 | This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: e.g. ceramics are found millennia earlier at Zohapilco (far from Olmec Homeland)...see Zohapilco article for cites), and it's now debated that writing, one of the most important creations, may originate from Zapotecs (and Olmecs adopted it), Mogote's usage of irrigation=1500BC or earlier; this Zapoteca irrigation is before the Olmecs even EXISTED...see the San Jose Mogote article for cites, are but 3 examples: non-Olmec contemporaries were advanced (in arguably the 3 most important aspects of civilization: agriculture, writing, AND ceramics. Note that most refs in this article are dated to 1990's, whilst most refs for the above discoveries & dozens more discoveries are after 2005 or even 2010. Update majorly needed by an EXPERT.. (November 2015) |
The causes and degree of Olmec influences on Mesoamerican cultures has been a subject of debate over many decades. Although the Olmecs are considered to be perhaps the earliest Mesoamerican civilization,[1] there are questions concerning how and how much the Olmecs influenced cultures outside the Olmec heartland. This debate is succinctly, if simplistically, framed by the title of a 2005 The New York Times article: “Mother Culture, or Only a Sister?”.[2]