An Unexplored Realm in the Heartland of the Southern Gulf ... - Famsi

the advantage of a significant investigative tool. The research program consisted of an
integrated series of non-destructive survey, prospection, collection, and mapping
techniques that detected and recorded the landscape signatures, site constituents, and
subsurface deposits (see McManamon 1984). The sections that follow describe the
prospection techniques and methods employed in the project and the rationale for their
inclusion.
A primary objective of the Marquesillo Archaeological Survey Project has been to
expand the research perspective of the project beyond the site level. The purpose was to
more fully embrace a broader collection of theoretical and methodological devices that
consider the temporal and spatial manifestations of the relationship between humans and
their environment in order to better actions and behaviors. Therefore, an approach that
considers the entire landscape; regional ecology, geomorphology, environmental history,
as well as the biological and cultural diversity, was implemented. Cyphers (1996:63)
accurately asserted that “[a]n understanding of the environment is a key to understanding
the Olmec way of life. From subsistence adaptations to settlement patterns, the Olmec
were meticulous observers of the natural landscape, a talent that fostered their survival
and progress.” Therefore, if we are to more fully understand the people of the region, it is
in our best interest to attempt to appreciate the entire landscape.
In this case, the center of the landscape was the Southern Gulf Lowlands, the
“Olmec Heartland,” on which the Formative period people lived and produced the
archaeological record. But in addition, there was also a broader landscape that impacted
their ways of life; one that extended across much of Mesoamerica and introduced
technologies, resources, and ideas (Clark 1997; Diehl 2004; Evans 2003; Flannery 1968;
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