The Olmec were great traders who had contacts with other cultures from Central America to the Valley of Mexico. They traded away their finely made and polished celts, masks, figurines and small statues.
Why was trade important to the Olmec culture?
While the Olmec were not the first in Mesoamerica to organize long-distance exchanges of goods, the Olmec period saw a significant expansion in interregional trade routes, more variety in material goods exchanged and a greater diversity in the sources from which the base materials were obtained.
Why do Olmec use River to trade routes?
Why do you think the Olmec used rivers as trade routes? Rivers provide easy transportation by boat. Was Olmec a river valley civilization? In the Americas, as in many parts of the world, some of the first major settled civilizations developed in river valleys.
Why did the Olmec use rivers as trade route?
The Olmecs created long-distance trade routes to obtain the things they needed, eventually making contacts all the way from the valley of Mexico to Central America. These extensive trade networks spread Olmec culture far and wide, spreading Olmec influence throughout Mesoamerica. What are Olmecs known for?
What is the Olmec economic system?
The Economic activities of the Olmecs Were based on the exchange of products resulting from agriculture, fishing, hunting and handicrafts mainly.. The economic system implemented by the Olmec civilization can be considered as an example of evolution and development as society expands.
See more
Who did the Olmec establish trade connections with?
The Olmec were the earliest people to settle in Mesoamerica. They were an advanced people who established trade connections with neighboring empires such as the Zapotec. They thrived from 1500 BC to 800 BC. However the reasons for their decline are unclear.
Did the Olmecs trade rubber?
The name Olmec is an Aztec word meaning the rubber people; the Olmec made and traded rubber throughout Mesoamerica.
What did the Olmecs produce?
Maize and other crops were a later addition to their foodstuffs. The Olmec created massive monuments, including colossal stone heads, thrones, stela (upright slabs), and statues. They may have been the originators of the Mesoamerican ball game, a ceremonial team sport played throughout the region for centuries.
What did Olmec farmers produce?
Olmec Farmers So the Olmecs were able to grow two crops a year. Olmec farmers grew maize, beans, chilies, tomatoes, and squashes. They kept dogs and chickens for meat.
What did Olmec do with rubber?
The Mesoamericans were robust users of rubber, according to historical and archaeological records. With it they made sandals, rubber bands and also balls, which they used to play a ceremonial game in stone-walled courts.
How did the Olmecs make rubber?
The Aztec, Olmec, and Maya of Mesoamerica are known to have made rubber using natural latex—a milky, sap-like fluid found in some plants.
What is the economy of Olmec?
The Olmec had an agricultural economy mainly based on the crops of maize corn, beans, and squash. The Olmec also had a network of long distance trade. They have been believed to import/export mass amounts of sea shell and greenstone.
What were two important trade goods for the early Maya?
The goods, which were moved and traded around the empire at long distance, include: salt, cotton mantels, slaves, quetzal feathers, flint, chert, obsidian, jade, colored shells, Honey, cacao, copper tools, and ornaments. Due to the lack of wheeled cars and use of animals, these goods traveled Maya area by the sea.
How did the Olmecs use chocolate?
According to Hayes Lavis, cultural arts curator for the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, ancient Olmec pots and vessels from around 1500 B.C. were discovered with traces of theobromine, a stimulant compound found in chocolate and tea. It's thought the Olmecs used cacao to create a ceremonial drink.
What was the Olmec food?
Olmec Food, Crops, and Diet They planted many of the same crops seen in the region today, such as squash, beans, manioc, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes. Maize was a staple of the Olmec diet, although it is possible that it was introduced late in the development of their culture.
What was an invention that the Olmecs were first to use?
The Olmec may have been the first civilization in the Western Hemisphere to develop a writing system. Symbols found in 2002 and 2006 date from 650 BCE and 900 BCE respectively, preceding the oldest Zapotec writing found so far, which dates from about 500 BCE.
Did Olmec grow corn?
