La Venta - Discovery and Excavation

Discovery and Excavation

Frans Blom and Oliver La Farge made the first detailed descriptions of La Venta during their 1925 expedition, sponsored by Tulane University.

La Venta was first excavated by Matthew Stirling and Philip Drucker between 1940 and 1943, resulting in several articles by Stirling and in 1952 a two-volume monograph by Drucker. Stirling is sometimes credited with identifying the Olmec civilization; although some Olmec sites and monuments had been known earlier, it was Stirling's work that put the Olmec culture into context. In 1955 Drucker led a new excavation, concentrating on Complex A, with the findings published by as Drucker, Heizer and Squier, 1959. At this point most of the site was still unexcavated, and in a strongly worded passage Heizer reported that the site was inadequately protected by the Mexican government and a wave of illegal excavations followed the departure of the archaeologists, as well as damage by urban sprawl, the national oil company, Pemex, and the removal of large monuments to museums (without leaving markers as to their original positions).

Several subsequent excavations followed through the 1960s. On their return in 1967 Drucker and Heizer saw that, as others had already claimed, the vegetation previously covering the mound, as well as their own assumptions, had led to them previously publishing a completely wrong account of its shape. It was in fact a round fluted cone with ten ridges and depressions around it, rather than the sloping rectangle, leading to a flat platform that they had assumed. Possibly the shape was intended to match or represent the mountains nearby. Rebecca Gonzalez-Lauck led an INAH (Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia) team on digs here in the 1980s.

A ceramic cylinder was recovered from the La Venta site that dates to around 650 BCE that brings evidence to a writing system that existed at this site. A bird image is connected to two glyphs on speech scrolls that represent the date 3 Ajaw on the 260 day Mesoamerican calendar. The seal leads to the conclusion that writing existed as well as a 260 day calendar during this time period.