50 UNIT 1 PREHISPANIC MESOAMERICA
as jade figurines and celts have been found (see Figure 14.1 in Chapter 14). Monu-
mental architecture, rich tombs and offerings, and buried large mosaic masks all in-
dicate that La Venta was an elite residential area as well as a ceremonial center. By
the end of the Middle Formative period, La Venta was in decline and the extent of
widespread Olmec influence on the emerging Mesoamerican cultural tradition was
curtailed.
Linguists Lyle Campbell and Terrance Kaufman have postulated that the Olmecs
spoke a Mixe-Zoquean language. Although these languages are limited to highland
Oaxaca and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec today, in Olmec times Mixe-Zoque speak-
ers were most likely distributed across a wide area of southern Middle America ex-
tending from the Gulf Coast, across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and down the
Pacific Coast of Chiapas and Guatemala. In the Late Formative period, descendants
of the Olmecs played a significant role in the development of the earliest Mesoamer-
ican writing and directly influenced the evolution of the Maya writing system. An im-
portant key to this contribution is the recently discovered La Mojarra Stela 1 (see
Chapter 11).Figure 1.7 Giant Olmec
head from the site of San
Lorenzo, Mexico. Photo by
Robert Rosenswig.