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I discovered my fascination for the art and symbols of Olmec culture, as well as the archaeological site of La Venta, by attending Linda Schele’s Maya and Mesoamerican seminars at the University of Texas. Through Linda’s lectures and stimulating class discussions, I quickly became aware that the origin of much of the Classic period Maya elite imagery could be traced to the earlier Olmec. It was in these seminars that I ¤rst proposed a hypothesis that sought the origin of Maya conceptions of architecture as sacred space in the architectural and sculptural assemblages of such Olmec archaeological sites as La Venta. I further suggested that my hypothesis had a strong chance of being provable because I could go from the “known”—the many sites where Maya architecture functioned as a cosmological model—to the “unknown” and could ask the question: did Olmec architecture have a cosmological function? Linda was encouraging, suggesting a multidisciplinary approach that employed the research methods of archaeology, ethnography, and art history. This approach has consistently proved fruitful in that it provides a framework for testing hypotheses with a series of methodologies. Using Linda’s multidisciplinary method has led me beyond the general sacred-space identi¤cation of speci¤c Olmec architectural con¤gurations and toward a search for the identity of the ceremonies conducted within such spaces. The speci¤city of the multidisciplinary approach takes into account the burials , caches, sculptural forms, and groupings into which sculpture was arranged. This methodology of “total inclusion” has led me to the recognition that at Olmec sites caches, burials, and sculptural arrangements were extensions of the 4 The Landscape of Creation Architecture, Tomb, and Monument Placement at the Olmec Site of La Venta F. Kent Reilly III ritual activity that took place within certain ceremonial spaces and that such spaces were extensions of the narrative quality of Olmec ritual activity. In this chapter I will argue that the purposes of such rituals and the sacred space or cosmological “stages” on which they were enacted were twofold: Olmec architecture and monuments were constructed in order to provide a mythic and cosmological backdrop for the public validation of rulership. Olmec ritual, in effect, comprised the rites through which elite ancestors provided supernatural sanction for the ceremonial and political activities of their elite descendants. To demonstrate this hypothesis I will discuss the several categories of Olmec sculpture as well as certain caches and burials and the mythic meaning demonstrated through their placement. The Cosmological Function of Maya Architecture As just stated, it is my contention that Olmec architectural layout is the source of many aspects of Maya cosmological modeling. With this thought in mind, it would be appropriate, before discussing the Olmec site of La Venta, to review brie®y some of the current thinking regarding the cosmological function of Maya architecture. As cosmological models, Maya architectural complexes served as conduits of supernatural power as well as the stages on which the rituals of rulership validation were enacted (Ashmore 1992; Freidel et al. 1993; Looper 1995a; Newsome 1991; Schele and Freidel 1990). In Maya architecture directional positioning has been identi¤ed clearly with speci¤c aspects of cosmological layouts and with access to supernatural power. For example, the layout of the Twin Pyramid Complexes at Tikal embodies just such a pattern (Ashmore 1992). Within these groups, east and west represent the trajectory of the solar journey. The direction north signals “up” or a celestial location, the sky is also the source of ancestral power, and south marks the direction of the underworld and perhaps the access point to the Lords of the Night (Ashmore 1992). It has also been demonstrated (Freidel et al. 1993; Schele and Freidel 1990) that architectural complexes at Classic Maya sites were backdrops for performances during which ritually costumed Maya rulers danced as the deities responsible for the present creation. Schele and others repeatedly argued that the rituals depicting creation events were re®ections of the creation events in the Popol Vuh (Tedlock 1982). She further suggested (Freidel et al. 1993:59–75; Schele and Mathews 1998:44) that the triadic grouping of structures that is a familiar arrangement in so many Maya sites was an attempt, by their builders, to identify such ritual spaces as the cosmologically signi¤cant “Three Stone Place” where the foundations of the present creation were laid. Recent research further demonstrates that the Popol Vuh creation story was The Landscape of Creation at the Olmec Site 35 closely akin to those...

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