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

turn, gave budding Olmec leaders control over vital resources and thus a power base on
which to build authority and extract tribute.
Although evidence suggests that some level of maize cultivation was practiced, it
does not demonstrate that it was the primary food source, nor does it necessarily
demonstrate that the Formative period Olmec were an agricultural society. Hayden (1992,
1995 #4434) suggests that, in some cases, competitive feasting may give rise to
agriculturally produced foods. Innovative, aspiring Olmec elites, for example, may have
served novel, exotic domesticates, such as maize, to their communities, rivals, or factions
to gain status and prestige. “Thus, burgeoning social inequality would have been marked
by the small-scale cultivation of domesticates… that would not become important staples
in the diet until much later” (VanDerwarker 2006:199). This hypothesis is supported by
Early Formative period evidence from the Soconusco Coast as well (Rosenswig 2006).
One way to assess diet is through isotopic bone and tooth analysis (see Mays
2000; Tykot 2004,2006; Tykot et al. 1996). At the site of San Andrés, La Venta, a lower
first premolar was recovered during archaeological excavations of a Middle Formative
period Olmec horizon (c. 900-400 BC) (Pohl 2001; Pope and Pohl 1998; Pope et al.
2000). A stable carbon isotope analysis of the tooth enamel was conducted at the
University of South Florida’s Archaeological Science Laboratory (Specimen
Identification Number USF 4307, San Andrés FS901-98). The results suggest that only
about half of this individual's diet was coming from non-C3 plants and animals. This
result cannot be interpreted as meaning maize, a non C3 plant, accounted for half the diet.
It was not possible to distinguish whether it was C4 plants or seafood or a combination of
the two that accounted for the results. San Andrés was located directly on the banks of
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