Everyone knows the Mayan calendar, the gold of the Aztecs. But in the shadow of the general public remains the foremother of Indian cultures - the Olmec civilization.
The calendar, the system of numbers, the mythology of the werewolf jaguar are the fruits of the Olmecs. The Aztecs and Maya only inherited these achievements of the ancient people who lived before them. Olmecs is a conventional name taken from the historical chronicles of the Aztecs. There is no information about the name of the inhabitants of Central America, who created settlements along the Gulf of present-day Mexico City in the period from 1200 to 600 BC.
Who are the Olmecs, African tribes or proto-Indians, and how their civilization arose, no one knows. Scientists have to be content with guesses and assumptions. Some are promoting the version of the consolidation of aboriginal farmers into a cultural society. Others are inclined to trust the ancient legend telling about the migration of unknown peoples from overseas.
The Olmecs were successful in farming, cultivating mainly maize, as well as pumpkins and beans. They traded with other peoples, covering vast territories. But most of all, their level of skill in stone processing is admired. Olmecs own small and monumental stone statues, altars and even conical pyramids. A close study of this layer of Central American culture began with the publication of materials about a giant basalt head from Tres Zapotes. Some of these heads weigh about 25 tons and reach a height of 2.5 meters. It is not clear how ancient people managed to carve such exquisite shapes from such a durable material. Presumably, the slanting and thick-lipped faces of the ruling elite of the Olmecs were immortalized in the stone.
The largest settlements of the Olmecs are considered to be San Lorenzo, Tenochtitlan and Portero Nuevo. San Lorenzo was built on an artificial earth embankment in the middle of the swamps. The city had a well-designed underground water supply system. The townspeople were engaged in pottery, processing jadeite and jade, traded in obsidian, magnetic iron ore, coil and other stones.
A clay pyramid with a height of 31 meters towered on the central square, the top of which was crowned with a temple with a sacrificial fire. Apparently, this people respected the elements of nature. The deity of the Jaguar occupied a special place in the life of the Olmecs. Archaeologists have found many masks with half-feline, half-human features. Mythological perception is reflected in art objects, where the realistic and the supernatural are combined into a harmonious whole.
This is a phantom people, a mystery people that appeared in an incomprehensible way and also quickly and strangely disappeared by the 5th century BC. There are no traces of the emergence and development of culture. The dialect and their ethnicity are not known. Not a single surviving skeleton has been found that could answer these questions.