Laguna de los Cerros

Olmec Culture – Archaeological Site
Laguna de los Cerros and other sites in the Olmec heartland
Name: Laguna de los Cerros
Type Mesoamerican archaeology
Location Corral Nuevo, Acayucan, Veracruz
 Mexico
Region Mesoamerica
Coordinates 18°6′N 95°7′W / 18.100°N 95.117°W / 18.100; -95.117
Culture Olmec
Language
Chronology 1200 BCE to 900 CE
Period Mesoamerican Classical
Apogee 250 to 900 CE
INAH Web Page Non existent

Laguna de los Cerros is a little-excavated Olmec and Classical era archaeological site, located in the vicinity of Corral Nuevo, within the municipality of Acayucan, in the Mexican state of Veracruz, in the southern foothills of the Tuxtla Mountains, some 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of the Laguna Catemaco.

With Tres Zapotes, San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, and La Venta, Laguna de los Cerros is considered one of the four major Olmec centers.[1]

Laguna de los Cerros ("lake of the hills") was so named because of the nearly 100 mounds dotting the landscape. The basic architectural pattern consists of long parallel mounds flanking large rectangular plazas. Conical mounds mark the plaza ends. Larger mounds, formerly raised residential platforms, are associated with the thinner parallel mounds.[2]

It has been confirmed that the site was not occupied during the postclassical period.[2]

Most of the mounds date from the Classical era, roughly 250 CE through 900 CE.[3]

This region, and the early Olmec people, presumably was the penetration point for commerce between the Mexico highlands and Tuxtepec routes.[4]

  1. ^ Pool, or Diehl. Cyphers, however, finds that "recent investigations do not support the notion that [Laguna de los Cerros] was a large Olmec center".
  2. ^ a b Cyphers, Ann (March 2004). "Laguna de los Cerros, A Terminal Classic Period Capital in the Southern Mexican Gulf Coast". FAMSI. Retrieved 25 February 2011.
  3. ^ Diehl, p. 46-47.
  4. ^ "Enciclopedia de los Municipios de México, Acayucan Veracruz" [Encyclopedia of the municipalities of Mexico, Acayucan, Veracruz] (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2007-05-23. Retrieved 25 February 2011.