Olmec Political Economies

Abstract Olmecs of the Gulf Coast created the earliest, largest, and most spectacular cities in Mesoamerica during the Formative period (1400–100 BC). These cities were marked by public architecture, large stone monuments, and evidence of privileged consumption of special goods made by specialized artisans and imported from long distances. The labor on display at San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Tres Zapotes—three sequential Olmec capitals—was greater than that known for contemporaneous centers in their day. Remarkably, the domestic economies of these cities have not been determined. Corn does not appear to have been a staple for the early Olmecs at San Lorenzo, but it became so a few centuries later for the Olmecs who built La Venta and Tres Zapotes. The amount of stone and earth moved at each city, a surrogate measure of its economy, shows that the major labor investment for each was during its first century.