La Venta
La Venta is the name of a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Olmec civilization located in the Mexican state of Tabasco.
Overview
The Olmec civilization was prominent in Mesoamerica from as early as 1500 BCE through 400 BCE. The Olmec heartland is an area on the south coast of the Gulf of Mexico coastal plain of southern Veracruz and Tabasco about 125 miles long and 50 miles wide (200 by 80 km), with the Coatzalcoalcos River system running through the middle. Olmec sites include San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, Laguna de los Cerros, and Tres Zapotes. La Venta is one of the greatest of the Olmec sites.
La Venta is dated to between 1200 BCE and 400 BCE with its greatest prominence coming after 900 BCE during the Middle Formative Period. The city was all but abandoned by the beginning of the fourth century BCE.[1]
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 10 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 north. The urbanized zone may have covered an area as large of 200 hectares.
Unlike later Maya or Aztec cities, there was little locally abundant stone for the construction of La Venta, and therefore nearly all structures were built from earth or clay. Large basalt stones were brought in from the Tuxtla mountains, but these were used nearly exclusively for monuments including the colossal heads, the "altars", and various stelae. For example, the basalt columns that surround Complex A were quarried from Punta Roca Partida, on the Gulf coast north of the San Andres Tuxtla volcano.[2]
Today, 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).
Major features of La Venta
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 those found at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, perhaps the most well known of the Olmec sites. It is calculated that the site supported a population of at least 18,000 people during its principal occupation.
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The major features of the site at La Venta are Complex A and the Great Pyramid (officially known as Complex C). One of the earliest pyramids known in Mesoamerica, the Great Pyramid is 110 ft (33 m) high and contains an estimated 100,000 cubic meters of earth fill. 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 most likely due to 2500 years of erosion. The pyramid itself has never been excavated, but a magnetometer survey in 1967 found an anomaly high on the south side of the pyramid. Speculation ranges from a section of burned clay to a cache of buried offerings to a tomb.
Complex A is a mound and plaza group located just to the north of the Great Pyramid. Surrounded by a series of basalt columns, 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 serpentine blocks were found in 3 large pits, known as the Massive Offerings. It is estimated that Massive Offering 3 contains 50 tons of carefully finished serpentine blocks, covered by 4000 tons of clay fill. [3]
Also unearthed were 4 rectangular pavements each roughly 15 ft × 20 ft and each consisting of about 485 blocks of serpentine. The mosaics are in what is thought to be the form of a very 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.
Five formal tombs were discovered within Complex A. Diehl states that these tombs "are so elaborate and so integrated to the architecture that it seems clear that Complex A really was a mortuary complex dedicated to the spirits of deceased rulers".[4]
Within Complex A, archaeologists also found Monument 19. This basalt (see photo below) is the earliest known example of the Feathered Serpent in Mesoamerica.
Monumental artifacts at La Venta
As evidenced by the many monuments and sculptures they have left behind, the Olmecs were a knowledgeable and artistic people. The site of La Venta itself included floors of different colored clays and platforms painted in red, yellow, and purple. La Venta is also notable for the quality and quantity of monumental artifacts, including stelae, colossal heads, and "altars".
Colossal heads
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).
Three of the heads -- Monuments 2, 3, & 4 -- were found roughly 150 meters north of Complex A, which is itself just north of the Great Pyramid. These heads were in a slightly irregular row, facing north. The other colossal head -- Monument 1 (shown at left) -- is a few dozen meters south of the Great Pyramid.
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 major basalt quarry for the colossal heads at La Venta was found at Cerro Cintepec in the Tuxtla Mountains, over 80 km away.[5]
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.
Note the rope that winds along the ground from the front figure to the side figure.
Altars 4 & 5
Several basalt "altars" were found at La Venta, the most familiar being Altar 4 and Altar 5. These altars roughly 2 meters high and twice as wide. Both feature an elaborately dressed and sculpted figures on the center front.
The figure at the front of Altar 4 is sitting inside what appears to be a cave and holding a rope, which wraps around the base of the altar to his right and left. On the left side, the rope is connected to a seated bas-relief figure. The right 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 of Altar 4 as a ruler, who is contacting or being helped by his ancestors, the figures on either side of the altar.[6] Alternatively, some believe the side figures to be bound captives.
Altar 5 sits facing Altar 4 across Structure D-8, one of the dozens of mounds at La Venta, the remains of platforms. Altar 5 is similar in design and size to Altar 4, except that the central figure holds an inert, perhaps dead, were-jaguar baby. The left side of Altar 5 feature bas-reliefs of humans holding quite lively were-jaguar babies. Like the Altar 4, the right side of Altar 5 has been thoroughly defaced.
This is a still from the Smithsonian Institute's Exploring Hidden Mexico (1943).
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.
Footnotes
© George & Audrey DeLange, used with permission.
See also
References
- Adams, Richard E W (1991) Prehistoric Mesoamerica, Revised Edition, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma.
- Coe, Michael; Snow, Dean; Benson, Elizabeth; (1986) Atlas of Ancient America; Facts on File, New York.
- Diehl, Richard A. (2004) The Olmecs: America's First Civilization, Thames & Hudson, London.
- Heizer, Robert F. (1967) "New Observations on La Venta", in Dumbarton Oaks Conference on the Olmec, Dumbarton Oaks, Washingon, D.C.