9781422286814

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The Olmecs created the earliest civilization in Mexico more than 3,000 years ago.

The Olmecs F rom approximately 1150 B . C . to 400 B . C ., the Olmecs were the ruling cultural group in what we now know as the United Mexican States. The Olmecs had a sophisticated culture. For instance, they were the first group of people in Mesoamerica known to have understood the concept of zero. They are believed to be the inventors of the first calendar used in Mesoamerica, and they are also thought to be responsible for the beginnings of the first Mesoamerican hieroglyphic writing system. The Olmecs are the oldest Mexican civilization archaeologists have studied. Even so, much of Olmec life is a mystery. Archeologists do know that the Olmecs lived along the central coast of the Gulf of Mexico, in an area due west of the Yucatán Peninsula. These people made their homes in the jungle river basins of modern-day Veracruz and Tabasco. As time passed, their numbers grew and their culture spread. Eventually, Olmec people lived throughout to the highlands of Mexico, the Valley of Mexico, Oaxaca, and parts of Guerrero. San Lorenzo is the site of the oldest known Olmec cultural center, a city that existed from about 1150 B . C . to about 900 B . C . Archeologists believe it was a city for the elite or ruling class. Some historians think the city was

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