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

Ritual Offerings
Dedication, termination, and other rituals and their attendant deposits were a
shared trait across time and space in Middle America (Suhler and Freidel 2003). Their
presence, content, and context offer significant insight into sociopolitical events, religious
beliefs, ritual activities and their roles in the legitimation of ancient political leaders
(Davis-Salazar 2004). Formative period occupants of various centers in the Southern Gulf
Lowlands have left us a significant record of these events. At La Venta, dozens of caches
of jade, shell, amber, ceramic vessels, figurines, and other exotic items have been
documented (Drucker 1952a; Drucker et al. 1959). Similar finds have been made at
Cerros de las Mesas (Drucker 1943b) and Tres Zapotes (Weiant 1943). The established
regularity of Formative period repositories of this nature are demonstrated across
Mesoamerica at San Isidro, Chiapas (Lowe 1981); Cuello, Belize (Hammond 1999); and
Puerto Escondido, Honduras (Joyce 2004c). One of the most outstanding examples of
ritually deposited items occurred at El Manatí, Veracruz, where deposits were made at
discrete intervals from circa 1650 to 900 BC (Ortíz and Rodríguez 2000; Rodríguez and
Ortíz 1997).
At El Marquesillo, Offerings I and II were discovered and excavated in 2002, and
appear associated with the termination of the Olmec throne (Hernández 2003; Hernández
and Barrera 2002) (Figure 5.32). Offerings III and IV are spatially and temporally
associated, and consist of Classic period ceramic vessels that were deposited within a
meter of each other (Hernández and Doering 2005). Offering V is a noteworthy cache
that may be related to Offerings III and IV. It is composed of five Late Classic ceramic
vessels and was recovered 50 m north of Offerings III and IV.
216