Some North American history from 1000-500BC

Olmec head sculpture from Tres Zapotes

This is a post about North American history from 1000-500BC. I am not an expert on this time period at all and there is much that is still unknown and being discovered by archaeologists but the broad outlines of what I will describe here will hopefully be mostly correct. The dates presented here will be very broad estimates and may well be wildly off. This is a time before writing in this part of the world so the main sources will be entirely archaeological but I may make some references to the beliefs of later cultures.

For the purposes of this blog, North America will comprise of Alaska, Canada, the continental USA, Mexico, all the Central American countries as far as Panama, the Caribbean Islands and, for good measure and because there was nowhere else to really put it, Greenland.

At the start of the period under discussion, the Olmec culture on the Caribbean coast of Mexico was flourishing. The main settlement here was the city now known as San Lorenzo, but there were also other settlements at La Venta and Tres Zapotes. These were the largest settlements in Mesoamerica, although even the great city of San Lorenzo probably had no more than 20,000 people in it at the highest of estimates. San Lorenzo had a large ceremonial site, complete with pyramid and central plaza.

The pyramid of San Lorenzo was matched by the site at Poverty Point, in what is now the state of Louisiana in the United States. This was a large site with massive prehistoric earthworks and a great mound which was the largest structure in North America for millennia afterwards. The culture that built these earthworks is known unimaginatively as the Poverty Point culture, named after the type site of the civilisation. The dwellers of the Mississippi floodplain were clearly quite organised, but they did not systematically use either agriculture or ceramic pots. They did bake clay, but did not create pottery as we know it.

Olmec stone head from La Venta

Around the century of the 1000’s BC the Woodland Period began in what is now the southern part of the continental US. This was a period where the inhabitants built mounds and engaged in trade, in a fashion quite similar to the Watson Brake and Poverty Point cultures, but covering a much larger area and extending much further northwards. The first of these cultures of note would be the Adena culture in what is now the Ohio region, but these would only flourish some time later.

In the century of the 900’s BC the impressive monuments of the Olmec city of San Lorenzo would be destroyed. The city of San Lorenzo falls into deep decline around this time. The city of La Venta would now become the most prominent Olmec city, with Tres Zapotes also becoming important. The destruction of the monument may have been the result of a natural catastrophe that led to the abandonment of the city. It may well have been an internal rebellion or an attack from the inhabitants of La Venta. We will probably never know exactly why San Lorenzo was damaged so badly, but these seem the most likely explanations. The population declined sharply and within a century barely anyone inhabited the city.

Ruins from the early Mayan
 city of Nakbe

The city of La Venta now began to reach its zenith and expanded, building temples and a great pyramid and carving more of the great stone heads for which the Olmec culture is so famed. It is from La Venta that the first representation of the feathered serpent is found in Mesoamerica.

It is around this time that the Cascajal Block, an early example of what may be proto-writing, was created in the Olmec regions. The stone was found by locals and not in a proper archaeological context, so dating is conjectural. It is also not clear if this was a full writing system, if it is writing at all, or if the artefact itself is even genuine. But it certainly raises the possibility that the Olmec civilisation had made the giant leap forward to becoming a literate civilisation.

Around the century of the 700's BC large structures begin to be built at the settlement of Nakbe, in present day Guatemala on the Yucatan peninsula. This is probably the earliest settlement of the Maya culture to reach the level of a city. The monumental architecture that would characterise later Mayan cities was there in Nakbe, including pyramids, palaces, elaborate tombs and causeways.

Also around this time, the Poverty Point culture in the Mississippi Valley seems to have come to an end. The proto-city of Poverty Point itself, with its great mounds and ridges, seems to have been abandoned and the people gathered there no more.

Far to the north in the lands of Greenland, the Dorset culture appears to have emerged from the previous culture, known as the Independence culture. The Dorset culture appears to have become almost too adapted to the frozen north. They had forgotten how to make drills or bows, but they were skilled at hunting animals in and on the ice. The Dorset later had settlements in Canada on the northern lands of what would now be called the province of Nunavut.

Walrus ivory carving of a polar bear

Around the 600’s BC the Tchefuncte culture existed on the Louisiana coasts. They foraged for shellfish and are known primarily through the shell middens that they left behind. After the decline of the Poverty Point culture, the early Woodland Period along the Mississippi and Ohio basins does not show much sign of urbanisation.

Around the century of the 500's BC Tres Zapotes became the most important of the Olmec cities. Once again, colossal heads, probably wearing the headdresses of ballplayers, were carved from stone.

Around this time, the Zapotec civilisation began in the Oaxaca Valley in the southwestern regions of Mexico. The main settlement was Monte Alban, although there was another important early settlement at San Jose Mogote, which may have been in conflict with the city at Monte Alban. Here again, monumental architecture, the Mesoamerican ballgame and the agriculture based around the Three Sisters of Mesoamerican agriculture were prominent.

And thus the period draws to a close. In Mesoamerica, the Olmec civilisation is still thriving at the cities of Tres Zapotes and La Venta, while newer the newer civilisations of the Mayans and Zapotecs have arisen to the south and the west of the Olmec. Further to the north, in what is now the continental United States, the Poverty Point culture has disappeared, leaving behind less-organised cultures in its place. While to the far north the Dorset culture has begun in Greenland. I will continue the tale in later blogs.

Pyramid from the Olmec city of La Venta

Related Blogs:
Some North American history from 4000-2000BC
Some North American history from 2000-1000BC
Mesoamerica: The Olmecs