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

Introduction
Chapter 1. Archaeology, Social Theory, and the Southern Gulf Olmec
What might the presence of a ruler’s throne at El Marquesillo
mean? Was this apparently small site an unknown major Olmec
center that will force us to rewrite the political history of Olmec
culture? (Diehl 2004:191)
In January, 2002, the attention of the archaeological world was drawn to El
Marquesillo when an on-line edition of El Liberal del Sur, a southern Veracruz news
service, published photographs of a recently recovered monumental stone sculpture. The
monolith was identified as an Olmec table-top throne (Figure 1.1). Why was this find so
remarkable? What is the significance of this artifact to Formative period researchers?
In Mesoamerica, monolithic stone thrones are regarded as material symbols of
elite lineage status and rulership; they are literally seats of power (Clark 1997; Coe 1968;
de la Fuente 1996; Gillespie 1999; Grove 1973, 1999; Taube 2004). The recovery of an
Olmec-style stone altar at El Marquesillo is significant because examples comparable in
size, form, and iconographic depiction have been recovered only at San Lorenzo and La
Venta, the two primary central places of the Gulf Coast Olmec (Grove 1999).
Substantially smaller and iconographically different versions have been found at Tres
Zapotes and Laguna de los Cerros (Gillespie 2000a; Stirling 1965). Still other derivative
types were recovered at Loma del Zapote and Estero Rabón; sites considered secondary
support centers within the San Lorenzo polity (Cyphers 2004).
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