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Olmec Art and Archaeology in Mesoamerica

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Olmec Art and Archaeology in Mesoamerica STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF ART °SSo Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts Symposium Papers XXXV Olmec Art and Archaeology in Mesoamerica Edited by John E. Clark and Mary E. Pye National Gallery of Art, Washington Distributed by Yale University Press, New Haven and London CHRISTOPHER A. POOL University of Kentucky From Olmec to Epi-Olmec at Tres Zapotes J Veracruz J Mexico How, why. and when did Olmec culture col­ which to investigate the fate of the Olmecs. lapse and what do we meon by the concept of Located on the western margin of thc Olmcc a collapse in this context! heartland, the site contains a long archaeo­ Richard A. Diehl, 1989 logical sequence that includes Olmec and Epi­ Olmcc components in addition to later Classic . nothing is 1<nown ohout the Olmec-posl­ and Postclassic occupations. Although Tres Olmec transition beyond the bore foct thol Zapotes has been studied longcr than any other Son Lorenzo ond Lo Vento were abondoned at major Formative site in the Olmec heartland, approximately this time. The limited infor· previous studies failed to ascertain the overall mation we hove on Tres Zapotes suggests thol extent of the site or to produce an accurate site research there will provide importont insights map, much less provide detailed information into this tronsition. on the organization and history of settlement Richard A. Diehl, 1989 of the site. In 1995 I initiated a new phase of research at Tres Zapotes to address questions concerning the evolution of political and eco­ he end of Olmec culture is often described as nomic organization in the western heartland. <1 decl ine or a collapse, and the subsequent Epi­ For two seasons the Recorrido Arqueol6gico T Olmec culture as epigonal or decadent (Bernal de Tres Zapotes (RATZj mapped and conducted 1969: II2j Diehl 1989: 32, 1906: 32; Diehl and an intensive surface collection program to Coe 1095: 13; Miller 1986: 371. In recent years, obtain chronologically sensitive household­ however, the discovery of La Mojarra Stela I scale data on the distribution of residential has reminded us that the Gulf Coast successors occupation and craft production. In this essay to the Olmecs made impressive strides in the I consider the surface distributions of Forma­ development of writing, calendrical systems, tive period ceramics collected in the 1095 and political institutions iJusteson and Kauf­ season, their relationship to mounded con­ man (093). As Richard Diehl observes in the struction and sculpture, and their implications epigraph, we understand very little abolIt the for political changes accompanying the Olmec Reconstructed front '111d transition fro111 Olmec to Epi-Olmec society. to Epi-Olmec transition. back Vlews (from two Our ignorance has both chronological and geo­ I begin by summarizing previous research fr~gmentsl of Stela C, Tre' Zapot~s, Veracruz, showing graphical components; research has slighted at Tres Zapotes and discussing the significance one of Mesoamerica's both the Late Formative period and the ances­ of the site's regional ecological setting, then earlIest Long Count calendar dates (32 lJ,c,l tral Olmec culture in the western heartland descrihe the physical organization of archi­ Dr;J\\'lllg h) AV~lX MOICn\) COllTtL:'iY where Epi-Olmec society flourished. tecture and artifact distributions as revealed 01 Ncw World An.:h<lco[O,t::il:;l! FOllnd~tilln Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, is a logical place in by our recent investigations. Next, I provide 1\7 an updated interpretation of site chronology and apply it to a reconstruction of the occu­ pational history of Tres Zapotcs. This recon­ struction provides the basis for the subsequent discussion of continuity from Olmec to Epi­ Olmcc culture and the evolution of political organization at Tres Zapotes. I conclude with a model of political evolution that takes into account the ecological setting of Tres Zapotes, the history of regional political and economic systems, and the development of new forms of political expression. History of Research Tres Zapotes first attracted scholarly attention in 1869 when Jose Melgar reported the dis­ covery of a colosscll head by a compesino on the Hacienda Hucyapan (fig. i). Seventy years later, in 1939, Matthew Stirling initiated the first modern exploration of an Olmec site at Tres Zapotes. His discovery of Stela C, and Marion Stirling's reconstruction of a Cycle 7 baktun coefficient for its inscribed Long Count date, provided early support for a Formative placement of Olmec culture [fig. 2) (Stirling 1940). Working with Stirling, Philip Drucker [19431 conducted the first stratigraphic exca­ vations in an Olmec center and worked out a general ceramic chronology, later revised by Michael Coe in 1965 and refined by Ponciano Ortiz in 1975. The stone monuments of Tres Zapotes, which now numher more than forty, have been the subiect of several studies (Porter 1989), including Howell Williams' and Robert Heizer's (196 sllandmark petrographic c1l1alysis, and the obsidian assemhlage of the site was one of the first in Mesoamerica to he characterized hy physicochemical means [Hester et al. Il)71). Although Tres Zapotes figured prominently in the early history of Olmec studies, it was soon eclipsed hy the spectacular finds cit La Venta Regional Setting [Stirling 1943,1947; Drucker [9<;2; Drucker et a1. 