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

The site has been variously described as a principal Olmec site (Pohl 1999:21;
Weaver 1993:53), an Olmec capital (Adams 1997), a primary Olmec center (Drennan
1991:267; Gillespie 2000a:95), and a site comparable to San Lorenzo and La Venta
(Soustelle 1984). Other interpretations conclude that Laguna de los Cerros dominated the
settlement hierarchy (Santley et al. 1997:203), was one of “the most powerful settlements
in the realm of the Olmec” (Feder 2007:432), and was a great Olmec twin capital along
with San Lorenzo (Coe and Diehl 1980a:293, 394). All of these conclusions, as to the
significance of Laguna de los Cerros during the late Early Formative period, are based on
the presence of numerous Olmec-style sculptures and extensive architectural remains.
The site is located a few kilometers south of the present-day town of Corral
Nuevo in southern Veracruz (see Figure 1.1). For all of its notoriety, the site has been
subject to only two brief on-site archaeological investigations spaced more than 60 years
apart (Cyphers 2003; Medellín-Zeníl 1960) and a number of tangential studies of surface
collections and artifact re-analyses (Borstein 2001; Bove 1978; Gillespie 2000a; Grieder
1968).
More than 40 stone monumental sculptures have been recovered in or near
Laguna de los Cerros. As has been the case in many interpretations of Southern Gulf
Lowlands sites, it is these carvings that draw the greatest attention of scholars and the
public. At Laguna de los Cerros, the presence of these sculptures and the more than 90
mounds that cover the site have been interpreted as evidence for a large Formative period
population (Diehl 2004:47) and have directly led to its assigned status as a major center
as pointed out above.
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