Petroglyph 1

The concept of “the Olmec” emerged with the discovery and comparison of monumental and small-scale sculptures whose forms showed similarities, and even identical characteristics, that were different from those of sculptures from other ancient Mexican cultures known at the time. This surprising and novel artistic style was an indication of the first, firm imprints of high civilization in the Mesoamerican region.

The Southwest touched my imagination when, as a college student in Nebraska in the early 1960s, I received a letter and some photographs from my friend Deane who had stopped in Arizona while traveling west; she described the towering rock formations around Sedona and the studio she was renting, once the residence of Surrealist artist Max Ernst, who left behind a yard still strewn with sculptural fragments. Among these was one that I was amazed to identify as the original for his famous 1948 …

From south to north, the coastal plains with their dense forests can be divided into three archaeological regions. (1) The deltas of the rivers of southern Veracruz and Tabasco, on the gulf side of the isthmus of Tehuantepec. These were occupied by the main trunk of Olmec civilization, which had other manifestations from pre-Classic times onwards, in Central America, in Oaxaca, in the Guerrero and Puebla highlands, and in the Valley of Mexico. (2) Central Veracruz, including the Mistequilla …