The Olmec had amazing agriculture and knew how to get fertile soil and make use of it well. They planted things, such as squash, tomatoes, beans, and chilies. However, their main staple food was maize, or corn. It was an essential crop and was the main food of hundreds of people.
What is Olmec people?
The Olmec people are believed to have occupied a large part of modern-day Southern Mexico. person who studies artifacts and lifestyles of ancient cultures. material remains of a culture, such as tools, clothing, or food. made of clay. scientific studies done outside of a lab, classroom, or office. corn.
What is the Olmec civilization?
The Olmec Civilization was one of the most influential ancient civilizations of the early Americas, and though its dominance of the region faded in the last centuries before the Common Era, the Olmec civilization is commonly thought to be the “mother culture” of many other cultures that appeared in the region in later years.
What are the most famous artifacts left behind by the Olmec civilization?
These cultures, such as the Maya, Zapotec, Totonac, and Teotihuacán civilizations have unique art, architecture, and cultures that separate them from each other, but many historians trace all of these cultures back to their shared Olmec heritage. The Olmec colossal heads are the most famous artifacts left behind by the Olmec civilization.
Where did the word "Olmec" come from?
Derived from the Nahuatl (Aztec) word “Olmecatl”, which means “inhabitant of the rubber country”, Olmec is a reference to the rubber production in the area where many of the artifacts have been found. There are several Olmec sites thought to be important centers of activity, of which San Lorenzo and La Venta are the most significant.
Where is the Olmec site?
There are several Olmec sites thought to be important centers of activity, of which San Lorenzo and La Venta are the most significant. San Lorenzo, about 56 kilometers (35 miles) south of the Gulf of Mexico in the modern Mexican state of Veracruz, was at its height around 1150 to 900 C.E. La Venta, east of San Lorenzo and closer to the Gulf Coast ...
What did the Olmec do?
The Olmec had religion and a mythology, and the people would gather near the ceremonial centers to watch their priests and rulers perform ceremonies. There was a priest class and a ruling class who lived privileged lives in the higher parts of the cities.
What did the Olmec people do?
Most of the common Olmec citizens labored in the fields producing crops or spent their days fishing in the rivers. Sometimes, massive amounts of manpower would be required to move immense boulders many miles to the workshops where sculptors would turn them into great stone thrones or colossal heads.
Why did the Olmec civilization decline?
The great Olmec cities were swallowed up by the jungles, not to be seen again for thousands of years. Why the Olmec declined is a bit of a mystery. It may have been climate change as the Olmec were dependent on a few basic crops and climate change could have affected their harvests. Human actions, such as warfare, overfarming or deforestation may have played a role in their decline as well. After the fall of La Venta, the center of what is known as epi-Olmec civilization became Tres Zapotes, a city which prospered for a while after La Venta. The epi-Olmec people of Tres Zapotes were also talented artists who developed concepts such as writing systems and a calendar.
What are the pristine cultures of the Olmec civilization?
Generally, only six pristine cultures are thought to exist: those of ancient India, Egypt, China, Sumeria, and the Chavin Culture of Peru in addition to the Olmec. That’s not to say that the Olmec appeared out of thin air. As early as 1500 B.C. pre-Olmec relics were being created at San Lorenzo, where the Ojochí, Bajío, and Chichárras cultures would eventually develop into the Olmec.
What is the importance of the Olmec civilization?
The Olmec civilization is very important to researchers. As the "parent" civilization of much of Mesoamerica, they had influence out of proportion with their military might or architectural works. Olmec culture and religion survived them and became the foundation of other societies such as the Aztecs and Maya .
What are the Olmecs known for?
They are best known for their colossal heads. These massive stone heads, thought to represent rulers, stand several feet high and weigh many tons. The Olmecs also made massive stone thrones: squarish blocks, carved on the sides, which were evidently used for rulers to sit or stand upon.
What was the religion of the Olmec?
