Charles River Editors - The Olmec and Toltec: The History of Early Mesoamerica’s Most Influential Cultures

By Charles River Editors

A sculpted head made by the Olmec circa 1200-900 B.C. Photo by Maribel Ponce Ixba

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The Olmec

An Olmec mask made of jade.

The Olmec people are widely recognized as the first major civilization of Mexico and are thus generally regarded as the mother civilization of Mesoamerica, making them the people from which all subsequent Mesoamerican cultures derived. In fact, the term Olmec is thought to have originated with the Aztec people, as Olmec in their Nahuatl language means the rubber people, a reference to the inhabitants of the land from which they accessed rubber. By and large, the Olmec culture is perhaps best identifiable by their so-called colossal heads, mammoth basalt head-statues wearing helmet-like headdresses found throughout Olmec habitation sites.

Around 2500 B.C., the Olmec settled primarily along Mexico's Gulf Coast in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico (in the modern-day States of Veracruz and Tabasco), and they flourished during North America's Prehistoric Indian Formative period from about 1700-400 B.C. Their direct cultural contributions were still evident as late as 300 A.D. Among Mesoamerican scholars, the Formative period is subdivided into the Preclassic (Olmec period), Classic (Maya period), and Postclassic (Toltec and Aztec periods).

The Olmecs agricultural abilities sustained them and ensured their power and influence for over a millennium. They produced corn/maize, squash, and other plant foods in such quantities that they were afforded the manpower to build great monuments and ceremonial centers to further promote their cultural identity. From a cultural standpoint, their pyramids, open plazas, their ballgame, and possibly even centers of human sacrifice are thought to have established the societal model that subsequent societies like the Maya, Zapotec, Teotihuacano, Toltec, Mixtec, and Aztec would emulate. In the same vein, some scholars believe that they also affected the cultural development of the Native American groups of the United States and those of Central and South America as well. Proving to be one the most enduring models ever, the religious and cultural structure the Olmec established held reign for over 3,000 years, and it would likely have endured much longer without the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors.

The Toltec

Toltec pyramid at Tula

Depiction of a snake-bird god, possibly Quetzalcoatl, at the Temple of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli in Tula. Photo by HJPD

The Toltec are one of the most famous Mesoamerican groups in South America, but they are also the most controversial and mysterious. The Toltec have been identified as the group that established a strong state centered in Tula (in present-day Mexico), and the Aztec claimed the Toltec as their cultural predecessors, so much so that the word Toltec comes from the Aztecs word Tltcatl, translated as artisan. The Aztec also kept track of the Toltecs history, including keeping a list of important rulers and events, that suggest the peak of the Toltec occurred from about 900-1100 A.D.

From the moment Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes first found and confronted them, the Aztecs have fascinated the world, and they continue to hold a unique place both culturally and in pop culture. Nearly 500 years after the Spanish conquered their mighty empire, the Aztecs are often remembered today for their major capital, Tenochtitlan, as well as being fierce conquerors of the Valley of Mexico who often engaged in human sacrifice rituals. Ironically, and unlike the Mayans, the Aztecs are not widely viewed or remembered with nuance, in part because their own leader burned extant Aztec writings and rewrote a mythologized history explaining his empires dominance less than a century before the Spanish arrived.

Thus, even as historians have had to rely on Aztec accounts to trace the history and culture of the Toltec, they have had to deal with the fact that the evidence is fragmentary and incomplete. Given the fact that the Aztec leaders engaged in revisionist history, it becomes even more difficult to be sure that the Aztec accounts of the Toltec are accurate, with some scholars going so far as to call the Toltec culture nothing but myth.

While scholars continue to debate whether the Toltec were an actual historical group, there is an added layer of mystery to the fact that the settlement at Tula has a lot in common with the famous Mayan settlement at Chichn Itz. The architecture and art at both sites are so similar that archaeologists and anthropologists have assumed they had the same cultural influences, even as historians struggle to determine the historical timelines, and thus whether Tula influenced Chichn Itz or vice versa.

The Olmec and Toltec: The History of Early Mesoamericas Most Influential Cultures comprehensively covers the history, culture, and lingering mysteries behind the Olmec and Toltec. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about the two groups like you never have before.

Spelling of proper names of individuals, various Mesoamerican groups, and geographic locations can vary due to historical, cultural, and linguistic tradition. In this text, application of the singular Olmec rather than Olmecs is used according to scholarly, anthropological criteria, notwithstanding the fact that several scholars use the plural.

While the terms tribe and Indian are widely considered socially insensitive and historically inaccurate, they are used here in deference to traditional Mesoamerican history. Similarly, while the term civilization is considered subjective and Eurocentric, it is generally preferred by scholars of Central and South America and should be considered equivalent to the term culture.

Lastly, any inconsistencies regarding dates or sequence of events is a result of conflicting and often competing historical accounts.

Olmec painting in the Juxtlahuaca cave. Photo by Matt Lachniet, University of Nevada at Las Vegas