La Joya (archaeological site) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Olmec Culture – Archaeological Site





Name:	La Joya
Type	Mesoamerican archaeology
Location	Medellín, Veracruz Medellín, Veracruz Medellín is a Municipality in Veracruz, Mexico. It is located in central zone of the State of Veracruz, about 100 km from state capital Xalapa. It has a surface of 370.14 km2.... , Veracruz Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
Region	Mesoamerica Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...
Coordinates	19°01′42"N 96°09′7.76"W
Culture	Olmec Olmec The Olmec were the first major Pre-Columbian civilization in Mexico. They lived in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the modern-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco....
Language
Chronology	200 BCE to 1000 CE
Period	Mesoamerican Preclassical, Classical
Apogee
INAH Web Page	Non existent

La Joya is a mesoamerica

Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...

n prehispanic archeological site, located in the municipality of Medellín, Veracruz

Medellín, Veracruz

Medellín is a Municipality in Veracruz, Mexico. It is located in central zone of the State of Veracruz, about 100 km from state capital Xalapa. It has a surface of 370.14 km2....

in central Veracruz

Veracruz

Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...

, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, about 15 kilometers from the Veracruz City, near the confluence of the Jamapa and Cotaxtla Rivers.

The site, discovered and registered in 1935, is known as “La Joya de San Martin Garabato” and comprises several earthen structures from an alleged early Olmec origin.

Remains of a continued human occupation throughout the classical period (200 BCE – 1000 CE) have been found), about 95% of the structures are destroyed by the common human carelessness and destruction.

This city probably was an important political center in Veracruz, similar to Cerro de las Mesas, with monumental stamped earthen architecture.

Two monumental platforms, apparently palatial residences, revealed a chronology during the first millennium CE, suggesting a well-organized society, providing new information on the Protoclassical (epi-Olmec) and Classical society.

Background

The history of the native peoples of the state of Veracruz is complex. In the pre-Columbian period, the modern-day state of Veracruz was inhabited primarily by four indigenous cultures. The Huastecos and Otomis

Otomi people

The Otomi people . Smaller Otomi populations exist in the states of Puebla, Mexico, Tlaxcala, Michoacán and Guanajuato. The Otomi language belonging to the Oto-Pamean branch of the Oto-Manguean language family is spoken in many different varieties some of which are not mutually intelligible.One of...

occupied the north, while the Totonac

Totonac

The Totonac people resided in the eastern coastal and mountainous regions of Mexico at the time of the Spanish arrival in 1519. Today they reside in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, and Hidalgo. They are one of the possible builders of the Pre-Columbian city of El Tajín, and further maintained...

s resided in the north-center. The Olmec

Olmec

The Olmec were the first major Pre-Columbian civilization in Mexico. They lived in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the modern-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco....

s, one of the oldest cultures in the Americas, became dominant in the southern part of Veracruz. Remains of these past civilizations can be found in archeological sites such as Pánuco, Castillo de Teayo

Castillo de Teayo (Mesoamerican site)

Castillo de Teayo is a mesoamerican Prehispanic archeological site and Mesoamerican pyramid, located in the La Huasteca region in northern Veracruz, Mexico...

, El Zapotal, Las Higueras, Quiahuiztlán , El Tajín

El Tajín

El Tajín is a pre-Columbian archeological site and was the site of one of the largest and most important cities of the Classic era of Mesoamerica. The city flourished from 600 to 1200 C.E. and during this time numerous temples, palaces, Mesoamerican ballcourts and pyramids were built...

, Cempoala

Cempoala

Cempoala or Zempoala is an important Mesoamerican archaeological site located in the Úrsulo Galván Municipality, in the state of Veracruz...

, Tres Zapotes

Tres Zapotes

Tres Zapotes is a Mesoamerican archaeological site located in the south-central Gulf Lowlands of Mexico in the Papaloapan River plain. Tres Zapotes is sometimes referred to as the third major Olmec capital , although Tres Zapotes' Olmec phase constitutes only a portion of the site’s history, which...

and San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán

San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán

San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán is the collective name for three related archaeological sites -- San Lorenzo, Tenochtitlán, and Potrero Nuevo -- located in the southeast portion of the Mexican state of Veracruz. From 1200 BCE to 900 BCE, it was the major center of Olmec culture...

.

Chronology studies of archaeological sites in northern Veracruz show that the area has been occupied at least since 5600 B.C. and show how nomadic hunters and gatherers eventually became sedentary farmers, building more complex societies, even before the rise of the city of El Tajín.

