After 1200 BCE (years presented in this essay are uncalibrated), distinctive ceramic vessels – Olmec pottery – appeared at select sites across the vast region that anthropologists refer to as Mesoamerica (southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and eastern Honduras; Fig. 1). While exchange and interaction between regions existed prior to this time, in the case of Olmec pottery, the ceramic vessels display a consistent iconography that often contrasts with local pottery traditions. The iconography exhibited on Olmec pottery may represent developing religious beliefs, cosmology and ideology, elements of which can be found in subsequent Mesoamerican groups. While features of the religion and cosmology existed prior to 1200 BCE, Olmec pottery synthesizes and abstracts these concepts on durable material. As such, understanding the origin and spread of Olmec pottery has important implications on the nature of Mesoamerican civilization.
Map of Mesoamerica, with modern national boundaries...
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Blomster, J. (2008). Ceramics: Olmec Pottery. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9740
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