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

the Barí River, which provided a direct connection, via the river system, to the Gulf of
Mexico approximately 12 to 15 km away. Therefore, it is suggested that some portion of
the individual’s diet included seafood. Thus, although the consumption of maize may
have accounted for a maximum of 50 percent of the diet, a significantly lower percentage
is probably more realistic. These considerations require that caution be used in claiming
the inhabitants of the Southern Gulf Lowlands, even by the Middle Formative period,
were fully dependent on maize agriculture.
Further implementation of this method has demonstrated that, in Formative period
Mesoamerica, the presence of crop cultivation does not necessarily indicate it is the
primary method of subsistence (Blake et al. 1992; Clark 1991; Clark and Blake 1994;
Rosenswig 2006). These investigations, based on direct testable data, support the
hypothesis that the San Lorenzo Olmec developed social complexity prior to the
institution of maize-based agriculture as a primary dietary component. Additionally,
Killion (2006) has argued that house gardens and nominal horticultural measures do not
mean the society was agriculturally dependent. On a broader basis, the initiation of
sedentism and tribal life does not seem to be associated with development of
domesticated plants or obvious changes in agricultural techniques (Clark and Cheetham
2002:311). Yet, without direct evidence for maize consumption as a dietary staple, a
number of social theorists have implied it was “Olmec” agriculture that led to their rise to
complexity (see Chapter 1).
The densest settlement occupation in the history of the lower Coatzacoalcos Basin
occurred during the San Lorenzo Horizon (c. 1150-900 BC) of the Early Formative
period (Symonds 2000:64). During the pre-Olmec phase (c. 1500-1150), there was a
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