Olmec Way of Life

• The Olmec dressed simply in skirts or breechcloths woven of cotton, they loved adornments such as ear rings, nose rings, bracelets, necklaces and anklets made of jade, shell, bone. Priests and rulers impressed their followers by wearing elaborate head-dresses and mirrors of polished magnetite around their necks.
• Planting and other seasonal activities were governed by a calendar based on lunar months, and Olmec scribes kept track of events using pictographs called glypths which have not been deciphered.
• The centers of Olmec civilization were ceremonial complexes with such impressive architectural features as earthen pyramids, walled plazas, stone temples and ball courts.
• The first great Olmec ceremonial center was at San Lorenzo, inland from the Gulf of Mexico. Later, an even larger complex arose at La Venta, near the coast. Tremendous effort was required to erect the monuments at those sites, including massive stone heads thought to represent Olmec rulers.
• Olmec artists also sculpted jade figurines and clay models representing jaguars or humans with ears or fangs of jaguars. Olmec rulers may have served as priests or shamans of a jaguar cult and claimed kinship with the animal.
• The ruling families that controlled Olmec ceremonial centers and surrounding villages ultimately lost their grip on those communities.
• Around 900 B.C., San Lorenzo was destroyed, and monuments there were defaced. La Venta suffered a similar fate around 400 B.C. bringing Olmec civilization to an end.