The pace of this societal progression became more rapid with the rise of the neighboring Olmec

Olmec

The Olmec were the first major Pre-Columbian civilization in Mexico. They lived in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the modern-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco....

civilization around 1150 B.C., although the Olmecs were never here in great numbers.

The Olmecs

The first major civilization in territory of the current state is that of the Olmecs, whose origin is unknown. Theories vary, including one which has a group of people with Negroid features arriving to Campeche then north to Veracruz over 3,500 years ago. The Olmecs settled in the Coatzacoalcos River region and it became the center of Olmec culture. The main ceremonial center here was San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán. Other major centers in the state include Tres Zapotes in the city of Veracruz and La Venta

La Venta

La Venta is a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Olmec civilization located in the present-day Mexican state of Tabasco. Some of the artifacts have been moved to the museum "Parque - Museo de La Venta", which is in Villahermosa, the capital of Tabasco....

in Tabasco. The culture reached its height about 2600 years ago, with its best-known artistic expression being the colossal stone heads. These ceremonial sites were the most complex of that early time period. For this reason, many anthropologists consider the Olmec civilization to be the mother culture of the many Mesoamerican cultures that followed it. By 300 BCE, this culture was eclipsed by other emerging cultures in Mesoamerica.

The "Olmec heartland

Olmec heartland

The Olmec heartland is the southern portion of Mexico's Gulf Coast region between the Tuxtla mountains and the Olmec archaeological site of La Venta, extending roughly 80 km inland from the Gulf of Mexico coastline at its deepest...

" is an archaeological term used to describe an area in the Gulf

Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...

lowlands that is generally considered the birthplace of the Olmec culture. This area is characterized by swampy lowlands punctuated by low hills, ridges, and volcanoes. The Tuxtlas Mountains

Sierra de los Tuxtlas

The Sierra de Los Tuxtlas are a volcanic belt and mountain range along the southeastern Veracruz Gulf coast in southcentral Mexico....

rise sharply in the north, along the Gulf of Mexico's Bay of Campeche

Bay of Campeche

The Bay of Campeche is the southern bight of the Gulf of Mexico. It is surrounded on three sides by the Mexican states of Campeche, Tabasco and Veracruz. It was named by Francisco Hernández de Córdoba and Antonio de Alaminos during their expedition in 1517...

. Here the Olmecs constructed permanent city-temple complexes at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán

San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán

, La Venta

La Venta

, Tres Zapotes

Tres Zapotes

, and Laguna de los Cerros

Laguna de los Cerros

Laguna de los Cerros is a little-excavated Olmec and Classical era archaeological site, located in the vicinity of Corral Nuevo, within the municipality of Acayucan, in the Mexican state of Veracruz, in the southern foothills of the Tuxtla Mountains, some 30 kilometers south of the Catemaco.With...

. In this region, the Mesoamerican civilization would emerge and reign from c.1400–400 BCE.

Origins

What we today call Olmec first appears within the city of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, where distinctive Olmec features appear around 1400 BCE. Although Olmec civilization traces have been found all around Mesoamerica and it is considered that the Olmecs were the precursors of all regional civilizations.

The rise of civilization here was assisted by the local ecology of well-watered alluvial soil, as well as by the transportation network that the Coatzacoalcos River

Coatzacoalcos River

The Coatzacoalcos is a large river that feeds mainly the south part of the state of Veracruz; it originates in the Sierra de Niltepec and crosses the state of Oaxaca in the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, flowing for toward the Gulf of Mexico. Tributaries include El Corte, Sarabia,...

basin provided. This environment may be compared to that of other ancient centers of civilization: the Nile

Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...

, Indus, and Yellow River

Yellow River

The Yellow River or Huang He, formerly known as the Hwang Ho, is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, it flows through nine provinces of China and empties into...

valleys, and Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...

. This highly productive environment encouraged a densely concentrated population which in turn triggered the rise of an elite

Elite

Elite refers to an exceptional or privileged group that wields considerable power within its sphere of influence...

class. It was this elite class that provided the social basis for the production of the symbolic and sophisticated luxury artifacts that define Olmec culture. Many of these luxury artifacts, such as jade

Jade use in Mesoamerica

Jade use in Mesoamerica was largely influenced by the conceptualization of the material as a rare and valued commodity among pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, such as the Olmec, the Maya, and the various groups in the Valley of Mexico. The only source from which the indigenous cultures could...

