Antiquities Exhibits

Mesoamerica gave rise to a group of stratified, culturally related agrarian civilizations spanning an approximately 3,000-year period before European arrival.  This assortment of ancient cultures that shared religious beliefs, art, architecture, and technology included the Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, Huastec, Purepecha (also known as the Tarascans), Toltec, and Mexica/Aztecs.  These indigenous civilizations built pyramid-temples, and developed mathematics,  astronomy, medicine, a unique writing system, highly accurate calendars, fine arts, intensive agriculture, engineering, an abacus calculator, and complex theology.  Their number system was base 20 and included zero.  While many city-states, kingdoms, and empires competed with one another for power and prestige, they consolidated power and distributed influence in matters of trade, art, politics, technology, and theology.  Evidence of trade routes starting as far north as the Mexico Central...

The Olmecs were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they occupied the tropical lowlands of the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that the Olmecs derived in part from the neighboring Mokaya or Mixe–Zoque cultures. The Olmec appeared to practice ritual bloodletting and played the Mesoamerican ballgame, hallmarks of nearly all subsequent Mesoamerican societies. The antiquity of the Olmec civilization of ancient Mexico only became apparent with the advent of radiocarbon dating in the middle of the twentieth century. Olmec artists mastered an array of media and produced representations that range from refined miniatures in precious jadeite or wood, to monumental works in basalt. Now considered the first great sculptural tradition in the ancient Americas, these images remind us that naturalism is not necessarily the result of an evolution: Olmec sculptures often demonstrate a striking...