Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-r6qrq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T10:24:04.519Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

La Isla, Veracruz, 1991

A preliminary report, with comments on the olmec uplands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

David C. Grove
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 109 Davenport Hall, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

Abstract

This article reports on 1991 archaeological investigations at La Isla, a small site near the Olmec center of Laguna de los Cerros, Veracruz. Excavations of Mound D, the mound's possible association with three Olmec monument fragments found in the 1970s, and problems of site stratigraphy are discussed. The article concludes with comments on the western sector of the Olmec area. The overall distribution of major Olmec centers is then considered, and a “zonal complementarity” model associating the location of those centers with distinctive natural resources is introduced.

Type
Special Section: Southern Veracruz Archaeology
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bernal, Ignacio 1969 The Olmec World. University of California Press, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Bove, Frederick J. 1978 Laguna de los Cerros: An Olmec Central Place. Journal of New World Archaeology 2(3): 156.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D. 1981 Gift of the River: Ecology of the San Lorenzo Olmec. In The Olmec and Their Neighbors, edited by Benson, Elizabeth P., pp. 1520. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D., and Diehl, Richard A. 1980a The Archaeology of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan. In the Land of the Olmec, vol. 1. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Coe, Michael D., and Diehl, Richard A. 1980b The People of the River. In the Land of the Olmec, vol. 2. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
de la Fuente, Beatriz 1973 Escultura monumental olmeca: Catálogo. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico.Google Scholar
Drucker, Philip 1952 La Venta, Tabasco, a Study of Olmec Ceramics and Art. Bulletin No. 153. Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Drucker, Philip 1981 On the Nature of Olmec Polity. In The Olmec and Their Neighbors, edited by Benson, Elizabeth P., pp. 2947. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Drucker, Philip, Heizer, Robert F., and Squier, Robert J. 1959 Excavations at La Venta, Tabasco, 1955. Bulletin No. 170. Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Earle, Timothy K. 1976 Nearest-Neighbor Analysis of Two Formative Settlement Systems. In The Early Mesoamerican Village, edited by Flannery, Kent V., pp. 196223. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Gadacz, Rene R. 1979 Pre-Spanish Commerce in the Gulf Coast Lowlands of Mexico. Western Publishers, Calgary, Canada.Google Scholar
Gillespie, Susan D. 1994 Llano del Jícaro: An Olmec Monument Workshop. Ancient Mesoamerica 5:231242.Google Scholar
González, Lauck Rebecca 1988 Proyecto arqueológico La Venta. Arqueología 4:121165. Dirección de Monumentos Prehispánicos, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Grove, David C. 1984 Chalcatzingo: Excavations on the Olmec Frontier. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Grove, David C. 1992 Up-Dating Olmec Prehistory. National Geographic Society Research and Exploration 8(2): 148165.Google Scholar
Grove, David C., and Gillespie, Susan D. 1992 Informe Final del Proyecto La Isla-Llano del Jícaro, Veracruz, 1991. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Submitted to the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Grove, David C., and Gillespie, Susan D. 1993 Olmec Settlement and Subsistence at La Isla, Veracruz. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Submitted to the National Science Foundation, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Grove, David C., Gillespie, Susan D., Ponciano, Ortíz C., and Hayton, Michael 1993 Five Olmec Monuments from the Laguna de los Cerros Hinterland. Mexican 15:9195.Google Scholar
Guillén, Ann Cyphers 1984 The Possible Role of a Woman in Formative Exchange. In Trade and Exchange in Early Mesoamerica, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G., pp. 115123. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Guillén, Ann Cyphers 1990 Espacios domésticos olmecas en San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, Veracruz. Boletín del Consejo de Arqueología 1989:5455. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Guillén, Ann Cyphers 1992a Investigaciones recientes en San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, Veracruz: Temporada 1991. Boletín del Consejo de Arqueología 1991:6366. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Guillén, Ann Cyphers 1992b Social Contexts of San Lorenzo Sculptures. Paper presented at the 91st Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Guillén, Ann Cyphers 1993 From Stone to Symbols: Olmec Art in Social Context at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan. Paper presented at the 1993 Dumbarton Oaks Symposium, “Ritual Behavior, Social Identity, and Cosmology in Pre-Classic Mesoamerica.” Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Jiménez, Salas Oscar H. 1990 Geomorfología de la región de La Venta, Tabasco: Un sistema fluvio-laguna costero del cuaternario. Arqueología 3 (segunda época):316. Dirección de Arqueología, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Lynch, Thomas F. 1989 Regional Interaction, Transhumance, and Verticality: Archaeological Use of Zonal Complimentarity in Peru and Northern Chile. In Multidisciplinary Studies in Andean Anthropology, edited by Vitzthum, V.J., pp. 111. Michigan Discussions in Anthropology No. 8. Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Medellín, Zenil Alfonso 1960 Monolitos inéditos olmecas. La Palabra y el Hombre 16:7597. Universidad Veracruzana, Jalapa, Mexico.Google Scholar
Medellín, Zenil Alfonso 1971 Monolitos olmecas y otras en el Museo de la Universidad de Veracruz. Corpus Antiquitatum Americanensium V, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.Google Scholar
Murra, John V. 1972 El “control vertical” de un maximo de pisos ecológicos en la economía de las sociedades andinas, In Iñigo Ortiz de Zúñiga, Visita de la Provincia de Léon de Huánuco (1562), vol. II, pp. 429476. Universidad Nacional Hermilo Valdizan, Huánuco, Peru.Google Scholar
Ortíz, Geballos Ponciano 1979 Informe sobre el sitio de La Isla, Hueyapan de Ocampo, Veracruz. Unpublished technical report on file, Archivo Técnico, Instituto de Antropología, Universidad Veracruzana, Jalapa, Mexico.Google Scholar
Porter, James 1989 Olmec Colossal Heads as Recarved Thrones: “Mutilation,” Revolution and Recarving. Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics 17–18:2329.Google Scholar
Rust, William F., and Sharer, Robert J. 1988 Olmec Settlement Data from La Venta, Tabasco, Mexico. Science 242:102104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Santley, Robert S. 1992 A Consideration of the Olmec Phenomenon in the Tuxtlas; Early Formative Settlement Pattern, Land Use, and Refuse Disposal at Matacapan, Veracruz, Mexico. In Gardens of Prehistory: The Archaeology of Settlement Agriculture in Greater Mesoamerica, edited by Killion, Thomas W., pp. 150183. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Santley, Robert S. 1994 The Economy of Ancient Matacapan. Ancient Mesoamerica 5:243266.Google Scholar
Stirling, Matthew W. 1941 Expedition Unearths Buried Masterpieces of Carved Jade. National Geographic Magazine 80:277302.Google Scholar
Stirling, Matthew W. 1943a La Venta's Green Stone Tigers. National Geographic Magazine 80:321332.Google Scholar
Stirling, Matthew W. 1943b Stone Monuments of Southern Mexico. Bulletin No. 138. Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Stirling, Matthew W. 1947 On the Trail of La Venta Man. National Geographic Magazine 91:137172.Google Scholar
Stirling, Matthew W., and Stirling, Marion 1942 Finding Jewels of Jade in a Mexican Swamp. National Geographic Magazine 82:635661.Google Scholar
West, R.C., Psuty, N.P., and Thom, B.G. 1969 The Tabasco Lowlands of Southeastern Mexico. Coastal Study Series No. 27. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge.Google Scholar
Williams, Howel, and Heizer, Robert F. 1965 Sources of Rock Used in Olmec Monuments. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility 1:139. Berkeley.Google Scholar