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

Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, in 1862. It began with a misconception about a monumental
stone sculpture, an error that was based on incomplete evidence and a lack of fuller
understanding. Precisely 140 years later, the discovery of an Olmec throne at El
Marquesillo, Veracruz, and subsequent investigation of this previously unknown site, has
illustrated that our spatial and theoretical perspectives need to be broadened to permit a
greater understanding of the archaeological record.
I studied and was trained according to the accepted precepts and teachings
regarding the Formative period Olmec and their Heartland. My initial response to El
Marquesillo was that it probably represented a departure from the Olmec paradigm, a site
that was peripheral to the Heartland. Now, after lengthy consideration of the site and its
regional surroundings, I am convinced that El Marquesillo is anomalous but not in the
manner of my initial interpretation. The ancient inhabitants of El Marquesillo were a
dynamic group, emerging from the pre-Olmec phase to exhibit culturally determined
characteristics. It is possible that the site represents an element within the Olmec
paradigm that is more prototypical than the major centers upon which the majority of
information has been derived. El Marquesillo’s Classic period successors maintained a
millennium-long cultural continuity that was subsequently expressed in a substantial
Villa Alta phase occupation that continued independent of the expansion of the Aztec
empire. Upon the arrival of the Spanish, New and Old World people merged and
continued to live off the land, a tradition that continues to this day.
It is in these respects that El Marquesillo is an anomaly. A single site has caused
me to reevaluate my ideas and perceptions of the entire Southern Gulf Lowlands. After
contemplation of the vast, unexplored, middle regions of the San Juan, Coatzacoalcos,
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