identities the latter particularly as associated with territory. In a related vein, Adam T. Smith (2003) has argued convincingly that the creation of a political landscape played a key role in creating and maintaining authority in early complex polities.
Thus, in expressing the relationships between humans and the environment materially, as Crumley succinctly states, landscapes combine perceptual and conceptual aspects with the material. Furthermore, the material forms and distributions of human and nonhuman components of landscapes express multiple and intersecting sets of relationships, or dimensions. Different authors partition these dimensions differently as, for example, constructed, conceptualized, and ideational (Knapp and Ashmore 1999: 10–13) or experienced, perceived, and imagined (Smith 2003). Some, focusing on particular kinds of relationships between human institutions and the physical environment, describe social, economic, political, and ritual (or sacred) landscapes (e.g., Stoner and Pool 2015), while others focus on the different scales of interaction with reference to a particular aspect of human practice or organization, as in Smith’s (2003) geopolitical landscapes among polities, territorial landscapes within polities, settlement-centered landscapes reflecting regimes, and the architectural landscapes of institutions.
These are all valuable lenses through which to view landscapes. The important things to keep in mind are that (1) all these dimensions and kinds of relationships exist simultaneously and dynamically, mutually influencing the changing form of landscapes through time, and (2) particular spheres of human endeavor do not always coincide over the landscape but may be disjointed over space and time. In organizing discussion in this essay, I distinguish physical (encompassing geological, biological, and climatic aspects), economic, social, and symbolic components of landscapes that relate most closely to particular data sets and institutions, while recognizing that these are intertwined in complex and varied ways with one another.
Environment and Landscape in Olman
The region from the Papaloapan River in southern Veracruz to the Chontalpa lowlands in western Tabasco is generally considered the heartland or climax area of Olmec culture (but see Arnold 2012 for a more expansive definition) (Figure 2.1). These labels and Bernal’s (1969) metropolitan area all connote an original and more developed hearth in keeping with the Mother Culture narrative for the origins of Mesoamerican civilization. A more neutral term that has achieved recent currency by scholars on both sides of that argument is Olman, derived from the same Aztec root as Olmec and referring to a “land of rubber,” evoking both the natural environment of the region and one of its principal products (Diehl 1996: 29; Pool 2007: 4–5).
Figure 2.1 Maps of Olman. Top: locations of sites mentioned in the text and coverage of archaeological surveys. Dashed line indicates the approximate extent of Olman. Bottom: geological map with physiographic provinces labeled. Base maps downloaded from the Mapa Digital de México V 6.3.0, INEGI.
The Physical Landscape
In recent years archaeologists have come to a greater appreciation of the diversity and dynamism of Olman’s natural environment (Cyphers et al. 2013; Pool 2007: 66–91), in contrast to former characterizations of the tropical lowland region as homogeneous and relatively risk-free (e.g., Blanton et al. 1996: 8; Rathje 1972: 365; Sanders and Webster 1978: 288–289). Physiographically, Olman is divided between two large geological structures (Figure 2.1). Most of the eastern two-thirds of the region lie within the Isthmian Saline Basin, which forms a broad coastal plain crossed by the meandering courses of the Coatzacoalcos, Tonalá, and Grijalva-Mezcalapa river systems (Figure 2.1 and Figure 2.2a–b). Salt domes and ancient terrace remnants form islands that rise from river backswamps and coastal marshes, while interfluves offer broader areas suitable for permanent settlement but lack the fertility and aquatic resources provided by annual floods in the lower areas. The large, shield-like volcanoes and smaller cinder cones of the Tuxtla Mountains dominate the western third of the region, dividing the Isthmian Saline basin from the broad alluvium of the Papaloapan River basin (Figure 2.1, Figure 2.2c–d). With peaks rising to over 1600 m, the Tuxtla Mountains create a significant orographic rainfall effect, dropping more than 4000 mm of rain per year on their upwind northern slopes and peaks and less than 1500 mm per year downwind to the south; most of the eastern part of Olman receives between 2000 and 2500 mm of precipitation per year. These variations in geology (Figure 2.1), hydrography, and climate create a diversity of soils across Olman that vary in texture, slope, fertility, natural vegetation, and agricultural capability (see Pool 2007: 69–72). Importantly, this diversity is patterned both at a regional scale and within local environments, offering divergent opportunities and challenges for populations in different parts of Olman.
Figure 2.2 Physical landscapes of Olman. (a) Western Tabasco swamps viewed from La Venta. (b) Alluvial plain northeast of the San Lorenzo plateau (slight rise in the background). (c) View across Tuxtlas piedmont to the extinct Tuxtlas Mountains volcano of Cerro el Vigía. (d) Cinder cones in the central Tuxtlas Mountains, looking northward across Lake Catemaco. (e) Cerro Manatí viewed from Macayal. (f) Ancient sand dunes near the coast to the west of the Tuxtla Mountains.
Photo of Cerro Manatí courtesy of Pablo Ortiz Brito (photographer) and Alberto Ortiz Brito. All other photos by author.
Security and risk varied over time due to floods, droughts, storms, plagues and, in the Tuxtla Mountains, volcanic eruptions (Pool 2007: 89–91; Santley et al. 2000). While some patterns of risk are predictable, such as the annual rainy seasons and the flooding of the major rivers, their intensity, onset, and duration can vary substantially. Cyphers and colleagues (2013) have made a particularly detailed and informative study of environmental risks and challenges in the Coatzacoalcos basin. There they identify the annual occurrences of the canícula – a short, hot, dry period after the onset of the rains – and the great flood that comes on its heels as times of particularly high risk for the modern and ancient inhabitants in the vicinity of San Lorenzo. Unpredictable variations in rainfall and flood intensity make planting the fertile river levees risky; therefore, upland soils, which yield a more consistently productive crop, were preferred historically for domestic production in the area (Cyphers et al. 2013: 56–58; cf. Coe and Diehl 1980: 139–152). Farther away from the major rivers, as on the slopes of the Tuxtlas Mountains, unpredictable variations in the onset and duration of the rainy season can strongly affect crop yields (Killion 1987: 117–190).
The Economic Landscape
How do people manage such geographically and temporally variable risk and ensure a reliable supply of food for their own use, much less to produce surplus sufficient to underwrite communal projects and elite programs? The traditional answer lay in the plenty assumed to be afforded by double or triple crops of maize, supplemented by domesticated dog meat and wild plants and animals. Today evidence from paleoethnobotany and zooarchaeology make clear that Olmec subsistence strategies were flexible and variable; indeed, Cyphers and her colleagues (2013) argue that managing times of stress through a diverse and flexible subsistence strategy and intraregional trade may have been more important in the rise of elite power in Olman than control over agricultural land per se.
Reliance on maize was greater in the uplands than river basins during the Early Formative, and commitment to maize cultivation was light in the Coatzacoalcos Basin until after 1250 BCE, increasing greatly throughout the region after 1000 BCE (Cyphers et al. 2013: 56–59; VanDerwarker and Kruger 2012). Other domesticated crops included beans, squash, manioc, possibly sunflower, and cotton; tree crops (some of which may have been cultivated) and edible wild plants included avocado, sapote, palm nuts, hog
