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The Olmecs are often called the mother culture of Mesoamerica, and they left behind some of the strangest monuments in the Americas: giant stone heads with broad faces. In my research they sit at a crossroads of questions about who came to America first, whether giants lived there before them, and where the Atlantis tradition fits in. These are the pages where the Olmecs come up.
The colossal heads
On Exposing the African-Olmec Theory the first recorded Olmec head is found at Tres Zapotes in 1862, and the features of the heads lead some writers, among them Ivan Van Sertima, to argue for African visitors. The video takes that theory apart. On Pre-existing race of giants in the Americas the colossal heads are sometimes linked to legends of a race with extraordinary abilities.
From the East in ships
Ignatius Donnelly gathered the old reports on the Olmecs in his chapter on American Evidences of Intercourse with Europe Or Atlantis:
Of the Nahua predecessors of the Toltecs in Mexico the Olmecs and Xicalaucans were the most important. They were the forerunners of the great races that followed.
John T. Short, The North Americans of Antiquity (1880), quoted in Ignatius Donnelly, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World
The same passage says, after Ixtlilxochitl, that they came from the East in ships.
The giants before them
On Researches into the Lost Histories of America (1884) Brasseur de Bourbourg says the region was held by the Quinames, the giants, before the Olmecs, and that Tlaloc was one of their gods. On Atlantis: The Book of the Angels the Quinames stay in the mountains for centuries after the Olmecs arrive. I follow the rain god on Tlaloc: The Aztec Rain God and the Flood.
Cholula and the mother culture
On Temple of Cholula the great temple complex is credited to the Olmecs and later expanded by the Maya and Toltecs. On Ancient Civilizations and Mysteries: Exploring Mesoamerican Cultures the Olmecs appear as the mother culture of Mesoamerica, with the Maya rising after their decline.
Related pages
- Exposing the African-Olmec Theory
- Pre-existing race of giants in the Americas
- American Evidences of Intercourse with Europe Or Atlantis
- Researches into the Lost Histories of America (1884)
- Atlantis: The Book of the Angels
- Tlaloc: The Aztec Rain God and the Flood
- Temple of Cholula
- Ancient Civilizations and Mysteries: Exploring Mesoamerican Cultures
For every page I tagged with Olmecs, see the Olmecs tag archive.
