Tres Zapotes

Tres Zapotes is the name of a small town with about 1000 inhabitants in the southeast of the state of Veracruz in the hinterland of the Mexican Gulf Coast and one named after her archaeological site in the immediate neighborhood, which - in addition to La Venta and San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan - part Olmec to the main archaeological sites artifacts.

Location

The place is about 520 road miles to the southeast of the capital, Mexico City; the nearest major city is Veracruz ( about 140 km north-west ). About 10 kilometers east lies the Cerro el Vigia, an extinct volcano, near which several large round basalt stones were found.

History

In 1862, here about 1.5 meters high monumental head was discovered, which was similar to the already known from La Venta and San Lorenzo. In excavations in the 20th century further hewn megalithic monuments were found, but - are usually in poor condition - with the exception of another monumental head.

Archaeological finds suggest that the site already around 1000 BC - perhaps even earlier - and there was a center of Olmec culture sphere was. Unlike in La Venta and San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan, however, the place was inhabited until the end of the first millennium of our era. A stele found here wearing one of the earliest found to date information in the Long Count.

Archaeological Site

The crossed by the brook Hueyapan archaeological site offers nothing worth seeing; since none of the discovered mounds (English: mounds ) was reconstructed at the excavations in port, everything is covered with soil and grass. Rectangular space systems discovered, which are surrounded by mounds of different heights - - Of the four archaeologists were - each less than a kilometer from another and these are interpreted as substructures former residential buildings ( ' palaces ') or temple.

Museum

More revealing is the small museum where most of the found in Tres Zapotes stones, which are all made of volcanic basalt, are exhibited.

Environment

On the grounds of Rancho la Cobáta on the northwest flank of Cerro el Vigia, there is another monumental head. With his closed eyelids he looks a bit like the monumental heads of the Guatemalan Monte Alto culture, but it is twice as large and edited clearly differentiated.

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