The Olmec had a well-developed religion , complete with an interpretation of the cosmos and several gods. To the Olmec, there were three parts of the known universe. First was the earth, where they lived, and it was represented by the Olmec Dragon. The watery underworld was the realm of the Fish Monster, and the Skies were the home of the Bird Monster.
What is the Olmec culture?
The Olmec culture was defined and unified by a specific art style. Crafted in a variety of materials—jade, clay, basalt, and greenstone, which is an archaeologist's term for carved, green-colored minerals—much Olmec art is naturalistic.
What does Olmec mean?
The name Olmec is a Nahuatl—the Aztec language—word; it means the rubber people. The Olmec might have been the first people to figure out how to convert latex of the rubber tree into something that could be shaped, cured, and hardened.
How were the heads of the Olmec colossal stone arranged?
The heads were arranged in either lines or groups at major Olmec centers , but the method and logistics used to transport the stone to the sites remain uncertain. Photograph of an Olmec colossal head. There is a headdress carved onto the head and its eyes, nose and lips are prominent while its ears are not visible.
What did the yellow dots on the map of the Olmec period mean?
A map of the Olmec heartland, the Tuxtla Mountains, and part of the Gulf of Mexico. The yellow dots represent Olmec settlements , and the red dots represent archaeological finds.
What is the name of the rock that the Olmec carved out of?
The Olmec are known for the immense stone heads they carved from a volcanic rock called basalt.
How long did the Olmec civilization last?
The Olmec society lasted from about 1600 BCE to around 350 BCE, when environmental factors made their villages unlivable. The Olmec are probably best known for the statues they carved: 20 ton stone heads, quarried and carved to commemorate their rulers.
How many different androgynous deities are there in the Olmec?
There were eight different androgynous —possessing male and female characteristics—Olmec deities, each with its own distinct characteristics. For example, the Bird Monster was depicted as a harpy eagle associated with rulership. The Olmec Dragon was shown with flame eyebrows, a bulbous nose, and bifurcated tongue.
Mesoamerican Trade Before The Olmec
Olmec Economy
- The Olmec needed basic goods, such as food and pottery, and luxury items such as jadeite and feathers for making ornaments for rulers or religious rituals. Most common Olmec “citizens” were involved in food production, tending fields of basic crops such as maize, beans, and squash, or fishing the rivers that flowed through the Olmec homelands. There is no clear evidence that the …
Olmec Trading Partners
- The Mokaya civilization of the Soconusco region (Pacific coast Chiapas state in present-day Mexico) was nearly as advanced as the Olmec. The Mokaya had developed Mesoamerica's first known chiefdoms and established the first permanent villages. The Mokaya and Olmec cultures were not too far apart geographically and were not separated by any insurmountable obstacles (…
Importance of Olmec Trade
- The Olmec were the most advanced civilization of their time, developing an early writing system, advanced stonework and complicated religious concepts before other contemporary societies. For this reason, the Olmec had a great influence on other developing Mesoamerican cultureswith which they came into contact. One of the reasons the Olmec were so important and influential—…
Sources
- Cheetham, David. "Cultural Imperatives in Clay: Early Olmec Carved Pottery from San Lorenzo and Cantón Corralito." Ancient Mesoamerica21.1 (2010): 165–86. Print.
- Coe, Michael D, and Rex Koontz. "Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs.6th Edition. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2008
- Diehl, Richard A. The Olmecs: America's First Civilization."London: Thames and Hudson, 2004.
- Cheetham, David. "Cultural Imperatives in Clay: Early Olmec Carved Pottery from San Lorenzo and Cantón Corralito." Ancient Mesoamerica21.1 (2010): 165–86. Print.
- Coe, Michael D, and Rex Koontz. "Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs.6th Edition. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2008
- Diehl, Richard A. The Olmecs: America's First Civilization."London: Thames and Hudson, 2004.
- Rosenswig, Robert M. "Olmec Globalization: A Mesoamerican Archipelago of Complexity." The Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and Globalization. Ed. Hodos, Tamar: Taylor & Francis, 2016. 177–193. Print.
