirrors made of iron-ores, and large mosaic offerings made of serpentine blocks. Most of these latter items were found in 3 large pits, known as the Massive Offerings, filled with hundreds of tons of serpentine blocks. Also unearthed were 4 rectangular pavements each roughly 15 ft × 20 ft and each consisting of about 485 blocks of serpentine. The mosaics were laid in the form of an abstract jaguar mask, a common theme in Olmec art. Soon after completion, these pavements were covered over with colored clay and then many feet of earth.
Colossal heads
It is clear that the Olmecs were a knowledgeable and artistic people, as is evident by the many monuments and sculptures they have left behind. The site of La Venta itself included floors of different colored clays and platforms painted in red, yellow, and purple. Throughout this city of color were a large number of monuments sculptured from basalt. Perhaps the most intriguing of the monuments are the four colossal heads. Seventeen colossal heads have been unearthed, 4 of them at La Venta (officially described as Monuments 1 through 4).
Image:Mexico.Tab.OlmecHead.01.jpg The La Venta heads are thought to have been carved by 700 BCE, but possibly as early as 850 BCE, while the San Lorenzo heads are credited to an earlier period. The colossal heads can measure up to 9 ft 4 in. in height and weigh several tons. The sheer size of the stones causes a great deal of speculation on how the Olmecs moved them. The basalt quarry was found in the Tuxtla Mountains, over 80 km away.
Each of the heads wears headgear resembling 1920-style American football helmets, although each is unique in its decoration. These helmets probably served as protection in war and in the ceremonial Mesoamerican ballgame played throughout Mesoamerica. The consensus is that the heads represent mighty Olmec rulers or famous ballplayers, or both.
The flat-faced, thick-lipped characteristics of the heads have caused much debate about their resemblance to African characteristics. Some insist that the Olmecs were African. Others have said it is possible that the heads were carved this way reflecting the shallow space allowed on the basalt boulders, and not the actual appearance of the people. Others note that in addition to the broad noses and thick lips, the heads have the asian eye-fold, and that all these characteristics are still found in modern Mesoamerican indians. In the 1940s artist/art historian Miguel Covarrubias published a series of photos of Olmec artworks and of the faces of modern Mexican indians with very similar facial characteristics.
Altar 4
The site also included several "altars" of basalt, the most familiar being Altar 4. Altar 4 represents a figure, probably a ruler or shaman dressed in an elaborate headdress and sitting inside what appears to be a cave. The figure is holding on to a rope, which wraps around the base of the altar to the right side where it is tied to a seated figure. The left side is eroded away but is thought to be similar to the scene on the right.
The consensus today is that these "altars" are thrones on which the Olmec rulers were seated during important rituals or ceremonies. This leads many researchers to interpret the figure at the front as a ruler, who is contacting or being helped by his ancestors, the figures on either side of the altar. Alternatively, the side figures are thought to be bound captives.
Discovery and excavation
La Venta was found and excavated by Matthew Stirling between 1941 and 1943, with several subsequent excavations following through the 1960s. Stirling is sometimes credited with identifying the Olmec civilization; although some Olmec sites and monuments had been known earlier, it was Stirling's work that put the Olmec culture into context.
See also
Mesoamerican chronology
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