Definition
Tres Zapotes (Tres sah-po-tes, or "three sapodillas") is an important Olmec site located in the state of Veracruz, in the south-central lowlands of the Gulf coast of Mexico. It is considered the third most important Olmec site, after San Lorenzo and La Venta.
Tres Zapotes flourished during the Late Formative/Late Preclassic period (after 400 BC) and was occupied for almost 2000 years, until the end of the Classic period and into the Early Postclassic. The most important findings at this site include two colossal heads and the famous stelae C.
Archaeological Investigations at Tres Zapotes
Archaeological interest at Tres Zapotes begun at the end of the 19th century, when in 1867 the Mexican explorer José Melgar y Serrano reported seeing an Olmec colossal head in the village of Tres Zapotes. Later on, in the 20th century other explorers and local planters recorded and described the colossal head. In the 1930s famous archaeologist Matthew Stirling undertook the first excavation at the site. After that, several projects, by Mexican and United Sates institutions, have been carried out at Tres Zapotes. Among the archaeologists who worked at Tres Zapotes we can include: Philip Drucker and Ponciano Ortiz Ceballos. However, compared to other Olmec sites, Tres Zapotes is still poorly known.
Tres Zapotes Cultural Development
The site of Tres Zapotes lies on the hillside of a swampy area, near the rivers Papaloapan and San Juan, in southern Veracruz, Mexico. The site counts more than 150 structures and about forty stone sculptures. Tres Zapotes was one of the main Olmec center after the decline of San Lorenzo and La Venta. When the Olmec culture stated to wane, at around 400 BC, Tres Zapotes continued to be occupied until the Early Postclassic ca AD 1200.
Most of the stone monuments at Tres Zapotes date to the Epi-Olmec period (which means post-Olmec), a period that began around 400 BC and signaled the decline of the Olmec world. The artistic style of these monuments shows a gradual decline of Olmec motifs and more connections with the Isthmian region of Mexico and the highlands of Guatemala. To this Epi-Olmec period pertains also the famous Stelae C. This monument features the second oldest Mesoamerican Long Count calendar date: 31 BC. Half of Stela C is on display in the local museum; the other half at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City,
Archeologists believe that during the Late Formative/Epi-Olmec period (400 BC - AD 250/300) Tres Zapotes was occupied by people with stronger connections with the Isthmian region of Mexico, probably Mixe, a group from the same linguistic family of the Olmec.
After the decline of the Olmec culture, Tres Zapotes continued to be an important regional center, but by the end of the Classic period the site was in decline and was abandoned during the Early Postclassic.
Site Layout
More than 150 structures compose the site layout of Tres Zapotes. These mounds, only few of them excavated, are mainly residential platforms clustered in different groups. The residential core is occupied by Group 2, whose structures are organized around a central plaza and are almost 40 ft tall. Group 1 and the Nestepe Group are other important residential groups located in the immediate periphery of the site. Contrary to other Olmec sites, Tres Zapotes features a dispersed settlement model, possibly because most of its constructions date to the Epi-Olmec period.
It is interesting that the two colossal heads found at Tres Zapotes, monument A and monument Q, were not found in the core zone of the site, but rather in the residential periphery, in Group 1 and Nestepe Group.
Because of its long occupation sequence, Tres Zapotes is a key site not only for understanding the development of the Olmec culture, but, more in general, the transition from Preclassic to Classic period in the Gulf Coast and in Mesoamerica.
Sources
This glossary entry is part of the About.com Guide to the Olmec, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Killion, Thomas W. and Javier Urcid, 2001, The Olmec Legacy: Cultural Continuity and Change in Mexico's Southern Gulf Coast Lowlands, Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 28, No. 1/2, pp. 3-25.
Manzanilla Linda and Leonardo Lopez Lujan (eds.), 2001 [1995], Historia Antigua de Mexico, Miguel Angel Porrúa, Mexico City.
Pool, Christopher (Ed.), 2003, Settlement Archaeology and Political Economy at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico, Monograph, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Los Angeles
Pool, Christopher, 2007, Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press