, obsidian

Obsidian use in Mesoamerica

Obsidian is a naturally formed volcanic glass that was an important part of the material culture of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Obsidian was a highly integrated part of daily and ritual life, and its widespread and varied use may be a significant contributor to Mesoamerica's lack of metallurgy...

and magnetite

Magnetite

Magnetite is a ferrimagnetic mineral with chemical formula Fe3O4, one of several iron oxides and a member of the spinel group. The chemical IUPAC name is iron oxide and the common chemical name is ferrous-ferric oxide. The formula for magnetite may also be written as FeO·Fe2O3, which is one part...

, came from distant locations and suggest that early Olmec elites had access to an extensive trading network in Mesoamerica. The source of the most valued jade

Jade use in Mesoamerica

, for example, is found in the Motagua River

Motagua River

The Motagua River is a long river in Guatemala. It rises in the western highlands of Guatemala where it is also called Río Grande, and runs in an easterly direction to the Gulf of Honduras. The final few kilometres of the river form part of the Guatemala/Honduras border...

valley in eastern Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

, and Olmec obsidian has been traced to sources in the Guatemala highlands, such as El Chayal and San Martín Jilotepeque

San Martín Jilotepeque

San Martín Jilotepeque is a municipality in the Chimaltenango department of Guatemala.-See also:Chajoma...

, or in Puebla, distances ranging from 200 to 400 km away (120 – 250 miles away) respectively.

The Site

Site studies have been conducted since about 2004 to establish a more accurate chronological setting of the site, as well as its function and purpose of the structures.

For many years, the existence of thousands of sites is known, distributed across the Veracruz coastal plains, from the Antigua River down to the Coatzacoalcos and Grijalva Rivers, and even down to Campeche; although this type of construction is part of a little known tradition.

Therefore, these findings are unique, there is no information about earthen structures construction techniques in Central Veracruz.

Structures

Extensive stratigraphic excavations results provide that, although the platforms existed from the late preclassical period, during the early classical the main plaza had been constructed, bordered by the pyramid and the monumental north and east platforms, that had palaces probably with administrative, ritual and residential functions.

Ongoing exploration shows a complex building sequence, with evidence of refined architecture, and human burials with ceramic vessels and figurines offerings.

Excavations are only being conducted on the Pyramid, North Platform and East Platform.

Main Pyramid

The pyramid construction probably commenced in the early classical period (100 BCE–300CE), based on ceramic evidence comparisson with findings on the second stage of the North Platform. The three structures have a chronology spanning the first CE millennium.

The structure was 26 m high, and at least had two building stages, from ceramic remains dated between 100BCE–300CE, early classical and 800–1000 CE, late classical.

The pyramid, in 1999 was still a 22 m high structure, with 32 degree angle slopes, indicating the use of some technology to control structural pressures of the earthen fill.

The excavations show that the solution to this problem was alternating fill blocks (approximately 1 m high and more than 6 m on the side) made from clays and sandy loams, readily available in the site surrounding areas. The clay blocks due to their cohesiveness, would form buttresses containing the blocks of sandy loam. Inversely, the sandy loam blocks had better compaction, therefore providing a more stable surface.

The building had access stariways from the plaza level, the staircase had containment walls with sloping sides.

North Platform

This platform contains five buildings, from the second constructive stage; these were part of one of the palaces and probably were used for administrative purposes, with restricted access, with some residential and ceremonial areas.

East Platform

Located on the east side of the plaza, were the other palace was possibly erected, at about the same time as the other. Many ceramic figures of “nosed” characters have been found, these were not found on the northern palace.

Two structures surround the east plaza; these are believed to have been elite residences (palaces), suggesting an organized type of government, at least by 100BCE–100CE, providing new information on the late preclassical (epi-Olmec) and classical period society.

Burials

A series of paleosoil samples containing organic matter was found below the structures, possibly part of offerings.

The excavations revealed the existence burials containing offerings in all platforms, the burials contained human remains, ceramic vessels and figurines.

The earliest burial was found at the center of the pyramid, apparently deposited on top of paleosoil immediately before the construction. The ceremonial burials seems to have involved the burning of organic material, large patches of carbonized organic matter were located immediately on top of the paleosoil, below the sand fill of the structure.

Other deposits were found in a roughly symmetrical pattern along the central east-west axis. There are two deposits of human bones and a skull covered by a bowl, a complete vessel buried upside down, and lenticular patches of carboniferous earth.

External links

Medellín, Veracruz
Medellín, Veracruz
Medellín is a Municipality in Veracruz, Mexico. It is located in central zone of the State of Veracruz, about 100 km from state capital Xalapa. It has a surface of 370.14 km2....
Veracruz Government Portal
Veracruz Government official web page