Week 2 - The Olmecs

Week 2 - The Olmecs

1. EVIDENCE FOR SOCIAL INEQUALITY

   • Egalitarian
     • Little differenciates one person from another
       • Villages similar across a region
         • Achievements, age, and sex constitute the basis for their identity, achieved status
   • Social Ranking
     • Settlement system with central village
       • Appearence of civic/ceremonial structures
         • Differences in access to goods/quantity
           • Ascribed status
   • Men's Houses - Aligns with suns passage on equinox with a bell shaped pit in the middle. Found remnants of wild tobacco.
   • Tecomates - Gourd-shaped vessels
   • Tlatilco Mask - life and death joined

2. THE OLMEC

   • "Olmec" - Aztec name for the people who occupied the Gulf Coast
     • Derived from their word for "Rubber"
   • The Kunze Axe
     • not sharp or utilitarian
   • The Olmec Heartland
     • San Lorenzo
       • La Venta
         • Tres Zapotes
           • Laguna de los Cerros
             • "Superman" Basalt
           • 50 earthen mounds
             • Inscriptions found = MARK the BEGINNING OF WRITING in Mexico
               • Sustained occupation post-la venta
                 • Stela-C
                   • Stela - Carving set vertically into ground
                     • Numeric System - 1 bar = 5, 1 dot = 1
         • Island, 18 mi inland, middle of river
           • 900-400BC
             • Offering #4
               • Tombs above ground
                 • Pyramid of Clay
       • 1500 BC
         • Over 50 stone sculptures across plateau surface
           • Destroyed by invasion or other turmoil ca. 900 BC
           • 10 giant heads
     • EARLIEST
       • LATEST
   • The Olmec Fronteir
     • Manati
       • Las Bocas
         • Tlatico
           • "Pretty Ladies"
           • Chalcatzingo
             • located in the highlands
               • Burials in crypts, jade ear spools, pendants, necklaces, and La Venta-style figurines
                 • Farming on artifical terraces
                   • deer and rabbit hunted, but dog was most common food
                     • first occupied 1500 BC, height from 700-500 BC
             • Oxtotitlan
               • Guerrero, Mexico
                 • MURAL - above the entrence to cave on the interior -man with bird features on altar/throne -OLMEC INFLUENCE- x-motif, fangs, alter, animal and human mix
                   • PAINTING 1-D- Suggesting a (possibly sexual) connection between Jaguars and Humans
         • Baby Figurines and Ceramics made of Kaolin Clay
           • Olmec motifs and faces found on figurines
       • Wooden Sculptures dating from 12-1500BC
         • Rubber ball cache
           • Waterlogged site allowed wooden sculptures to preserve
   • DISTINCTIVE ART FEATURES
     • Olmec "Style" Facial Features
       • thick lips
         • snarl
           • almond shape eyes
             • angry expression
               • thick eyebrows
       • 3-D Bodies
         • Giant Heads
           • Altars/Thrones
             • WereJaguar Celts
               • baby werejaguars
                 • baby figurines
                   • Human Anatomy art
                     • Flaming eyebrows
   • Environment and Susistence Strategies
     • Unstable, marshy environment
     • Cultivation of an early form of maize, mano and metate fragments, 1500 BC
       • Possible cultivation of manioc
         • gardens next to houses
           • Swidden system (slash and burn agriculture)

3. NON-OLMEC

   • Monte Alban
     • Starts to be build during Pre-classic period
       • Replaced San Jose Mogote as Valley of Oaxaca's most powerful settlement
         • Constructed about 400m above Valley floor around 500 BC
           • Hilltop at juncture of three valleys
             • TEMPLE OF THE DANZANTES
               • MOUND L - 330 slabs of sculptures
                 • MOUND J - stone-faced building in shape of arrowhead pointing south
                   • "THE OBSERVATORY"
                     • Interpreted as records of the towns conquest
                       • Inverted heads represent defeated rulers