1959) and San Lorenzo (Stirling 1947; Cae The westernmost of the major Formative I. Tr~s Z"potes Monumcnt 1968; Coe and Diehl i9S0). As these eastern period centers in the O]mec heartland, Tres A, the Caheza Colusal Je HoeyapclI1, Formative periuJ, sites became the paragons of Olmec culture, Zapotes occupies an area of rolling sedimen­ basalt ecological explanations of Olmec evolution tary uplands between the volcanic massif of came to focus on the peculiarities of their low­ the Sierra de los Tuxtlas on the east and the 2. Stela C. upper portiun land riverine settings, and Olmec social com­ alluvial plain of the Rio iJapaloapan and its showing Initial Series glyph plexity became the "Gift of the River" (Coe anJ baktun codncicnt of tributaries on the west (fig. 31. This ecologi­ Lung Cuunt date, Formative 1\)81). As a result, scholars have underapprcci­ cally diverse setting provided the people of Tres period, ~tooe ated the significance of variation in the regional Zapotes with most of the resources they settings of heartland Olmec sites. required for their basic livelihood. The lclkes and swamps of the Papaloapan basin teemed 138 POOL with aquatic resources, and the alluvial plain argued that the distribution of major Olmec provided vast expanses of fertile agricultural centers and their association with specific sets land. If, as Drucker (194J: 8) believed, the sedi­ of natural resources reflect a system of coop­ mentary uplands were less intensively culti­ erative exchange based on zonal complemen­ vated, they would have provided diverse forest tarity, which would have been under the resources in addition to underlying deposits of control of chiefs who may have reinforced the high-quality pottery clays. Most significantly, ties between centers through marriage alliances the inhabitants exploited the nearby slopes of [Grove 1994: 228; see also Arnold, this volume). Cerro El Vigfa and the ravines descending from I argue here that the location of Tres Zapotes them for the distinctive porphyritic basalt from vis-a-vis other Gulf Coast centers and natural which they fashioned stone monuments and resource zones is important for understanding grinding implements. The only commonly used the history of its growth and sociopolitical material that was not available nearby was ob­ organization. First, however, I update the pic­ sidian; it does not occur naturally in the Sierra ture of the site's geography as it has been re­ de los Tuxtlas. Chemical analyses indicate that vealed through recent archaeological fieldwork. the people of Tres Zapotes looked westward for sources of obsidian, the bulk of which they Site Layout obtained from the Pico de Orizaba, Guadalupe Victoria, ZanIgoza, and Oyameles sources in The archaeologiccll site of Tres Zapotes covers central Veracruz and Puebla (Hester et al. 1971). about 450 hectares on either side of a large As David Grove [1994: 227-228) has empha­ bend in the Arroyo Hueyapan (fig. 4). Alluvial sized, the upland environment of Tres Zapotes terraces hound the floodplain of the arroyo to differs significantly from the riverine and estu­ the east and west. Cerro Rabon and Cerro arine settings of the more intensively studied Nestepe, two hills formed by resistant volcanic eastern heartland sites of San Lorenzo and La ash deposits, or la/a, rise above the phlin on Venta. Taking note of the environmental diver­ the east bank of the arroyo. A broad ravine sity of the Olmec heartland, Grove has recently delimits the northern edge of the site. ). Thc upland landscape of Tres Zaporcs, vicw from Group, toward Cerro EI Vigia Most of the mounds at Tres Zapotes, includ­ ing the three major formal mound groups, arc TRES ZAPOTES located on the Hoodplain and terraces to the west of the Arroyo Hueyapan. The three major mound groups arc separated from one another by distances of.') to 1 kilometer. Stirling (1943) and Drucker (19431 identified these as Group CERRO NESTEPE I, Group 2, and Group 3. Clarence Weiant [1943] identified Group I as the Caheza Group for the colossal head [Mon. A) that was found there, NESTEPE and the other two as the Arroyo Group and the NEW LANDS GROUP North Group for their locations. Group I and Group 2 have several features in common: tTC­ RANCHITO • tangular plazas oriented a few degrees north of GROUP • N east (84' and 80°, respectivelYl, long mounds c on the northern edges of plazas, prominent E , .er-1-~ GROUP 2 0 conical mounds located at either end of plazas, A • B low mounds on center lines within plazas, and GROUP 1 • E F A prominent flanking mounds on the eastern , c.• ends of groups.
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