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Recalls the major events of the Olmec Civilization from its beginning in 1200 BCE, applied to its geography and its relation to the development of the society.

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Olmec Civilization Timeline: 1200 BCE to 300 BCE

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Olmec Civilization Timeline: 1200 BCE to 300 BCE

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Displays the central regions of the Olmec, the yellow dots depict significant Olmec settlements and the red dots represent archeological finds. 

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The Peak of the Olmec Civilization, Geographically

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The Peak of the Olmec Civilization, Geographically

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As one of the first major civilizations in Mexico, the Olmec Civilization was centered around the Gulf of Mexico, a body of water that drove the main cultivation and agriculture in Mesoamerica.
Amongst the cities shown in the scale of the map above, San Lorenzo and La Venta were the most critical settlements, holding major ceremonial centers and artifacts such as the Olmec colossal heads that provided great value to archeologists and historians.

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Final Olmec Civiliation Primary Cities Map

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Politics, Economic, & Social Structure: The Olmecs

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Politics, Economic, & Social Structure: The Olmecs

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Most of what modern-day society has learned about the Olmec Civilization has come from archeological artifacts and sites that were discovered in the mid 20th century.
Olmec colossal heads, a distinctive example of this, had first begun to appear around the late 1930s. Later on, historians and archeologists had started to notice a pattern between these artifacts they had excavated: A variety of features, headdresses and symbols. These scientists had just run across an ancient portrait, and most likely a depiction of rulers or prominent leaders in a centralized monarchy.

In society, the Olmecs were one of the first civilizations of Mesoamerica to have specialized weapons: sharpened tips of black obsidian. Social structure is an unknown class for archeologists about the Olmecs, but multiple historians have inferred that population pressure had naturally stratified the population.
Beans, squash and maize corn were a few of the primary agricultural factors that drove the economy in the Olmec Civilization, and was also influenced by the mass trading network that was developed. The conditions for cultivation were the most dependent on the fertile well-watered coastal areas along the Gulf of Mexico.

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One of the eight deities of the Olmec and Mayan Civilizations, labeled by modern archeologists/historians as the feathered serpent. 

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In the Olmec Civilization, artwork provided insights to the religious aspect of the Olmecs and their lifestyle. Traditional forms of Olmec art include stone carvings, wood carvings, and cave paintings.
Olmec art was defined specifically by an array of natural elements: Often incorporating jade, clay, basalt, and greenstone. In specifically clay masks and stone carvings like the colossal heads, sometimes historians/archeologists could identify patterns and possible features of the Olmec people.
Some of the major achievements of the Olmec Civilization includes creating one of the first Hieroglyphic systems of writing in Mesoamerica, and develop a calendar.
From various artworks of the Olmec Civilization, historians can draw the conclusion that the Olmec people worshipped at least eight androgynous deities, meaning that they were polytheistic.
Some of the names given to these deities by modern-day scientists include Maize deity, Rain spirit or Were- Jaguar, the Fish or Shark Monster, Bird monster, the Olmec Dragon etc. It was speculated by many historians that Olmec religious practices included shamans, elite rulers, or priests making offerings at religious sites (similar to the ones found in San Lorenzo and La Venta.

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The Mayan Civilization: Peak and Summary

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The Mayan Civilization: Peak and Summary

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The Mayan Civilization inhabited Mexico and Central America: specifically Yucatan, Campeche, El Salvador, Tabasco, and Honduras. The dense jungle and its climate, kept the Mayan cities isolated and forced the Mayan Civilization to be farther spread apart, meaning they were never a unified empire. Despite the threat of volcanoes, the fertile valleys and the soil in the environment of the Mayan Civilization was one of the best. In some cases, the thick forests were transformed into wetlands for cultivation to evade the occasionally extreme weather.
The Mayan people worshipped their ancestors and gods, participating in beliefs that there was no such thing as death and birth. Some of the most significant achievements of the Mayan Civilization included one of the most sophisticated writing systems of the word at the time. The Mayans also favored math and created their own calendar. In art, royal courts were reserved for art and a prominent portion of the art coming from this civilization were painted with blue and green.
Within economics, the Mayans cultivated most commonly corn, beans, and squash. To control the flow of water, some of the Mayans' inventions included holding facilities, dams and aqueducts. There was a social structure adopted in which each ruler was allowed to follow his own path to get the upper hand over other leaders.

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Three Significant Figures of the Mayan Civilization

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Three Significant Figures of the Mayan Civilization

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The first significant figure of the Mayan Civilizations was a women named Lady K'abel. Lady K'abel was one of the greatest rulers of the Wak Kingdom between 672 and 692 AD, as she had achieved one of the most powerful positions in her empire: "ix kaloomte" also known as "Lady Warlord" or "Lady Overlord".
The second important figure of the Mayan Civilization was Jasaw Chan K'awiil I who was the ruler of the Mayan city of Tikal. He reigned from 682 till his death in 734. His significant contributions included his buildings and the structures that his reign left behind, such as The Great Jaguar, which was excavated and utilized by archeologists to draw conclusions about the history of the Mayan Civilization.
The third significant figure of the Mayan Civilization included Hunac Ceel, a Mayan general from the Cocom dynasty, who defeated Chichen Itza. He yet rose to power in Uxmal after being thrown in a sacrificial pit and established himself as the lord of Mayapan.

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Only one of the seventeen found Olmec Colossal Heads in Mesoamerica.

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How did the cities interact with one another and what was exchanged?

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How did the cities interact with one another and what was exchanged?

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The Olmec Civilization had various modes of communication such as hieroglyphics, as one of the first civilizations in Mesoamerica to develop a writing system with a syllabic script and (according to linguistic evidence) lived in a region of Mixe-Zoquean languages.
In the aspect of exchange, the Olmec Civilization was able to trade forms of obsidian, jade, serpentine, rubber, pottery, and polished mirrors, which were all rich stones or material that were original to their geographical environment and climate. Trading mainly benefited the Olmecs with their urban centers in San Lorenzo and La Venta, two highly populated cities that were used for ceremonial sites and practices.

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[Olmec Civilization Map, Olmec Civilization Geography Archive] https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/world-history-beginnings/ancient-americas/a/the-olmec-article

[Olmec Civilization Geography Archive] https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/olmec-civilization

[Timeline, Artifact Source Information] https://www.worldhistory.org/Olmec_Civilization/

[Timeline] https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/the-olmecs-d384b873-8341-4575-a950-377b8272fdcc

[Significant Figures of Mayan Civilization]
https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/maya-history/important-people-ancient-maya-civilization/

[Primary Source Information]
https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~kennyk/Project/New/Olmecs.html#:~:text=Contributions,system%20known%20in%20the%20Americas.