Mesoamerican Plazas: Arenas of Community and Power

4. Early Olmec Open Spaces at San Lorenzo, Veracruz

71 ChaPter Four early olmec open spaces at san Lorenzo, Veracruz ann cyphers and TimoThy murTha Plazas are important elements of the prehispanic built environment in mesoamerica . The human interaction that takes place in plazas varies from informal public gatherings to specialized activities carried out in carefully designed spaces (Low 2000). They are considered “recognizable elements in the built environment” (moore 1996a:789, emphasis added). understanding the myriad of interpersonal relations that may be played out within plazas is contingent upon the accurate identification of these spaces, their shapes, built form, and compositional elements. in many archaeological sites, their recognition is a straightforward process because they are observable components of the architectural layout. The purpose of this exploratory essay is to investigate whether plazas can be identified for the olmec capital of san Lorenzo using a creative approach for identifying buried open spaces. identifying plazas at the Early Preclassic capital provides unusual challenges since these features cannot be identified using visible architectural cues, as is the case of the later capital of La Venta, Tabasco , often considered a model for the olmec. at La Venta, a central zone of monumental architecture surrounds a great plaza covering 42,000 m2 , which is described as a public space where messages about the gods, the power of the rulers, and divine legitimacy were communicated to large congregations of people attending special events and ceremonies (González Lauck 1996). Those familiar with san Lorenzo may point to the standing architecture (figure 4.1, inset), which, at quick inspection, appears similar to the design of La Venta. This similarity motivated matthew stirling to cut into the center line, across the conical mound and plazas, in a search for spectacular offerings comparable to those he had located at the aforementioned middle Preclassic capital (1947; see also coe and Diehl 1980:i:33–37). Decades later, michael coe and richard Diehl (1980) similarly explored this classic period earthen Figure 4.1. Topographic map of the san Lorenzo plateau superimposed on the preliminary relief map of the underlying natural landform with an inset map showing features mentioned in the text. Early Olmec Open Spaces at San Lorenzo, Veracruz 73 architecture in another equally unrewarding search for the early olmec architectural template expected to precede the layout of the great Tabascan site (i:50–70). This search continues to the present day. We attempt to assess a basic fact: whether open spaces for collective activities were present during the Early Preclassic period in the san Lorenzo plateau. The “invisibility” of these features as buried elements necessitates an evaluation of the archaeological evidence obtained in excavations and borehole samples. consequently, in this chapter, we peel away the layers of overburden and successive occupations of the plateau summit of the early capital, as an essential step to ascertain if centrally located olmec open spaces once existed in the heart of san Lorenzo. the Changing Shape of San Lorenzo san Lorenzo’s great plateau has been shaped by human action and agency over the past four millennia. The form and shape of the present plateau, while influenced by the past, do not reflect the olmec-period configuration of the site. in order to interpret this period, it is first necessary to identify and strip back the layers of post-olmec modifications. The identification of these alterations is essential to understanding the olmec layout of the site from its earliest occupation in the ojochi phase, 1800–1600 cal Bc, to the apogee san Lorenzo B phase, 1200–1000 cal Bc. What follows is a brief description of the changes that have occurred on the plateau beginning with the most recent and working back to the olmec period. The most recent events that have caused alterations likely date to times prior to the mexican revolution, when oil exploration began in southern Veracruz , spearheaded by the famous English oilman Weetman Pearson. once part of the communal lands of Potrero nuevo (also called “san Lorenzo”), the archaeological site of san Lorenzo then was acquired by the compañía mexicana de Bienes inmuebles (cmBi), as shown on a map dated to 1917 from the archivo de la nación. it is during the period of cmBi ownership that it is likely that the company rented the land to third parties, a custom we have seen in rental contracts in the historical archives of Petróleos mexicanos PEmEX. since the site has no evidence of modern...